The Role of Overloading on the Reduction of Residual Stress by Cyclic Loading in Cold-Drawn Prestressing Steel Wires

Prestressing steel wires are commonly used as reinforcement elements in structures bearing fatigue loads. These wires are obtained by a conforming process called cold drawing, where a progressive reduction of the wire diameter is produced, causing residual stress in the commercial wire. The aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of diverse in-service cyclic loading conditions (cyclic loading and cyclic loading with overload) on such a residual stress field. To achieve this goal, firstly, a numerical simulation of the wire drawing process of a commercial prestressing steel wire was carried out to reveal the residual stress state induced by the manufacture technique. Afterwards, a numerical simulation was performed of the in-service loading conditions of a prestressing steel wire in which the previously calculated residual stress state is included. The analysis of the obtained results shows a significant reduction of the residual stress state of about 50% for common in-service loadings and as high as 90% for certain cases undergoing overloads during cyclic loading. Therefore, an improvement of the mechanical performance of these structural components during their life in-service can be achieved.