Stress in a Towing Wire Due to Accelerations of the Towing Vehicle

摘要

The dynamic stress in the towing wire is considered. It is assumed that the wire obeys a one dimensional wave equation. The dynamic stress due to an arbitrary acceleration is determined and the stress caused by a rectangular acceleration pulse is computed numerically. Graphs showing the dependence of the maximum dynamic stress on the system parameters are given. They can be used to determine allowable accelerations of the towing vehicle when the aerodynamic or hydrodynamic drag forces, and the strength of the wire, are known.