ABSTRACT To address the difficulty of separating the contact effect of fittings from the actual stress on the glass body using traditional models, a fatigue life prediction method for the glass insulator body is proposed. A finite element model of the insulator is established using metal‐free equivalent modeling. The effects of contact nonlinearity are eliminated while maintaining the consistency of the load transfer path. Transient analysis of the dynamic response of insulators is performed based on random axial load and gravel impact load conditions. The fatigue damage evolution and life of insulators are evaluated by combining rainflow count, nominal stress S‐N curve, and Miner linear cumulative damage criterion. The results show that fatigue damage mainly occurs in stress concentration areas, and the minimum fatigue life is approximately 2.6 × 10 4 cycles. The research results provide a quantitative basis for fatigue risk assessment and structural reliability analysis of glass insulators.
Lu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.