A modified rainflow counting method

The rainflow counting method is commonly recognized to be a good cyclic counting method in fatigue life prediction and for testing engineering components and structures. However, it has some shortcomings, which are pointed out in this paper in connection with the analysis of the stress-strain response. A modified rainflow counting method is presented. Case studies show that all the cycles really existing in the stress-strain response that cannot be counted by the rainflow counting method can be counted by the modified rainflow counting method. So it can be said that the modified rainflow counting method is a more reasonable cycling counting method than the traditional rainflow counting method.