A Versatile Control Equipment for Fatigue Testing: A Description of an Electronic Control Unit for Fluctuating Load Cycles

DURING the design and development of an aircraft it is becoming increasingly important to test components under repeated loading to establish the ‘life’ of these components in service. This is often done by subjecting the component to a programmed sequence of loads which correspond to a given number of flying hours. In many cases this loading programme will contain a relatively small percentage of high loads, particularly in the case of a fighter aircraft which is only required to have a life of one or two thousand hours.