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1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil, email:
julian.marcell@ufrgs.br
2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil, email:
rato@mecanica.ufrgs.br
Abstract
Currently, the industry demand for the construction of complex structures is a consequence of a fierce
competition in the semi-trailer market. Computational tools support, based on the Finite Element
Method, enable to size these kinds of structures submitted to random loads varying, based on time.
In this case, it is common to perform dynamic simulations in the time domain using Finite Element
(FE) model of the plate or beam, and thus obtain the critical stresses acting at the point of interest.
The present work proposes a comparison among methodologies, which are able to estimate the fatigue
life in the time and frequency domain in a simple case of a cantilever beam. The different Finite
Element models and methods of calculating fatigue life in the frequency domain are compared using
the classic calculation method as a reference (fatigue life in the time domain). The methodology takes
into account the different excitations at the base of the cantilever beam. The excitations are based on
the road surface profile according to International Standard Organization (ISO). The comparison is
made not only with the following analyses: modal, harmonic, transient, spectral, but also with
computational routines. Thus, the engineer can select meshes, with a viable amount of degrees of
freedom, and spectral methods enabling dynamic simulations, i.e. when analyzing industrial complex
structures. However, some methods for estimating fatigue life in the frequency domain did not
provide reliable results mainly with beam elements.
Keywords: Fatigue Life, Time and Frequency Domain, Finite Element Method, Dynamic
Simulation, Plate and Beam Element
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suggests the use of frequency domain methods to freedom system determines the size of the matrices
minimize simulation time. and vectors needed to the equations of the problem.
Mrnik, Slavi and Boltear in 2013 [13] verified Thus, the FE model discretization is fundamental to
that the Benasciutti and Tovo method [14] provides minimize simulation time and capture accurate
the best life estimates for real cases of dynamic responses.
structures such as wind turbines. The exceptions are The discretization of the present work is obtained
the cases of the automotive industry, where the based on the theory of finite element method
Zhao and Baker method [15] presented better (FEM). Therefore, the first discretization of the
results. This article concludes that, in addition to cantilever beam is made with plate elements, which
Dirlik's approach, Benasciutti and Tovo, and Zhao is suitable for analyzing thin plates of structures.
and Baker methods can be used for estimating Figure 1 illustrates the finite element (FE) mesh of
fatigue life in the frequency domain. the cantilever beam with plate elements. It reached
Larsen and Irvine in 2015 [16] showed the 80 elements, 289 nodes and 1680 degrees of
importance of random processes for real cases such freedom.
as offshore and aerospace structures. They brought
up the Narrow-Band damage approach and included
the estimations of Wirsching and Light, Ortiz and
Chen and other spectral methods. Finally, small
differences between spectral methods and fatigue
life, in the time domain, were found with some
limitations. The aim of the guidelines obtained in
this work is to increase confidence in estimating
fatigue life.
2. Computational Procedure
Figure 1: Cantilever beam mesh with plate elements.
This study case consists of analyzing a cantilever
beam (2x100x500 mm, thickness, width and In the second mesh, Figure 2, beam elements were
length). This analysis was made through used for the same cantilever beam.
commercial software of FE [17] where the stress as When applied beam elements to a cantilever beam
a function of time and response of PSD were reached 20 elements, 61 nodes and 240 degrees of
obtained. Excitation calculations, used as input data freedom.
for numerical simulations, and fatigue life
calculations were implemented in a commercial
compiler [18]. The structural models of the
cantilever beam studied are numerical models of the
plate and beam. Hypotheses for the excitations are
assumed in order to reach the objectives of the
work:
The excitations at the base of the cantilever
beam, are based on the road surface profile from
ISO 8608 [1];
The displacement PSD is defined not only in Figure 2: Cantilever beam mesh with beam elements.
accordance with road classes A, B and C, but
also speed of 30 and 60 [km/h]; The dynamic system response starts from the
The road displacement signal based on time is motion equation that is composed of 3 matrices with
obtained the equation from Shinozuka and Jan [19]; degrees of freedom according to the EF model. In
The transient dynamic analysis of this cantilever the case studied, the nonlinear effects are not
beam is used for fatigue calculations in the time important and the system of equations is reduced so
domain. The displacement signal, based on time, that minimizes simulation time.
obtained by the displacement PSD is used as input
data. Similarly, the displacement PSD and modal q (t) + q (t) + q(t) = f(t) (1)
analysis are input data to determine the response of
PSD. Finally, the fatigue life calculation in the where is the mass matrix, is the damping
frequency domain is performed. This sequence of matrix, is the stiffness matrix, q(t) is the vector
dynamic analysis and calculation routines are of degrees of freedom and f(t) is the excitation force
applied in both structural models. The degrees-of- vector.
