FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF A BEAM SUBJECTED TO DYNAMIC LOADING

Cheng-Shun Chen *

I-Chih Wang **

Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Nuclear Engineering

University of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.
* Graduate student. Former faculty of National Taipei Institute
of Technoloav, Taiwan, R.O.C.
** Professor -.
ABSTRACT
Classical analyses of strucfures
subjected fo fatigue loading
are based on the assumption that fhe loads and the
resulfing
stresses are independent of time. However, in fhe
case of a suddenly applied constant load, nof only higher
displacemenfs and stresses, but also transient vibration,
will be generated within the structure. As a result, some
fatigue life could be consumed durfng the vibrational motion.
Therefore, it is important that the fatigue analysis must, in
part, take dynamic effecfs into accoun1. The objeciive of this
study is to investigate the fatigue life of a beam under this
kind of dynamic loading. For fhis study, the finite element
rransienr analysis was used to determine the time-varying
stresses and strains at dffferenf /eve/s of loads and damping
values. The strain-life based fatigue analysis method was
used fo predict the crack initiation life. When designing a
lightly damped structure subjected fo dynamic loading, ii is
important to study fhe dynamic response and estimate the
fatigue life of fhe structure at the design stage to make the
design
satisfactory.

A&
2
2Nf

= reversals to failure ( 1 rev = 112 cycle)

(3 , ,

- = total strain amplitude

&/

= fatigue strength coefficient and exponent

c = fatigue ductility coefficient and exponent

= cyclic strength coefficient

cyclic

strain

hardening

exponent

0 o = mean stress
p

= mass density

E = elastic modulus
W, = natural frequency
c

= damping ratio

1. INTRODUCTION
NOMENCLATURE

[Ml, [ml = structure

[Cl.

[c]

and

element

= structure and eiement

mass

Fatigue is a failure mode of a structure element subjected to

repeated applications of load even though the resulting
stress levels that are considerably lower than those
permitted for static loading. It is an important design
consideration because most of structures fail in this
category. A very large amount of efforts and researches in
fatigue analysis and design had been done. Among these
researches, one widely used fatigue loading was the so
called variable amplitude or irregular loading like SAE
fatigue load histories [l]. The fatigue analysis of this kind of
loading was usually based on the assumption that the loads
and the resulting stresses ware independent of time, that is,
the fatigue loading was considered as a series of static
loads. The elastic-plastic static analyses were directly
applied to these loads on a reversal by reversal basis (21.
However, in the cass of dynamic loading like suddenly
applied constant force, the transient vibration will be
generated before the response of the structure reaches the
final static equilibrium position.

matrices

damping matrices

VI. PI = structure and element stiffness matrices

{R} , {r} = force vectors applied on nodal d.o.f
VJI *b> = nodal d.o.f of structure and element
[B]

= strain-displacement matrix

PI

= elasticity matrix

[N]

= matrix of shape function

@I

= stress

@I

= strain vector

vector

A0
- = true stress amplitude
2

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As a structure experiences the vibration, an alternating

dynamic stress and strain with cedain
period will be induced
within the structure. From the fatigue point of view, these
alternating dynamic stress and strain could be considered
as a kind of fatigue loading. Once the amplitude of this
dynamic stress exceeds the endurance limit of material and
the repeated cycles of motion reach a critical value, a
fatigue damage could be initiated. It happens easier for the
lightly damped structure in which the dynamic stiffness can
be much small than the static stiffness. This vibration
induced cumulative fatigue is the primary concern of our
study. The causes of vibration induced fatigue could be
arise from the random vibration caused by nondeterministic
loading [3], or forced vibration caused by periodic dynamic
loading [4], or transient vibration caused by nonperiodic
dynamic loading.
In the present paper, we concentrate our study on the topic
of transient vibration and the resulting fatigue. Currently,
very little can be found in the literature dealing with this
topic. In 1983, Verdonck and Snoeys [5] suggested a
method to predict lifetime of structures based on the
combined use of Finite Element (FE) and modal analysis
data. The paper demonstrated an example of lifetime
prediction of a tennis racket subjected to repeated impact.
Vis Devis, Snoeys, and Sas [6] recognized an important fact
that lifetime estimation of structures should cover the
dynamic behavior for some types of structures. They
developed a similar procedure to estimate fatigue lifetime of
structures based on experimental modal parameters. A Tplate subjected to hammer impact was used to illustrate the
procedure. Today, the progress of the dynamic FE
technique and the power of computer provide us a new
environment to handle this problem easier and more
effective at the early design stage. Chen and Wang [7] took
advantage of this and started the investigation of fatigue life
of undamped linear structure subjected to different types of
dynamic loading. The fatigue life prediction was based on
the dynamic stresses and strains obtained from FE dynamic
analysis.
In this paper, we continue previous study and take into
account some important parameters like material
nonlinearity and damping of the structure. We also pay more
attention on the understanding of structural fatigue problem
under transient vibration that will die out in a short time
rather than the predicting of exact value of fatigue life.

