Bending of cables : a stick-slip model

Bending of cables and, for that matter, of any helical strand system (such as overhead electrical conductors) is a challenging solid mechanics problem, with geometry and multibody frictional contact aspects. As seen in several recent papers, one workable approach is based on Coulomb’s laws of friction.  An earlier contribution by Lehanneur (1949), published in French, has generally been  ignored. The attached report presents a translation into English (including a presentation) of this most interesting work.