Probabilistic Fatigue Research of Mechanical Structures: State-of-the-Art and Future Trends

doi:10.3901/JME.2025.08.047

Abstract

Abstract: Fatigue failure is one of the most encountered problems with cyclically loaded mechanical structures. Affected by multi-source uncertainties arising from material property, load spectrum, geometrical dimension, etc., fatigue damage evolution generally shows certain variability which cannot be ignored. In particular, the computation is sometimes very sensitive to tiny input changes, in which varying quantities over reasonable ranges can even lead to outputs with 1 000 times difference. Under this circumstance, traditional design criteria which combine deterministic models and safety/scatter factors no longer work, and methods developed from the probabilistic perspective with reasonable and accurate descriptions of uncertain inputs are highly expected to meet the requirements, including the determination of the redundancy and inspection periods, as well as the establishment of maintenance schedules, and retirement policies, in response to the tendency of reliability-based optimal design in modern structural engineering. To boost the development of probabilistic fatigue modelling and emphasize its crucial significance in fatigue reliability design, this paper systematically recalls research backgrounds, fatigue scatter sources, fatigue behaviour variability, basic elements in fatigue reliability and developing trends, and ends with conclusions.

Key words: probabilistic fatigue, uncertainty, design theory, variability statistics, reliability

CLC Number:

TH123

LIAO Ding, ZHU Shunpeng, NIU Xiaopeng, HE Jinchao, WANG Qingyuan. Probabilistic Fatigue Research of Mechanical Structures: State-of-the-Art and Future Trends[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2025, 61(8): 47-74.

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