Standardization of the rainflow counting method for fatigue analysis

Abstract The rainflow procedure is a cycle-counting method that makes it possible to store service measurements in a form suitable for fatigue analysis of structures: fatigue life prediction and simulation testing. A consultation has been conducted by the authors with different industries (automobile, aircraft, energy and steel) to obtain a consensus on a proposed rainflow methodology and its use for fatigue analysis. An AFNOR document, resulting from this work, has been edited for describing the rainflow procedure, the standardized presentation of results and the reconstruction of a loading sequence from a rainflow matrix. This paper presents the methodology used and its application for combining different sequences.