Abstract: This paper describes the constitutive relation of wire-rope isolator with the elastic-plastic material model from the research on the nonlinear characters of wire-rope. The wire-rope isolator model is built on the base of the finite element theory. After that, the wire-rope performance is simulated by means of the software ANSYS. The simulative results, show that the wire-rope has strong nonlinear hysteresis, intenerated rigidity, and high damping capability which can be kept even on the big deformation condition. The experimental research results are contrasted with the simulative ones, which verifies well the simulation and establishes good base for analyzing wire-rope isolator.

Key words: wire-rope isolator, pipe-support, finite element, simulation