Accelerated Fatigue Life Estimation of An Axle Housing

In this study, the fatigue test time of an axle housing was aimed to decrease by increasing the testing load without having permanent deformation on the housing. In this concern, the deformation values of the banjo zone of a heavy-duty commercial vehicle welded complete axle housing under static loads were measured with a dial indicator, the elastic behavior of the housing was observed, and the yield limit was tried to be determined. The axle housing underwent vertical fatigue tests under specified elastic loading circumstances, and the housing's fatigue life was examined under progressively higher loading conditions. In parallel with the static and fatigue tests, the stress and displacement values in the axle housing were obtained with the finite element analysis program ANSYS and verified with the test results. Load conditions, test configurations and fatigue life results are described in detail in the article. Considering the preliminary study [1] results, this study went one step further and tried to obtain the optimum load-life relationship that can be applied as accelerated vertical fatigue test condition for verification of an axle housing. In this way, it is aimed to reduce the time spent on fatigue tests and to provide economic benefits by performing tests in fewer cycles with a higher load.