Abstract
In reliability analyses of machines and structures, it is necessary to know quantitatively the fatigue life distributions of the fabricated parts or the structural members, though these distributions are usually determined through statistical analysis of fatigue data. However, complete samples are hardly available for the parameter estimation, since Type I censoring is often introduced into fatigue tests at low stress levels around the fatigue limit. Another difficulty is the fact that the probability of failure may be saturated to a finite level in such low stress levels.
In this study, a mathematical expression was made on the fatigue life distribution near the fatigue limit, and the parameter estimation was performed on this distribution by modifying the correlation coefficient method established for complete samples in the previous paper.
The usefulness of this procedure was verified by a good agreement of the estimated distributions with those of experimental fatigue data on several kinds of metallic materials.
