Investigation on the fatigue resistance of thick transverse attachments and design of VA fatigue tests

The fatigue strength of structural steel components subjected to cyclic loading is often characterized in terms of S-N curves derived under constant amplitude (CA) loading. However, these are often subjected to load histories of variable amplitude and mean stress, i.e. variable amplitude (VA) loading. To take into account this loading condition for the design or the verification of structural components, damage accumulation models and modification of S-N curves have been proposed in the literature. However, these models require experimental characterization to verify or eventually calibrate some model parameters, e.g. the critical value of the Palmgren-Miner damage, among others.