Random Vibration Fatigue Life Analysis of Airborne Electrical Control Box

Abstract

To study the influence of random vibration on the fatigue life of airborne equipment, an aircraft electrical control box was selected as the research object. First, finite element software was used to model the dynamics of the airborne electrical control box to investigate its mode frequencies. The accuracy of finite element simulations was verified by performing mode experiments. Second, the mode superposition method was used to analyze the flight direction (X axis), side direction (Y axis), and altitude direction (Z axis) random vibration responses of the electrical control box. The analysis results were combined with the Miner linear cumulative damage criterion and the Gaussian-distribution Steinberg method to estimate the fatigue life of the electrical control box in the three directions. Finally, the calculation results were verified by performing the random vibration durability test on the electrical control box. The finite element mode analysis results show good agreement with the vibration experiment results, and the maximum error is 13.4%, indicating that the finite element model established in this paper is acceptable. The fatigue life of the electrical control box in the three axes meets the user requirements, and random vibration along the side direction (Y axis) has the greatest impact on the fatigue life, which is consistent with the results of the actual experimental data. The research method can be extended to predict the fatigue life of other airborne equipment and thus has practical significance for structural design and reliability analysis of airborne equipment.

Keywords

• electrical control box
• random vibration
• fatigue analysis
• Steinberg method
• test validation