2. BACKGROUNDS
In this section, basic theoretical materials required for the
fatigue analysis are briefly reviewed.
2.1 Transient response
When a dynamical system is excited by a suddenly applied
nonperiodic excitation, the response to such excitation is
called transient response. For a single degree of freedom
(DOF) linear system with mass m , spring constant k , and
damping ratio6 , the response x to step excitation of
magnitude

F,

with the initial conditions of zero initial

displacement and velocity can be shown as [El:

x=0F
k
where

It is evident that the peak response to the step excitation of

magnitude F, is less than 2 F,/k when damping is
present and is equal to twice the static deflection for
undamped system.
2.2 Displacement-based finite ekment method
The basis of the displacement-based finite element solution
is the principle of virtual work. Applying this principle, the
dynamic equilibrium equation for one element can be shown
as [9]:

where the element mass and damping matrices are defined

a*:

The basic procedures and approaches used for this study

are as follows:
(1). Find the transient response of the structure by FE
dynamic analysis.
(2). Determine the critical place where the crack is likely to
start and compute the strain history of this point.
(3). Divide the strain history into individual events (cycles)
by the simple rainflow
counting method.
(4).Calculate the fatigue damage caused by each event by
strain-life equation.
(5). Accumulate the damage by linear damage rule.

where
material

[N]

is the matrix of shape function and Kd is a

damping

parameter

analogous

to

viscosity.

The element internal force in Eq. (2) represents loads at

nodes caused by straining of material and is defined as:

1545

The Eq. (2) and (5) are valid for both linear and nonlinear
material behavior. The element external force in Eq. (2) may
include the body forces, surface tractions, and concentrated
loads that act on the element.
For

linearly

elastic

material

behavior,

(3)

{ol= [Dl{El= [DI[Bl{ul

w h e r e [D]IS a matrix of elastic coefficients. Combining this

with

Equation

(5)

yields

{rin}=[k]{u}

(7)

where

concentrates on the long life of the component based on the

concept of the fatigue limit, the strain-life method is widely
used to predict life to crack initiation at notch under complex
load sequence, and the fracture mechanics approach deals
directly with the propagation of fatigue cracks. Because our
major concern is the crack initiation life, only strain-life
method will be discussed.
The strain-life relationship is the basis of the strain-life
method. The analytical representation of this strain-life
relationship is expressed by the following equation [lo]:

AE s+AcE, -0,
-=
- - T(2N,)h +E, (2N,)
2
2
2
where

(8)

[kl= plTPIPl~V
is called element stiffness matrix.

A& , A&e,

and

A&,

are the total strain, elastic

strain, and plastic strain ranges, respectively. If accounting

for mean stress effects in elastic term, the equation
becomes [ll]:

AE of*,
-=
E
(2N,)h +&,I (2N,)
2

For the entire structure, the structural mass, dampimg, and

stiffness matrices are constructed by the conceptual
expansion of element matrices to structure size followed by
addition of overlapping coefficients. For multi-DOF linearly
elastic structure, the dynamic equilibrium equation becomes:

This equation can be numerically solved for

[M]{ti}+ [C]{ir}+ [KXU}

2.4 Damage summing method for initiation

= {R(t)}

(9)

In a time-history or dynamic response problem, we solve Eq.

(9) for {(I}, {e}, a n d {u}as functions of time. In
practice, the two principal techniques used for the solution
of equilibrium equation are direct numerical integration and
mode superposition method. In order to solve the equation,
a suitable boundary conditions, initial conditions, and the
applied load must be known.
The primary solution data are the nodal DOF displacements,
and the element strains and stresses at integration point are
recovered and computed by following equations:

(12)

N,

for the

given material fatigue property, the strain range of interest,

and the mean stress.

