Fatigue life assessment of the driving shaft of a LCV by FEA using customer correlation data

In this study, an accelerated test track construction necessary during research and development phase of light commercial vehicles (LCV) is described. By the questionary method, the Turkish customer automotive usages are defined. This paper focuses on defining load spectrum affected by driving shaft torque during acceleration, breaking and different manoeuvres and equivalent fatigue damage of the driving shaft resulting from accelerated tests on a route. Fatigue analysis and estimated lifetime of the part were calculated using finite element analyses (FEA) and verified by the Palmgren-Miner rule. When as customer profile the Turkish automotive user is taken into consideration and accelerated test tracks are designed for reliability and fatigue tests of the related company, linear FEA of the driving shaft represents a convenient procedure.