Accelerated Fatigue Test in Mechanical Components

Abstract

Abstract The reduced time available for product development has forced original equipment man- ufacturers and their suppliers to develop new components and subsystems efficiently, to release it to the market with lightweight and innovate designs, guaranteeing non-failure on the service life. In order to reach these goals, accelerated tests are developed to evaluate its durability with different design proposals. Although durability is nowadays improved through virtual testing, it is mandatory to perform experimental tests before the final release of the product. The tests are done not only to reproduce the same loads; it has to be modi- fied to reproduce the failures that are found on the roads under normal use conditions. The component can be evaluated as itself, in subassembly or in the assembly; the result among these possibilities have to be the same. To reach this aim, devices are designed to reproduce a specific stiffness, combining its mechanical behavior with the modified loads also known as spectrum. Accelerated test can be developed to increase its severity, reducing test time. The spectrum to perform the durability test was built with service loads and different pro- files or users and different roads including weather conditions.