P. Colombi et K. Dolinski, Fatigue lifetime of welded joints under random loading: rainflow cycle vs.cycle sequence method, PROB ENG M, 16(1), 2001, pp. 61-71
The evaluation of fatigue lifetime is a complex problem due to the loading
cycle sequence effect influencing the fatigue damage process. In the litera
ture two different approaches are usually adopted to solve the fatigue crac
k growth under time varying loading: the rainflow cycle (RFC) and the cycle
sequence (CSQ) model. In this paper the performance of the recently propos
ed stochastic version of these methods is compared and applied to the evalu
ation of the fatigue lifetime of the welded cruciform tested in the literat
ure. Non-Gaussianity and bandwidth effect are correctly captured by both me
thods but only the CSQ model enables us to examine the influence of the loa
d sequence effect on the fatigue lifetime. Numerical results show that the
retardation effect can be neglected for Gaussian and non-Gaussian loading a
s the bandwidth increases, Finally, this work shows the greater performance
and flexibility of the CSQ model compared to the RFC model. (C) 2000 Elsev
ier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.