A commonly used damage rule is the Palmgren-Miners

linear damage rule which states that the damage fraction at
stress level s, is equal to the cycle ratio, ni / N, The
failure criterion for variable amplitude loading can be stated
ES:

where ni is the number of cycles at stress level s, and

N,

is the fatigue life in cycles at stress level ,??, The life to

@I = [BIbI

(10)

10 I= PIGI

(11)

failure can be estimated by summing the percentage of life

used up at each stress level.
3. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE

and these element results are average at the nodes to

become nodal solution data.

3.1 Dynamic response analysis

2.3 Crack initiation life prediction method

In this section, we will briefly present the dynamic response

of a thin cantilever beam as shown in Fig. la with a cross

Three primary fatigue analysis methods are the stress-life,

strain-life, and the fracture mechanics methods. These
methods have their own region of application with some
degree of overlap. In general, traditional stress-life method

section of 51x3.2 iw?? and a length of 0.254 m subjected

to suddenly applied constant force. The dynamic response
was determined by using a general finite element program
with nonlinear capability. In this paper. the nonlinear effect

1546

V
(a)

ok----d2
time (S,
(b)

Figure 1: Cantilever beam and the forcing function

lies only in the nonlinear stress-strain relation. The material
selected is a high strength, roller quenched, and tempered
steel (WC-100). The basic smooth specimen material
properties of this material can be found in the appendix C of
reference 1. In order to perform the analysis, a FE analysis
model was built to represent the continuous beam and
required information. Some features of this model are as
follows:
(1). The element type used for analysis was a Z-dimensional
plastic beam element with 3 DOF in each node.
(2). The mass matrix was constructed by consistent mass
formulation method.
(3). The popular Reyleigh damping, [C] = CL[K] + p [M] ,
was used to calculate the damping matrix of the system.
The two constants (a and 0 ) were obtained by
solving two simultaneous equations from given damping
ratio and frequency range of interest. Four levels of
damping ratios were selected and their values were
0.0125, 0.025, 0.05. and 0.1, respectively.
(4). The multilinear kinematic hardening plasticity behavior
was used to describe and approximate the cyclic stressstrain relationship of the material.
(5). The suddenly applied constant force shown in Fig. l(b)
was acted at the free end of the beam. In order to cover
the elastic and plastic responses, several levels of
applied force from 50 to 150 N were used for study.
(6). The initial conditions were assumed to be zero initial
displacement and velocity.

25

Figure 2: Responses of the free end node for different

damping ratio. (A)6 =0.125,

(B) 0.025. (C) 0.05, (D) 0.1,

and (E) static.

analysis was 0.00003 set which was about l/800 of the
period of the first bending mode of vibration.
Because a wide range of applied force was used in analysis,
the response of the structure may be elastic or plastic. Fig. 2
shows a plot of the displacement responses of the free end
node of the beam under the action of suddenly applied
constant force F(t) = 50 N with damping ratio as a
parameter. In this elastic case. from the response cwves we
see that the free end of the beam vibrates, as expected,
about the static equilibrium position (curve E). It should also
be observed that the amplitude curves for different damping
all decay with time. However, the response pattern is slightly
different for the case of plastic response. Fig. 3 shows a
series of displacement-time cures for the case of force
F(t)= 150 N with damping ratio as a parameter. It was found

Before transient analysis, a modal analysis was performed

to understand the dynamic characteristics of the structure.
The first three natural frequencies obtained from FE analysis
were 40.74. 255.29, and 714.68 Hz respectively, which had
a good agreement with exact values.
Since the load was applied suddenly and the displacements
and strains were assumed to be small, we calculated the
response of the beam by using a dynamic analysis with
material nonlinearfties only. A FE transient analysis with the
selection of full solution method was performed. This full
solution method solves the equilibrium equation directly
based on the procedure of Newmark time integration
technique. In a nonlinear analysis, the Newton-Raphson
method is employed along with the Newmark assumption.
For the Newmark time integration scheme, it has been found
that using approximately twenty points per cycle of the
highest frequency of interest results in a reasonably
accurate solution. The integration time step chosen for

Figure 3: Responses of the free end node with different

damping ratio. (A)c =0.125, (8) 0.025, (C) 0.05, (D) 0.1,
and (E) static.

