1 (2)

Palmgren Ð MinersÕ Rule

Assume that, during the service

life, we have 500 loadings of type 1
(defined by mid-value and
1 2 3 magnitude), 1000 loadings of type 2
and 10000 loadings of type 3
σa The Palmgren – Miner rule states
that failure occurs when
σ I
ni
σ2
1
∑ N =1
i =1 i
σ3 where ni is the number of applied
load cycles of type i, and Ni is the
1 2 3
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 N
4 5 6 7
pertinent fatigue life
I n 500 103 10 4
∑ i = 3+ 5+ = 0.51 < 1
i=1 Ni 10 10 ∞

Solid Mechanics Damage Accumulation Anders Ekberg

 2 (2)

Damage

Define the damage induced in the i:th load cycle as

1
Di =
Ni
Then, Palmgren – Miner’s rule states that fatigue failure
occurs when
I
∑ Di =1
i =1
Note that, in this case, the accumulation is made for all
load cycles and not all types of load cycles
The previous example can then be expressed as
I
∑ Di =500 ⋅ 10 −3 + 103 ⋅ 10 −5 + 10 4 ⋅ 10 −∞ = 0.51 < 1
i =1
Whether to accumulate damage or fatigue life is just a
matter of convenience
Solid Mechanics Damage Accumulation Anders Ekberg