METHOD FOR CALCULATING STRENGTH CHARACTERISTICS OF POLYETHYLENE CORDS

The method for calculating the strength characteristics of a polyethylene cord taking into account the design and based on the study of its destruction processes was described. The calculation method includes determin-ing the actual inner diameter of the braid, which allows identifying the effective layout of the cord braid and to determine the possibility of core and cord joint work, which ensures maximum breaking load of polyeth-ylene cords. To determine the diameter of the core formed by the threads the optimal ratios were used. The formulas for determining the ratio of the braid and core threads length were obtained, which allow to determine the utilization coefficient of braid threads included in the fracture process. The deviation of the results of calculated values due to the proposed method and experimental data do not exceed 3–5%. The proposed method can be used to calculate the strength characteristics of polyethylene cords, in which the joint work of the core and braid threads is structurally possible at break.