1547

Figure 4: Deformed shapes of the cantilever beam at

several instants of time. Curve (A) original position, (6) first
maximum, and(C) first minimum.
in this numerical solution that after a maximum deflection
(taken as positive in the direction of the loading) the beam
moved backward to a deflection on the negative side, the
beam then vibrated elastically with certain minimum and
maximum, and died out to the final permanent deflection. It
should be noted that the final permanent deflection position
did not coincide with the equivalent static position (curve E).
The difference between them increased with the decreasing
of damping ratio.
For fatigue analysis it is important to find the critical fatigue
location where a crack is likely to start. In the present paper,
we assume that there is no stress concentration due to the
geometrical or material discontinuity. Therefore, the
determination of the maximum strain location is straight
forward.

Figure 5: Strain response of the fixed end node. Curve

(A) elastic, (El) plastic, and (C) total strain.
It should be observed that an irregular strain history with
mean stress was generated for each damping case.
3.2.

Crack

initiation

life

prediction

Once the strain history of the critical fatigue location was

determined, the next step for fatigue life estimation is to
define a cycle count procedure to separate the irregular
loading history into a number of events (cycles) which can
be compared to the available constant amplitude test data,
and then assume a damage rule to measure the fatigue
damage caused by each single event (cycle).
The rainflow cycle count method had been widely used [12].
In our study, the simple rainflow count algorithm [13] which
determines load cycles for closed hysteresis loops in a
loading histoly was used to count the events for the strain

Fig. 4 is a plot of a series of deformed shapes at several

instants of time of the beam considered for the case of F(t)=
125 N and < =0.0125. It shows that most of the response is
due to the first normal mode for the given initial conditions.
This is to be expected because the first mode shape is
similar to the static deflection shape of the cantilever beam
under a free end load. Therefore, the maximum stress and
strain would be developed at the upper fiber of the fixed
end. However, attention should be paid to the fact that other
initial conditions cause other critical points, and other modes
can be found to be dominant. Fig. 5 is a plot of strain
response for the case of F(t)= 150 N and c =0.05. As can
be seen, the amplitude curve of elastic strain (curve A)
vibrates and decays with time, and the amplitude of plastic
strain (curve B) remains constant after it reaches the
maximum value. This is to be expected because the
permanent deformation is unrecoverable. The total strain
response (curve C) is obtained by adding the ordinates of
the elastic and plastic components. Fig 6 shows a series of
total strain-time cul~es
with damping ratio as a parameter.

Figure 6: Strain responses for different damping ratio. (A)c

=0.0125,

1548

(6) 0.025, (C) 0.05, (D) 0.1, and(E) static.

Table 1: Damage of each cycle and accumulated damage

strain
mean stress
a m p l i t u d e (Mpa)
3.683e-3
209
2.791e-3
209
2.194e-3
209
1.957-z-3
209

total
damage
4.8530e.6
5.0367s-6
5.0448e6
5.0461e-6

damage per
CYCk

4.8530e6
O.l837e-8
0.7813e-8
O.l709e-8

3.3. Results and Discussion

Figure 7: Example of a strain history

An example of a typical strain history for the case of F(t)=
100 N and c ~0.025 was shown in Fig. 7. As can be seen,
the reversals after H-l were discarded because the resulting
fatigue life of these individual reversals was infinite based
on their corresponding stress amplitude. The history from A
to Al was defined as one repetition or block of the fatigue
loading.
Damage for each cycle was found by using the strain-life
approach with accounting for mean stress effects in elastic
term (Eq. 13). The mean stress used to calculate the
damage was based on the mean value of the alternating
stress curve. Table 1 gives the damage for each cycle and
the accumulated damage of strain history shown in Fig. 7. A
total damage of 5.0461e-6
was found. According to the
Miners rule, the fatigue life was about 198,170 repetitions of
the applied load for the case considered.

Fig. 8 shows the predicted fatigue life versus load curves for
four different levels of damping ratio. The given results
display some impodant general features. The fatigue life
decreased with the increasing of the applied force. It also
decreased with the decreasing of the damping ratio. These
results are reasonable. Table 2 summarizes the numerical
data of three types of analysis for two different load levels.
As can be seen, when the constant force was applied slowly
to the structure, the maximum stress generated was smaller
than the yielding strength of the material (620/ 550 Mpa). It
meant that the structure was statically safe. However, if the
constant force was suddenly applied, the results from
dynamic analysis show that a transient vibration will be
generated and plastic strains will also be built. If a fatigue
analysis was conducted for this transient vibration, the result
shows that the fatigue crack will be initiated after some
repetitions of the loading. Therefore, It is important for a
designer to recognize this potential failure mode.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Dynamic loading will cause the vibration of the structure and
such repeated oscillatory motions could be considered as a
kind of fatigue loading. Attempt has been made to study how
important of this type of fatigue loading. A procedure had
been developed to estimate the crack initiation life based on
the finite element dynamic analysis and strain-based life
prediction technique. The procedure enables the simulating
Table 2: Numerical data for three types of analysis

Static

F(t) =lOO N.

