Fatigue damage analysis under variable amplitude cycling

This paper explores the suitability of a recently proposed mean stress parameter and introduces a nonlinear damage accumulation procedure. Data covering a range of positive and negative stress ratios from +0.6 to -2.66, for several aluminum alloys and steels, are assembled and shown to be well correlated by a simple damage parameter. A nonlinear damage accumulation postulate is advanced to replace the usual linear procedure. Results of critical experiments performed to assess the suitability of the postulate are introduced and shown to support a non-linear criterion. The implications of this work related to variable amplitude life prediction are discussed.