In order to understand the probabilistic nature of fatigue crack propagation, not only the calculation of failure probability and parameter sensitivity, but also the clarification of probabilistic nature of various parameters should be executed. Therefore a method to evaluate generally the effect of each parameter on the distribution of fatigue crack propagation life is reqired.
In this study, the system for evaluating the distribution of fatigue crack propagation life is developed on a micro-computer. By this system, a phenomenon of failure probability can be easily understood using the graphic representation and the dialogue style access. The effect of parameters on the distribution of fatigue crack propagation life can be discussed generally according to the appropriate normalization of the life distribution. The validity of this method is also shown.
Such an investigation as the present work is very simple but may be useful to understand the nature of the life distribution and to utilize the probabilistic fracture mechanics.