Journal of Materials and Engineering Structures (Mar 2018)
Finite element based fatigue analysis of 6082 Aluminum alloy under random loading
Abstract
Mechanical and structural components are subject in the most cases during their services to random loading. For this reason, it is necessary to reduce the complex history of these kinds of loading in a series of constant amplitude cycles. There are several counting methods that lead to different results. Among all these methods, it is recognized that the Rainflow Cycle Counting method provides the most conservative results. In this paper, a finite elements analysis technique is presented to predict the fatigue life using this method associate with the S-N method which is used for high cycle fatigue applications that makes no distinction between initiation or growing a crack, but rather, predicts the total life to failure. Comparison between numerical and experimental results is considering in this paper.