Friction and wear behaviors of steel wire ropes sliding against drum flanges in offshore drilling hoisting systems

The time-dependent mechanical behavior of hoisting wire ropes on offshore drilling platforms can cause repeated contact and relative sliding between the steel wire rope and the drum flange during interlayer transition. In marine service environments, seawater exposure and lubrication conditions may further influence the tribological behavior of the rope−flange contact pair, thereby affecting the load-bearing safety of the hoisting system. In this study, friction and wear tests were performed on a steel wire rope–drum flange contact pair using a custom-built test rig. The effects of cycle number, environmental condition, contact load, and friction frequency on the friction coefficient, wear scar profile, volume loss, wear coefficient, and wear morphology were systematically investigated. Wear evolution and damage mechanisms were characterized by manual strand disassembly, three-dimensional profilometry, and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the friction coefficient increases rapidly at the initial stage, then rises gradually, and finally fluctuates around a steady state with increasing cycle number. The steady-state friction coefficient decreases with increasing contact load and friction frequency. In contrast, the wear width, wear depth, maximum cross-sectional failure area, volume loss, and wear coefficient increase with cycle number and frictional parameters. The wear severity under different environmental conditions follows the order of air > seawater > grease + seawater > grease. These findings provide a basis for understanding the degradation behavior and optimizing maintenance strategies of steel wire rope–drum flange contact pairs in offshore drilling hoisting systems.