Experimental evidence of a low-frequency longitudinal core wire guided wave mode in a seven-wire strand under tensile...

Elastic guided waves are of widespread use in probing condition of elongated elements of structures. Concerning guided wave propagation in prestressed strand elements, several studies either experimental or numerical have been conducted. In this work, an original experimental data set is acquired in the low-frequency range (from 100 kHz to 500 kHz for a nominal 15.7 mm seven-wire strand) for a common experimental configuration, the core-to-core wire through-transmission in a seven-wire strand under tensile loading. The experimental dataset presented through dispersion diagrams allows to capture the salient features of guided wave in this particular configuration. Then, a previously developed semi-analytical finite element model of a helical prestressed seven-wire strand is employed for comparison. The consistency of experiment-to-numerical comparison results hence confirms the existence of a low-frequency longitudinal core wire guided wave mode in a seven-wire strand submitted to tensile loading.