Numerical study of fatigue damage under random loading using Rainflow cycle counting

PurposeThe purpose of this scientific work is to simulate the fatigue damage under random loading, taking into account the mean stress effect on fatigue lifetime and using the Rainflow counting technique to assess the fatigue damage by the Ansys software. The used material is aluminum alloy 6082-T6. A comparison with literature results has confirmed this investigation in this paper.Design/methodology/approachThe study of fatigue under random loading is based on the same concepts as constant loading with the addition of damage summation. The proportion of damage caused by a stress cycle depends not only on the alternating stress but also on the mean stress.FindingsAnalysis of the fatigue damage shows that the number of relative damage due to each cycle.Originality/valueThis paper aims to simulate the fatigue damage under random loading for aluminum alloys.