Vibration fatigue

About: Vibration fatigue is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3460 publications have been published within this topic receiving 46297 citations.

Fatigue Reliability Assessment of Railway Bridges Based on Probabilistic Dynamic Analysis of a Coupled Train-Bridge System

Abstract: This paper presents an approach to fatigue reliability assessment of railway bridges based on probabilistic dynamic analysis of a coupled train-bridge system. The fatigue loading from moving trains is investigated through a novel approach in which three-dimensional (3D) numerical models of both the train and the bridge are integrated with a wheel-rail interaction model to perform coupled dynamic analysis. The results of this analysis are used to estimate the long-term fatigue loading and the time-variant fatigue reliability of bridge details. Train speed and track irregularities are selected as random variables in the coupled train-bridge system model. Probabilistic dynamic stress analysis is conducted for each train passage to obtain samples of the stress range and its cycle count. This information is used to identify the probability distributions of the stress range. Fatigue reliability is evaluated by solving a fatigue limit-state function established through the S-N approach. Effects of train speed and track irregularities on the fatigue loading and fatigue reliability are analyzed and discussed. Additionally, the proposed approach is illustrated on an existing steel railway bridge.

Prediction of fatigue life and estimation of its reliability on the parts of an air suspension system

Abstract: Air suspension systems have been implemented in various commercial vehicles, such as buses and special purpose trucks, because of the comfortable ride and easy height control. An evaluation of the durability of vehicle parts has been required for service life and safety starting in the early stages of design. The cyclic load applied to the vehicle can cause fatigue failure of parts, such as the suspension frame. This paper presents a method to predict the fatigue life of the suspension frame at the design stage of the air suspension system used in a heavy-duty vehicle. To estimate the fatigue life using the SN method, the Dynamic Stress Time History (DSTH) is necessary for the part of interest. DSTH can be obtained from the results of the flexible body dynamic analysis using the Belgian road simulation and the Modal Stress Recovery (MSR) method. Furthermore, the reliability of the predicted fatigue life can be evaluated by considering the variations in material properties. The probability and distribution of the expected life cycle can be obtained using experimental design with a minimum number of simulations. The advantage of using statistical methods to evaluate the life cycle is the ability to predict replacement time and the probability of failure of mass-produced parts. This paper proposes a rapid and simple method that can be effectively applied to the design of vehicle parts.

Fatigue damage assessment of a car body-in-white using a frequency-domain approach

Abstract: This work presents an application of a frequency-domain methodology developed for the fatigue damage and service life assessment of mechanical components under multiaxial random loadings. The road-induced random loadings in a virtual laboratory bench test (four post test rig) are determined using an integrated Multi-Body/Finite Element (MB/FE) analysis. A method (i.e. the variance method) based on the statistics of the observed multiaxial loadings is used to determine the critical direction. The shear stress resolved in the critical direction is then assumed as the reference loading for the subsequent fatigue analysis. A frequency-domain approach recently proposed in the literature (i.e. the non-Gaussian TB method), capable to include the load non-normality into the fatigue assessment procedure, is used to estimate the loading spectrum. A comparison between the observed and the estimated loading spectrum, extrapolated from shorter to longer time (e.g. the entire vehicle service life), is shown. The presented results show how the proposed methodology could be a very useful tool for the reliable and quick analysis of components under multiaxial random loadings.

Spectrum Fatigue Life Assessment of Notched Specimens Using a Fracture Mechanics Based Approach

Abstract: Local strain based approaches have been used frequently for the prediction of crack initiation life of notched components. Limitations of the transferability of smooth specimen fatigue data to the notch root as well as cumulative damage problems have been handled by use of fatigue notch factors and consideration of some damage contribution below the fatigue limit. This type of a conventional approach has been applied as a reference case for the present study. Based on the mechanics of local strain approaches, a model for crack initiation life prediction is outlined. It takes explicitly into account the phenomena related to transferability (size, multiaxiality) as well as a load-sequence dependent damage accumulation. It is based on the closure behavior of short cracks that gives rise to load sequence dependent effective load ranges and continuously decreasing fatigue limits under spectrum loading. Prediction results are compared to experimental data from notched aluminum 7075-T7351 specimens of various shapes and sizes under both Gaussian and MINITWIST loading. The conventional approach provides unconservative estimates with a broad scatter of life ratios. The fracture mechanics based model gives a relatively low scatter of life ratios around a mean value of unity.