Stress concentrations caused during telecom cable stripping

This paper is a compendium of the steps taken to determine the effect of nicked wire strands as could occur during the stripping of wire and cable insulation. The background of this work is based on a question often asked by telecom engineers and technicians. What happens to wires and cables when they are accidentally nicked when stripping the insulation? This question led to a search and then to this study. Experiments were performed and mathematical functions developed to describe the electrical resistance, temperature rise and pullout vs. nick depth.