Accelerated vibration fatigue testing

When it makes sense

A pass or fail result hides how the part failed

Resonance testing runs many cycles fast, but a bare pass or fail result gives no damage history. Tracking through the run makes sense when:

A part needs many cycles, and a resonance run reaches them faster than a fixed-frequency sweep.
The natural frequency and the damping need tracking through the run, not only a final result.
A weld, a rivet or a printed part needs a repeatable check for the start of a crack.

Hardware

What the rig uses

The part under test is yours. The shaker, its controller, the sensor chain and the industrial PC make up the rig.

The test

How the test works

Mount the part on the shaker, and sweep the frequency to find the natural frequency and the damping.
Hold the part at resonance at the target stress amplitude.
Track the natural frequency and the damping through the run.
Stop the run when the natural frequency drops by the set amount, an early sign of a crack.
Store the frequency and damping trend and the cycle count at the stop.

Software

The open-source software behind it

Your lab or lineReceives the results

Quality database or report archiveResults and stop events over OPC UA, MQTT or SQL

OpenEOLRuns the rig

Task engine Open sourceRuns the sweep, the resonance run and the stop check as one sequence

GUI framework Open sourceOperator screens with live data and the result

Reports and database Open sourceFrequency and damping trend stored for each run

AnalysisTracks the run

Frequency response function Open sourceFinds the resonance peak and damping from the drive and response

Trend tracking Open sourcerolling() and moving_average() follow frequency and damping through the run

Resonance dwell and stop ruleHolds the stress amplitude at resonance and stops at the set frequency drop

DriversTalk to the hardware

OpenEOL IO drivers Open sourceNI DAQmx or Dewesoft for the sensors, Modbus or CANopen for the controller setpoint

Vendor runtimeRuns on the shaker controller and holds the real-time resonance dwell loop

Open-source OpenEOL analysis functions run inside the OpenEOL workflow, so your engineers can read and change every step. The dwell control and the stop rule are built for each project on top of them.

Related use cases

Other durability tests

Vibration test tailoring

A shorter shaker test with the same fatigue damage as real use.

Details

Component endurance test rig

Cycles counted, with force, current and temperature logged on every cycle.

Thermoelastic stress analysis system

Full-field stress maps from an infrared camera.

Details