Fatigue Life Assessments of the AISI 1513 Carbon Steel Subjected to Road Surface Strains

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to predict the fatigue life of the AISI 1513 carbon steel due to the strains measured at a vehicle's lower arm. The strain signals were acquired using a strain gauge installed at the lower arm, and then the car was driven at various road surfaces. On the smooth road surface, the car was driven at a speed of > 70 km/h and on the rough road surface, at a speed of < 20 km/h. The results show that when the vehicle was driven on the rough road, the lower arm received higher stress, which provided a shorter fatigue life. The contour of the road surfaces provided a vertical load, directly working the lower arm and reducing the load vertically. The fatigue life for the rough road surface was 13,050 cycles to failure. This value was 91,195% lower than the fatigue life on the smooth road surface.