Estimation of fatigue damage caused by actual roads and maneuvers on proving ground

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to estimate the cumulative fatigue damage in a vehicle component and to calculate the number of cycles driven on the proving ground to achieve the equivalent accumulated fatigue damage in design life. Design/methodology/approach: In order to achieve our objective, using ADAMS software, standard roads and proving ground events on which the vehicle model was to be driven were simulated. The load time history results were applied to an FEM model created in MSC/Nastran. Modal transient dynamic analysis was used to obtain the stress time history in the test component. Findings: The results showed that fast cornering has a greater damage effect than slow and moderate cornering. For primary evaluation of fatigue life (in our case) the cornering analysis is sufficient. The proving ground events had much more destruction effect than actual roads as the fatigue damage accumulated on our test component. Driving 1568 cycles (2462 km) on a proving ground was equal to driving 200000 km on actual roads. Research limitations/implications: The next stage in this research may be to study the effect of dimensions of proving ground events on accumulated fatigue damage. Practical implications: By using CAE and VPG the time and cost of developing the new models of vehicles decreases. Originality/value: The number of cycles which should be driven on the studied proving ground to achieve the accumulated fatigue damage in design life has been esimated.