Fatigue failure assessment of engineering components under service loading conditions

The present paper studies the fatigue damage and life of engineering components subjected to variable amplitude service loading conditions. For this purpose, an earlier developed critical plane-energy based damage parameter has been applied. In the damage analysis, the effects of the phenomenological factors of materials memory, small cycles and loading sequence in the hysteresis stress–strain loops of materials have been included. The parameter successfully correlated fatigue lives of a low carbon steel and two aluminum alloys of 7075-T651 and 2024-T3 subjected to variable loading conditions.