A fatigue life calculation method for structural elements made of D16CzATW aluminium alloy

In the calculating of fatigue life of structural elements the methods based on hypotheses of fatigue damage summation are commonly applied. In using the methods, apart from choice of an appropriate hypothesis, it is necessary to know a loading spectrum which usually constitutes a set of sinusoidal cycles of variable parameters (S_a, S_m), as well as fatigue characteristics in the form of Wöhler fatigue diagram, as a rule. Knowledge of the above mentioned data is low during structural design process as designed material objects and possibility of performing measurements are lacking.

Hence in this work a calculation method of fatigue life of structural elements, based on the relations between fatigue life diagrams determined in constant-amplitude conditions (Wöhler diagrams) and those obtained under programmed or random loads, is described. The proposed method was experimentally verified by using results of fatigue tests on structural elements made of D16CzATW aluminium alloy.