Study of acoustic fatigue life estimation for composite structure based on power spectral density

Abstract

In this paper, acoustic fatigue life estimation for composite structure is studied based on power spectral density method, which concludes the random response, the frequency–time domain conversion and the fatigue damage model. The whole process works as follows. First, the commercial software ANSYS is used to determine the response of composite structures under the frequency power spectrum. Then, the response under the frequency power spectrum can be transformed to the time domain histories based on the theory of Monte Carlo simulation. Then, by the usage of the rain flow cycle counting method and the conventional S–N curves, the fatigue life can be estimated at the danger location, and also the type of fatigue damage can be determined. Finally, our simulation results are compared with the experiment test results, and they agree well.

Keywords:

• Composite materials
• Acoustic fatigue
• Power spectral density
• ANSYS
• Monte Carlo
• Rain flow cycle counting

The work described in this paper was supported by the program for 2008 New Century Excellent Talents in University (grant no. NCET080454) and the Expertise‐Introduction Project for Disciplinary Innovation of University (111 project, project no. B07050).