Fatigue life evaluation method for multi-joint robot-like boom structure of concrete pump truck

Concrete pump trucks are widely used in engineering construction. The fatigue life of the multi-joint robot-like boom structure, being the most crucial part of a concrete pump truck, significantly impacts the safe operation and maintenance of the truck. A novel approach to generate fatigue load spectra and evaluate the fatigue life for the multi-joint robot-like boom structure of a concrete pump truck is proposed. Initially, the typical operating posture of a concrete pump truck is defined through big data analysis of the boom inclination and included angle. Subsequently, load information is collected and pre-processed corresponding to the determined typical operating posture. Finally, a parametric method is employed to estimate and extrapolate the amplitude distribution of the load spectra and then strengthened to reduce the test period. The reliability and practicability of the proposed method were validated through 120 pump trucks. The relative deviation of fatigue cycles between test and actual external feedback is 1.37%, which illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.