DESIGNING ECONOMICAL STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS FOR A GUARANTEED SERVICE LIFE

On the basis of the schematization of the actual loading process in the form of a block process that consists of the primary process and a sequence of overloads, we propose a system for evaluating the fatigue resistance of structures in the design process, which includes the test techniques, the interpretation of the test results, and the finding of the service life distribution functions. For the examples of the analysis of aluminum alloy structural elements, we show the effectiveness of the techniques, which confirm the possibility of reducing the dimensions of the structures in comparison with the normative dimensions.