A comparative study regarding weakly stationarity assumptions and time dependency : Signal processing of vibrational loading and its influence on fatigue life

Abstract: Simplifications regarding calculations of fatigue life due to vibrational loading is based on weakly stationarity assumptions which is a time independent method. The hypothesis was based on the uncertainty of these assumptions. The aim of this study was to examine whether the analysed data fulfilled the assumptions of weakly stationarity. It was determined that the assumption was not valid for most signals and a comparison of time dependent methods should be performed to evaluate the difference compared with the time independent method. Two time dependent methods were constructed and implemented on the signals based on the results of performed stationarity tests. The result determined that a decrease in fatigue life of an investigated weld might occur for the two time dependent methods compared with the time independent method. The method which was considered to produce the most accurate results was also the most constrained as to the amount of data that fulfilled its requirements. A conclusion was drawn that signals containing more data was necessary to achieve conclusive results of the fatigue life. The hypothesis was proven to be mostly true since most of the analysed signals were found to be piecewise weakly stationary.