Cyclic Stress-Strain Concepts Applied to Component Fatigue Life Prediction

Substantial improvements have been made in the accuracy of component fatigue life predictions through the incorporation of cyclic stress-strain concepts in fatigue analysis procedures. This paper describes recent advances in material characterization, complex history analysis and notch analysis, and their application in computer-aided fatigue analysis procedures. A simplified strain-based approach, which offers conceptual and computational advantages, is then described and shown to be useful in many ground vehicle problems. Finally, several applications of these techniques in engineering design practice are presented.