Vibration based fatigue analysis of a structure integrated on an air vehicle by using experimental and theoretical methods

In this article, fatigue life analyses and tests of a real engineering structure integrated into an air vehicle are performed using frequency domain fatigue approaches and accelerated fatigue life testing concept. The finite element (FE) model of the structure is constructed and verified by experiments. The stress history is obtained using the verified FE model and synthesized operational vibration data. Numerical fatigue calculations are carried out with the developed code and commercial fatigue software. Lastly, the experimental fatigue life of the structure is obtained under accelerated vibration data. The results show considerably good agreement between the numerical analyses and experiments. •Accelerated fatigue tests and simulations of an engineering case study related to today's aerospace industry.•Verification of the finite element model by physical tests for the accuracy of the frequency domain fatigue calculations.•Sources of uncertainty in fatigue life estimates in both simulations and experiments.•The huge influence of damping characteristics of the structure on the fatigue life.