Patent ID: 9645041
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: G01M,G01N

Claim:
1. A method for analyzing fatigue life of an elastomeric component, the method including steps operated by a system including a user interface and an interpolation engine, the interpolation engine in communication with the user interface, and the interpolation engine including at least one processor and at least one memory having a tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium, the system further including a first sensor and a second sensor in communication with the elastomeric component, and a data collection device in communication with the first sensor and the second sensor, the first sensor configured to measure a time-varying first variable of the elastomeric component during dynamic loading to provide a first channel of a multichannel input, wherein the first sensor is a load sensor and the first variable is a load, the second sensor configured to measure a time-varying second variable of the elastomeric component during the dynamical loading to provide a second channel of the multi-channel input, wherein the second variable is one of an other load, a force, a displacement, a moment, and a rotation, and the data collection device configured to receive the multi-channel input from the first sensor and the second sensor, and to supply the multi-channel input to the interpolation engine, the steps comprising: receiving, by the interpolation engine from the data collection device, a base finite element analysis (FEA) with a base state of the elastomeric component, the base state of the elastomeric component obtained by analyzing the elastomeric component including at least one of stress and strain for at least one element from the base FEA of the elastomeric component under simulated static conditions; generating, by the interpolation engine, a predictive model including the multi-channel input, the base state from the base FEA of the elastomeric component under simulated static conditions, and generated case vectors to represent a space of loading states that occur within the multi-channel input, the case vectors originating at and extending outwardly from the base state in the predictive model, the case vectors including a set of case vectors neighboring a desired current state in the predictive model, the predictive model further including an interpolation cell that bounds the desired current state, the interpolation cell having edges that include the set of the case vectors neighboring the desired current state; and for the set of the case vectors neighboring the desired current state in the predictive model, receiving by the interpolation engine from the user interface a plurality of additional FEA of the elastomeric component under simulated dynamic conditions at a plurality of discrete gridpoints along the set of the case vectors neighboring the desired current state, starting at the base state and tracking the set of the case vectors neighboring the desired current state; obtaining, by the interpolation engine, local solution variables from the additional FEA of the elastomeric component at each of the plurality of discrete gridpoints, the local solution variables including at least one of stress and strain for at least one element from the additional FEA for each of the plurality of discrete gridpoints, wherein the interpolation engine has a database included in the at least one memory that store the base FEA used to obtain the base state of the elastomeric component and each of the additional FEA used to obtain the local solution variables at each of the discrete gridpoints, wherein the predictive model generated by the interpolation engine is different from the base FEA and the additional FEA; interpolating, by the interpolation engine, using the local solution variables associated with the interpolation cell and an interpolation function, at least one of a strain history and a stress history of the elastomeric component at the desired current state; and performing, by a set of instructions embodied on the at least one memory of the interpolation engine and executed by the at least one processor, a damage calculation based on one of the strain history and the stress history interpolated for the elastomeric component, whereby the fatigue life of the elastomeric component is predicted.