Methodology for Fatigue Life Durability Prediction Applied to Commercial Vehicles

Applying knowledge available at technical literature for cycle counting, damage caused by each load cycle through S-N curve, and fatigue damage accumulation by Palmgren-Miner rule, durability prediction is performed for a leafspring of a commercial vehicle with 6×4 suspension system. Max principal tension is measured by means of strain gages in the most representative points for fatigue life of the leafspring, determined with FEA, while vehicle runs over off-road track in a proving ground. Load and tension are also measured in a laboratory bench test for this component. Correlation between off-road track and bench test is then performed. Finally, representative samples of the component are tested with dynamic loading until fatigue fracture in bench test, and using data from these tests, statistical analysis is performed with application of Weibull distribution, allowing life prediction in statistical terms.