Validating the DLR Cables Library with Experiments and Parameter Optimization

The advantages of modelling and simulation are widely known: Optimizing systems before production, generating alternatives in a few clicks, reducing costs, monitoring, digital twin, etc. The quality of the simulation depends heavily on the quality of the modeling, making it an essential task. The DLR Cables library, which we presented in another work, allows the simulation of steel cables, focusing on use cases where their dynamic behavior is of interest, such as cranes and elevators, but also special motion systems using cables and amusement rides. There, the numerical approach based on finite elements is explained in detail and it is also shown that some simplifications are accepted in order to improve the computational effort. This paper presents the crucial tasks of validation and parameterization of the model, specifically focusing on the material properties of bending stiffness and bending damping. To achieve this, a series of experiments were carried out on four different cables. Optical systems are used to record the cables and to compare them with the simulation. For some of the experiments, we were able to show a good match between reality and simulation, but it also became clear that a linear approach may not be sufficient depending on the application.