Estimation of High-Cycle Fatigue Life by using Re-analysis 2012-01-0066

In design of real-life systems, such as the suspension of a car, an offshore platform or a wind turbine, there are significant uncertainties in the model of the inputs. For example, scarcity of data leads to inaccuracies in the power spectral density function of the waves and the probability distribution of the wind speed. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the performance and safety of a system for different probability distributions. This is computationally expensive or even impractical. This paper presents a methodology to assess efficiently the fatigue life of structures for different power spectra of the applied loads. We accomplish that by reweighting the incremental damage calculated in one simulation. We demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method on an example which involves a nonlinear quarter car under a random dynamic load. The fatigue life of the suspension spring under loads generated by a sampling spectrum is calculated. Then, the fatigue life for different spectra is estimated by using re-analysis. We compare the results with those from simulation to validate the method.