Fatigue Life Estimation Using Frequency Domain Technique and Probabilistic Linear Cumulative Damage Model

Engineering critical structures, such as pressure vessels and pipelines, are designed to withstand a variety of in-service loading specific to their intended application. Random vibration excitation is observed in most of the structural component applications in the offshore, aerospace, and nuclear industry. Likewise, fatigue life estimation for such components is fundamental to verify the design robustness assuring structural integrity throughout service. The linear damage accumulation model (Palmgren-Miner rule) is still largely used for damage assessment on fatigue estimations, even though, its limitations are well-known. The fact that fatigue behavior of materials exposed to cyclic loading is a random phenomenon at any scale of description, at a specimen scale, for example, fatigue initiation sites, inclusions, defects, and trans-granular crack propagation are hardly predicted, indicates that a probabilistic characterization of the material behavior is needed. In this work, the methodology was applied to a Titanium alloy structural component. Low alloyed titanium alloys have no tendency to corrosion cracking in high-temperature high-pressure water containing impurities of chloride and oxygen found in a steam generator of nuclear power plants. The inherent uncertainties of the fatigue life and fatigue strength of the material are characterized using the random fatigue limit (RFL) statistic method. Furthermore, a frequency domain technique is used to determine the response power spectrum density (PSD) function of a structural component subjected to a random vibration profile excitation. The fatigue life of the component is then estimated through a probabilistic linear damage cumulative model.