FATIGUE LIFE MONITOR FOR NON-AIRFRAME COMPONENTS

A FRAMEWORK OF A FATIGUE LIFE MONITORING SYSTEM IS PROPOSED FOR NON-AIRFRAME DYNAMIC MECHANICAL COMPONENTS. THIS SYSTEM INCLUDES THE ELEMENTS OF DATA ACQUISITION, ALGORITHMS FOR FORMULATING DYNAMIC PEAK STRESS, DAMAGE TOLERANCE EVALUATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT. THE CALCULATION OF DYNAMIC PEAK STRESSES UTILIZES A NOVEL GREEN'S FUNCTION/DUHAMEL INTEGRAL APPROACH WHICH HAS BEEN PROVEN IN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT FATIGUE MONITORING APPLICATIONS. THIS APPROACH DRASTICALLY REDUCES COMPUTATION TIME, THUS ENABLING THE SYSTEM TO BE DEVELOPED ON A SMALL 286/386 BASED MICRO-COMPUTER. ULTIMATELY, THE SYSTEM WILL ALLOW DIRECT MONITORING OF FATIGUE DAMAGE ACCUMULATION OR CRACK GROWTH IN FATIGUE CRITICAL COMPONENTS, BASED ON DATA INPUT FROM ON-BOARD SENSORS.