Fatigue features extraction of road load time data using the S-transform

This paper presents the algorithm development of a new fatigue data editing technique using S-T approach. In general, the S-transform (S-T) is a time-frequency spectral localization method which performs a multi-resolution analysis on signal. This method represents a better time-frequency resolution especially for non-stationary signal analysis. This technique was developed to produce shortened fatigue data for fatigue durability testing. The S-T method was applied to detect the damaging events contained in the fatigue signals due to high S-T spectrum location. The damaging events were extracted from an original fatigue signal to produce the shortened edited signal which has equivalent fatigue damage. Three types of road load fatigue data were used for simulation purpose, pave track, highway and country road. In this study, an algorithm was developed, to detect the damaging events in the original fatigue signal. The algorithm can be used to extract the fatigue damaging events and these events were combined in order to produce a new edited signal which neglect the low amplitude cycles. The edited signal consists of the majority of the original fatigue damage in the shortened signal with 15–25% time reduction. Thus, it has been suggested that this shortened signal can then be used in the laboratory fatigue testing for the purpose of accelerated fatigue testing.