Study on the Mechanical Properties and Fracture Mechanisms of Anchor Cable Specimen Materials

This study investigated the tensile behaviors of 12.70 mm and 15.20 mm diameter anchor cable specimens with ultimate tensile strengths of 1860 MPa and their material specimens through experiments and finite element (FE) simulations. Material specimens and anchor cable specimen tensile samples were prepared, and the complete engineering stress–strain curves were obtained via uniaxial tensile tests. FE analysis was used to simulate the uniaxial tensile tests, and the applicability of different constitutive models for describing the true stress–strain relationships was evaluated by comparing the simulated and experimental engineering stress–strain curves. The results showed that the Ludwik, Hollomon, and Swift models, fitted using the pre-necking hardening stage, overestimated the post-necking true stress, while the Voce model underestimated it. In contrast, the Ling and Swift + Voce models provided accurate post-necking true stress predictions. Based on the Ling model and the Rice and Tracey fracture criterion, the load–displacement relationship and fracture behavior of the 12.7 mm anchor cable specimen were best described with W = −0.1 and a = 2, whereas W = −0.1 and a = 3 yielded optimal predictions for the 15.2 mm anchor cable specimen.