A New Technique for Field Damage Simulation of Elastically Coupled Structures

A technique for field durability testing of elastically mounted components of off-road vehicles has been developed which simplifies the replication of field damage on these structures. The procedure combines the techniques of cummulative damage and modal analysis to replace the usual multi-shaker excitation technique with a much simpler physical system. This method allows field damage studies to be performed with less laboratory equipment and setup. Initial work has shown that the method is very effective in predicting field failures in an accelerated laboratory test.