Experimental study of fatigue performance of cable in the FAST project

FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope), is listed as one of the National Key Science Engineering Projects in the period of the eleventh Five-Year-Plan. During the procession of longtime sky survey and independent random tracing observation, the cable structure of reflector is always under fluctuations of the higher stress, which is a special and long term cyclic fatigue load for the structural member. In order to measure and compare with the fatigue resistibility of strand cable and steel rod possibly adopted, and to provide a reference for actual construction, Electro-hydraulic servo actuator and reaction frame for loading are designed in conformity with the standard anti-fatigue design, and experimental study of fatigue performance of 13 cable specimens from 3 domestic enterprises in high stress amplitude is carried out. The results revealed that the fatigue life of the cable in high stress amplitude is between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of times, and the fatigue performance of strand cable is superior to that of steel rod. The Influence of anchorage on Mechanical Performance of cable cannot be ignored, so attention should be paid to in designing.