Methodology for designing tractor accelerated structure tests for an indoor drum-type test bench

Abstract

Accelerated structural tests can evaluate the fatigue life of tractors and reduce the development costs and test time. An indoor test bench has great potential for carrying out fatigue tests due to its simple control, anti-interference and high repeatability. For the unreasonable design and insufficient damage correlation of the tractor indoor durability test, a method for designing tractor accelerated structure tests suitable for a drum-type test bench was developed. Taking the construction of optimisation matrix for accelerated structural test design as its core, the time-domain extrapolation method based on peak-over-threshold model, the augmented Lagrangian multiplier method for solving the optimal matrix and the Monte Carlo method for sensitivity analysis were combined. Field conditions and 23 simulated working conditions based on a four-wheel drum test bench were carried out, and the tractor field loads and simulated test loads had high consistency in the amplitude and frequency domains. The results show that the optimal repetitions required for the ten critical simulated working conditions were 0, 0, 0, 350, 0, 0, 531, 1031, 86 and 0 respectively. The combined test total duration was only 34 h, the acceleration coefficient was 12.6 and the average relative error of damage was only 14.56%. Compared with the results of Monte Carlo method, the errors of the optimal repetition times of the simulated working conditions were less than 5%, which verifies the accuracy, rationality and effectiveness of the design method of tractor durability accelerated structure test. • Design methodology of tractors accelerated structural tests was proposed. • An accelerated structural test based on the indoor four-wheel drum test bench was used. • An acceleration factor of approximately 12.6 was achieved. • The average relative error of damage was only 14.56%. • The calculation errors between this method and the Monte Carlo method were less than 5%.