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The excitations of the cantilever beam are in the Finally, the mathematical formulation Eq. (5) shows
base. Thus, the cantilever beam with plate elements the free and restricted degrees of freedoms for the
is excited at 9 nodes and beam elements at 1 node. study case of this work.
The displacements imposed are the same in both
cases. 2.1. Structural models
The matrices and vectors of the motion equation can
be partitioned to represent the free degrees of It is common select plate elements to perform linear
freedom, ql (t) and the restricted degrees of static stress analysis and beam elements for
freedom, qr (t). The Eq. (1) is rewritten in the matrix dynamic analysis. The two classical structural
form as flow: theories are used in the simulations of this case to
determine fatigue life:
Mindlin-Reissner hypotheses for the plate.
ll lr q l (t) lr q l (t)
[ ][ ] + [ ll ][ ] Timoshenko beam theory.
rl rr q r (t) rl rr q r (t)
(2) The plate elements used in this work are composed
lr ql (t) 0
+ [ ll ][ ]=[ ] of two comparable dimensions and another with
rl rr qr (t) fr (t)
lower magnitude. Only its medium surface can
consider this semi-thick plate. According to Ansys
where fr (t) corresponds to the reactive forces in the [17] plate element has 8 nodes with 6 degrees of
restricted degrees of freedom due to the imposed freedom each: translation and rotation in the X, Y
displacements. and Z axes.
The null vector appears because the absence of The beam elements are three-dimensional bar
forces acting on the free nodes [17]. A different elements, being suitable for the analysis of
equation can be found when rewriting Eq. (2) structures that have thicknesses. It considers the
without the null vector: shear deformation and rotational bending effects. It
is a quadratic beam element with 3 nodes, in each
ll q l (t) + ll q l (t) + ll ql (t) = fefe (t) (3) node there are 6 degrees of freedom [17].
where fefe (t) is the vector of the effective load due 2.2. Materials properties
to imposed displacements.
In 2005 Hougaz [20] proposed that the effective The material is linear elastic, isotropic and small
loading vector of the road surface profile can be displacements. The mechanical properties of the
represented without the damping in the restricted material are used as input data in all analyses and
degrees of freedom: calculation routines.
Table 1 shows the mechanical properties of
fefe (t) = lr q r (t) + lr qr (t) (4) structural steel.
3. Results
Baker, calculate the fatigue life, Table 3 and Table Narrow Band Dirlik
4, in the time and frequency domain. Wirsching and Light Ortiz and Chen
The various fatigue life results in the frequency
Benasciutti and Tovo Zhao and Baker
domain are compared assuming as reference the 20
result of fatigue life in the time domain.
18
Table 3: Fatigue life of cantilever beam with plate elements.
The value in parentheses indicates the relative error. 16
Road Class A B C
14
Speed 30 km/h 60 km/h 30 km/h 60 km/h 30 km/h 60 km/h
12
Rainflow
RELATIVE ERROR
4.4E+09 2.1E+09 3.7E+07 1.5E+07 1.4E+06 3.9E+05
[km] 10
Narrow 3.1E+10 1.7E+09 1.6E+08 8.7E+06 8.3E+05 4.6E+04
Band [km] (5.92) (-0.21) (3.29) (-0.43) (-0.40) (-0.88) 8
Dirlik method remains the most robust and reliable errors of the spectral methods and it is difficult to
in the simple case of a cantilever beam. The Zhao explain. However, the Dirlik method, although
and Baker method presented again great older than the others, demonstrated relatively small
discrepancies. errors, compared with the fatigue life in the time
Finally, Figure 6 illustrates the graph of fatigue life domain. As it is an empirical model that presents
errors relative to the time domain. peculiarities, this becomes clear, when it is applied
in complex structures.
Narrow Band Dirlik
It is emphasized that the transient simulation
Wirsching and Light Ortiz and Chen
implies in the solution of the equilibrium equations
hundreds or thousands of times for every second of
Benasciutti and Tovo Zhao and Baker
80
the total simulation time. Even with explicit
algorithms of complex structures modeled with
70
finer structural FE. This fact has required analyses
with hours or days of continuous simulation. Thus,
60
the optimization of these structures for objective
functions related to fatigue life has become
50 impractical, even for current computer hardware
technology. Therefore, the present study presents a
RELATIVE ERROR
20 References
10
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0
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