Fatigue Strain Signal Behaviour and Damage Assessment of an Engine Mount Bracket

Abstract

This paper discusses the fatigue strain signal behaviour of different road surface conditions and its relationship to the fatigue damage of an engine mount bracket. Two different sets of fatigue strain signals were obtained from an engine mount bracket of an automobile: when the automobile was driven on a highway surface and on a residential area road surface. The behaviour of the strain signal was then analysed and classified using both statistical and signal processing tools. Damage values as a result of the corresponding fatigue strain signals also determined using commercial finite element software. The fatigue strain signal behaviour was influenced by the road surface conditions, which affected the damage to the engine mount bracket. The integrated kurtosis-based algorithm for the Z-filter and power spectral density calculation were found to be the most suitable signal analysis approaches to correlate the fatigue strain signal behaviour with the engine mount bracket damage.