Some Techniques for Fatigue Test of Vehicle's Components and Systems

Great strikes have been made in the last recent years in understanding and in designing to prevent fatigue failures in automotive vehicle components and systems.

Since then, General Motors do Brasil, has been putting a lot of effort in this endeavor. The main asset that allows GMB to work in this direction is its locally existing Laboratory and Proving Ground facilities, along with the need to provide an economical design through weight reduction within a safe, reliable and modern vehicle concept.

The primary purpose of this paper is to present an overview of some techniques used in fatigue or durability testing of a passenger car.

The relationship between force and acceleration tests will be discussed and a new technique, Multiple Rainflow, for test time reduction is presented.