F(t) =125

~0.025

Fatigue

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=0.0125

0 ~291.8 Mpa,
6 = 0.01932 In,

0 =364.6 Mpa,
6 = 0.02415 m,

EC =O.l438e-2,

& I =o. 1797e-2.

E, =o

E, =o

D y n a m i c rS ~538.0 Mpa.
6 = 0.03612 m,

Figure 8: Repetitions to cracking versus load data for four

different levels of damping ratio (A) 0.1, (B) 0.05,
(C) 0.025. and(D) 0.0125.

N.

0 =595.8 Mpa,
6 = 0.04870 m.

E e =0.2650e-2,

E c =0.2935e-2,

6 p =O.O704e-2

E, =O.lSSle-2

Transient vibration
N, =198,170

Transient vibration

N, =13,780

of fatigue life at the early design stage and provides

numerical values for engineering judgment. A thin cantilever
beam under suddenly applied constant force with several
levels of forces and damping ratio had been numerically
studied.
In the present paper, we also assumed that the strain-life
data from axial push-pull tests can be applied to dynamic
strains. It meant that the strains obtained from FE dynamic
applied to fatigue analysis
analysis can be directly
equation.
When designing a lightly damped structure subjected to a
cedain level of dynamic load, it is important to extend the
study of the problem from traditional dynamic analysis to
fatigue analysis because the structures may fail by fatigue
after some repeated applications of the dynamic load. This
investigation can be easily performed at the early design
stage by the application of finite element dynamic analysis
and commonly used fatigue analysis method like strain-life
method.
5.

[9] Cook, R. D., Malkus, D. S., and Plesha, M. E., Concepts

and Application of Finite Element Analysis, 3rd ed.. John
Wiley & Sons, pp. 366-370, 1969.
[lo] Morrow J., Cyclic Plastic Strain Energy and Fatigue of
Metals, ASTM STP 378, pp. 45-67, 1964.
[ll] Morrow, J., Fatigue Design Handbook, Advances in
Engineering, Vol. 4, Published by the Society of Automotive
Engineers, Warrendale, Pa., sec. 3.2, pp. 21-29, 1966.
[12] Dowling, N. E.. Fatigue Prediction for Complicated
Stress-Strain Histories, Journal of Material Vol. 7, pp. 7167, 1972.
[13] Downing, S. D., and Socie, D. F., Simple Ftainflow
counting Algorithms, International Journal of Fatigue, Vol.
4, No. 1, pp. 31.40, 1962.

REFERENCES

[l] Tucker, L., and Bussa, S., The SAE Cumulative Fatigue
Damage Test Program, Fatigue Under Complex Loading:
Analyses and Experiments, published by The Society of
automotive engineers, inc., pp. 1-54. 1977.
[2] Hsieh, H. D.. Fatigue Life Prediction of Notched Plates
Subjected to Complex Loading -- Finite Element Approach.
PhD. Dissertation, University of Cincinnati, pp. 40-44, 1993.
[3] Sherratt, F., Vibration and Fatigue: Basic Life Estimation
Methods, Journal of the Society of Environmental
Engineers, pp. 12-l 7, Dec. 1963.
[4] Bolton, A., Structural Dynamics in practice: a Guide for
Professional Engineers, McGraw-Hill, pp. 204-221, 1994.
[5] Verdonck, E. and Snoeys, R., Life time Prediction
based on the Combined Use of Finite Element and Modal
Analysis Data, Proceedings of the 6th International
Seminars on Modal Analysis, Katholicke Universiteit
Leuven, Belgium, sep. 1963.
[6] De Vi% D., Snoeys. R., and Sas P.. Fatigue Lifetime
Estimation of Structures Subjected to Dynamic Loading,
AIAA Journal. Vol. 24, pp. 1362-1367, August 1986.
[7] Chen, C. S., and Wang, I. C., Fatigue Life Prediction of
Structures Based on Finite Element Dynamic Analysis,
Proceedings of the 14th International Modal Analysis
Conference, Michigan, pp. 1615.1620, Feb. 1996.
[6] Thomson, W. T., Theory of Vibration with Applications,
4th ed., Prentice-Hall. pp. 95-96, 1993.

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