Vehicle fatigue damage caused by road irregularities

Abstract

ABSTRACT Road roughness causes fatigue‐inducing loads in travelling vehicles. Road sections with a high degree of roughness are of special interest because these have a significant impact on vehicle's fatigue life. This study is focused on the statistical description and analysis of vehicle damage caused by irregularities. Standard statistical analysis tools are not straightforwardly applicable because of the non‐stationary property of the irregularities. However, it is found that the road irregularities' influence on vehicles can be accurately described using a ‘local’ narrow‐band approximation of the fatigue damage intensity.