Fatigue life estimation under random loading using the energy criterion

Abstract A procedure for estimating the useful life of a component for a given (admissable) probability of fatigue fracture origination under random loading is presented. The method uses material constants obtained from the S/N and cyclic stress/strain curves, standard deviation and probability density distribution of the loading process and a macroblock of harmonic cycles obtained by applying the rainflow cycle counting method to the random loading process. Theoretical and experimental lives are found to exhibit good agreement.