Fatigue Life Prediction for Wheels by Simulation of the Rotating Bending Test

A prototype computer-based system, called FLIPS, for predicting the fatigue life of wheels has been developed. The system utilizes linear finite element structural analysis results and is comprised of a CAD package, a finite element analysis program, and a fatigue life computation program. Presently it simulates the results of the rotating bending test very successfully. With this system it is possible to obtain a lower bound on the fatigue life of wheels and to get a very good idea of the critical areas of the wheel. We believe that using this system the development time for new wheels can be considerably shortened. Special effort was required to determine the correct boundary conditions for the finite element models. An original procedure was developed for computing the stress amplitudes and mean stresses in complex structures and for using this information for predicting the fatigue life using the local strain approach, after applying a correction to account for linear analysis.