The prediction of dynamic fatigue life of multi-axial loaded system

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to compare with estimation of equivalent fatigue load in time domain and frequency domain and estimate the fatigue life of structure with multi-axial vibration loading. The fatigue analysis with two methods is implemented with various signals like random, sinusoidal signals. Also, an equivalent fatigue life estimated by rainflow cycle counting in time domain is compared with results estimated with probability density function of each signal in frequency domain. In case of frequency domain, equivalent fatigue life can be estimated through Dirlik's method with probability density function. The work proposed in this paper compared the fatigue damage accumulated under uni-axial loading to that induced by multi-axial loading. The comparison was performed for a simple cantilever beam exposed to vibrations of several directions. For verification of estimation performance of fatigue life, results are compared to those of FEM analysis (ANSYS).