A RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH UNDER RANDOM LOADING

Abstract

Abstract— The fracture mechanics approach to the growth of fatigue cracks under random loading has been used to predict both the distribution of crack lengths after a given number of cycles, and the distribution of cycles to grow a crack to a given length. The analysis ignores interaction effects between cycles, and its predictions agree closely with the results of Monte‐Carlo simulations. These results allow a simple method of assessing the reliability of cracked components subjected to narrow or broad band random loading and the introduction of material variability allows a quantitative description of the parameters which affect the reliability of a structural component.