Fatigue behavior of aluminum stiffened plate subjected to random vibration loading

Vibration tests were carried out on three types of stiffened aluminum plates with fully clamped boundaries under random base excitation. During the test, the response of the specimens was monitored using strain gauges. Based on the strain history, the accumulation of fatigue damage of the stiffened plates was estimated by means of the rainflow cycle counting technique and the Miner linear damage accumulation model in the time domain. Utilizing the change of natural frequencies, a nonlinear model was fitted for predicting the fatigue damage of plate and then the foregone failure criterion of 5% reduction in natural frequency is improved. The influence of section and spacing of the stiffeners on the vibration fatigue behavior of the aluminum plate was investigated. The results show that the fatigue life of aluminum plate increases with adding either T or L section riveted stiffeners. With the same cross-sectional area of stiffener, the T section stiffened plate shows longer fatigue life than L section stiffened plate. Meanwhile, the vibration fatigue life also shows great sensitivity to the spacing between the stiffeners.