Vibration fatigue

Vibration fatigue is a mechanical engineering term describing material

fatigue, caused by forced vibration of random nature. An excited structure
responds according to itsnatural-dynamics modes, which results in a
dynamic stress load in the material points.[1] The process of material
fatigue is thus governed largely by the shape of the excitation profile and
the response it produces. As the profiles of excitation and response are
preferably analyzed in the frequency domain it is practical to use fatigue
life evaluation methods, that can operate on the data in frequencydomain, such as power spectral density (PSD).
A crucial part of a vibration fatigue analysis is the modal analysis, that
exposes the natural modes and frequencies of the vibrating structure and
enables accurate prediction of the local stress responses for the given
excitation. Only then, when the stress responses are known, can vibration
fatigue be successfully characterized.
The more classical approach of fatigue evaluation consists of cycle
counting, using the rainflow algorithm and summation by means of
the Palmgren-Miner linear damage hypothesis,that appropriately sums the
damages of respective cycles. When the time history is not known,
because the load is random (e.g. a car on a rough road or a wind driven
turbine), those cycles cannot be counted. Multiple time histories can be
simulated for a given random process, but such procedure is cumbersome
and computationally expensive.
Vibration-fatigue methods offer a more effective approach, which
estimates fatigue life based on moments of the PSD. This way, a value is
estimated, that would otherwise be calculated with the timedomain approach. When dealing with many material nodes, experiencing
different responses (e.g. a model in a FEM package), time-histories need
not be simulated. It then becomes viable, with the use of vibration-fatigue
methods, to calculate fatigue life in many points on the structure and
successfully predict where the failure will most probably occur.
Vibration-fatigue-life estimation
Random load description
In a random process, the amplitude cannot be described as a function of
time, because of its probabilistic nature. However, certain statistical
properties can be extracted from a signal sample, representing a
realization of a random process. An important characteristics for the field
of vibration fatigue is the amplitude probability density function, that
describes the statistical distribution of peak amplitudes. Ideally, the
probability of cycle amplitudes, describing the load severity, could then be
deduced directly. However, as this is not always possible, the sought-after
probability is often estimated empirically.

Effects of structural dynamics

First natural mode of a cantilever beam.

Random excitation of the structure produces different responses,
depending on the natural dynamics of the structure in question. Different
natural modes get excited and each greatly affects the stress distribution
in material. The standard procedure is to calculate frequency response
functions for the analyzed structure and then obtain the stress responses,
based on given loading or excitation. By exciting different modes, the
spread of vibration energy over a frequency range directly affects the
durability of the structure. Thus the structural dynamics analysis is a key
part of vibration-fatigue evaluation.
Vibration-fatigue methods
Calculation of damage intensity is straightforward once the cycle
amplitude distribution is known. This distribution can be obtained from a
time-history simply by counting cycles. To obtain it from the PSD another
approach must be taken.
Various vibration-fatigue methods estimate damage intensity based on
moments of the PSD, which characterize the statistical properties of the
random process. The formulas for calculating such estimate are empirical
(with very few exceptions) and are based on numerous simulations of
random processes with known PSD. As a consequence, the accuracy of
those methods varies, depending on analyzed response spectra, material
parameters and the method itself - some are more accurate than others.[4]
Applications
Vibration fatigue methods find use wherever the structure experiences
loading, that is caused by a random process. These can be the forces that
bumps on the road extort on the car chassis, the wind blowing on the wind
turbine, waves hitting an offshore construction or a marine vessel. Such
loads are first characterized statistically, by measurement and analysis.
The data is then used in the product design process.

The computational effectiveness of vibration-fatigue methods in contrast

to the classical approach, enables their use in combination
with FEM software packages, to evaluate fatigue after the loading is
known and the dynamic analysis has been performed. Use of the
vibration-fatigue methods is well-suited, as structural analysis is studied in
thefrequency-domain.
Common
practice
in
the automotive
industry is
the
use
of
accelerated vibration tests. During the test, a part or a product is exposed
to vibration, that are in correlation with those expected during the servicelife of the product. To shorten the testing time, the amplitudes are
amplified. The excitation spectra used are broad-band and can be
evaluated most effectively using vibration-fatigue methods.