Abstract
Most of mechanical structures are composed of many substructures connected to one another by various types of mechanical joints. In automotive engineering, it is important to study these connected structures under various dynamic forces for the evaluations of fatigue life and stress concentration exactly. In this study, the dynamic response of vehicle structure to external forces is classified an inverse problem involving strains from the experiment and the analysis. The practical dynamic forces are determined by the combination of the analytical and experimental method with analyzed strain by quasi-static finite element analysis under unit force and with measured strain by a strain gage under driving load, respectively. In a stressed body, inter-molecular chemical bonds are failed beyond the certain magnitude. The failure of molecular structure in material is considered as a time process of which rate is determined by mechanical stress. That is, the failure of inter-molecular chemical bonds is the fatigue lift of material. This kinetic concept is expressed as lethargy coefficient. And S-N curve is obtained with the lethargy coefficient from quasi-static tensile test. Equivalent practical dynamic force is obtained from the identification of practical dynamic force for one loading point. Using the practical dynamic force and S-N curve, fatigue life of a window pillar is analyzed with FEM under the identified force by the procedure of above mentioned.
