Cycle Counting Methods for Fatigue and Durability Analysis - Brief Review http://feadomain.com/index.php/articles/11-tutorials/8-cycle-counting-methods-for-fatigue-and-d...

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Home Articles Tutorials Cycle Counting Methods for Fatigue and Durability Analysis - Brief Review

Cycle Counting Methods for Fatigue and Durability Analysis - Brief

Review
Written by Administrator
Friday, 10 September 2010 14:31

Introduction

Most real-life structures experience complex load histories that rarely have constant amplitude. In order to analyze real-life structures
under these complex loads, the load history has to be reduced. The complex loads are divided into blocks of constant amplitude loads
using a process called 'cycle counting'. Most structures undergo many cycles before failure, in order to analyze and test these
structures; non-damage causing cycles have to be removed from the load spectrum. A variable amplitude load spectrum shown in
figure 1 can be reduced to a load spectrum consisting of blocks of constant amplitude loads as shown in figure 2. The damage
accumulated due to these constant amplitude blocks can be calculated individually and summed using Palmgren Miner's rule to
calculate the total accumulated damage of the structure.

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Fig. 2 Load Spectrum Reduced to Constant Amplitude Events

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Three important features that should be considered for cycle counting are the stress amplitude variation, mean stress and the
sequence of load fluctuations (load sequencing). Cycle counting can be broadly divided into three categories, namely, Username

1. Older Methods
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Level counting
Peak counting Remember Me
Simple range/mean counting
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2. Rainflow Counting
3. Probability density function (PDF)
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Older methods such as, level crossing and peak counting were used before the development of the rainflow counting algorithm since. Forgot your username?
After the development of the rainflow counting algorithm in 1968, it has become the preferred method for counting cycles. Create an account

Level Crossing
NEWSLETTER
Gassner introduced the level crossing method in 1960. The range between the maximum and minimum amplitudes of the load
spectrum is divided into discrete intervals above and below the mean. Whenever the signal crosses one of these levels, a count is Name
recorded with the restriction that only the positively sloped portion of the history is counted on increasing stress excursion and E-mail
negatively sloped portion on the decreasing stress excursion. The counts are combined to form completed cycles using the largest
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possible cycle first as shown in figure 3. The counts at each level results in a statistical summary of stress amplitude. As a result, the
method does not give detailed information on the actual loading spectra being experience by the component in question.
CAE Jobs
Stuctural/Mechanical Engineer
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Level Counts Range Counts

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