Demonstrative irregular fatigue cycle counting by rainflow method implementation using a Python program.

The main aim of this article is to present a fatigue cycle counting program for a given application. The application is an example from a given case presented in the literature, with the analytical solution discussed herein. Cycle counting for irregular fatigue spectra is important to evaluate for various given load cases, in different industries. Such evaluations are difficult to make without dedicated computer programs. Several specific methods are available in the technical literature to evaluate irregular fatigue spectrums. For this study, one of the most well-known and used methods was chosen, the rainflow-counting algorithm. This method extracts the number of cycles from an irregular fatigue recording which, in turn, is used in the Palmgren-Miner rule to evaluate the fatigue damage for the examined application, considering that the Wohler curve is given. The developed program is written in the Python programming language. The theoretical background is presented for the application and the use of it with the program algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]