Assessment of Staircase Wear: An Integrated Finite Element and Fatigue Analysis Approach

This study addresses the critical challenges in assessing staircase wear by developing an integrated analytical framework that combines finite element modeling with material fatigue analysis. Traditional visual inspection methods often fail to provide quantitative measurements of wear progression, particularly in high-traffic environments where structural integrity is compromised over time. To overcome these limitations, our models propose a data-driven methodology that simulates long-term wear patterns in common stair materials (marble and granite) under cyclic loading conditions. The framework incorporates tribological principles to quantify wear rates while accounting for pedestrian dynamics and material properties. Experimental results demonstrate significant differences in material performance, with granite stairs showing superior durability (8+ years before cracking) compared to wood stairs (2 years). Our S-N curve analysis enables precise age estimation, revealing that 150-year-old granite stairs exhibit 0.02%-0.16% damage versus 3.20%-9.03% for wood. The model achieves high accuracy (R 2 >0.95) in repair detection through residual analysis, providing a reliable tool for maintenance planning. These findings offer practical solutions for infrastructure preservation, particularly in historical buildings, while establishing a foundation for future research incorporating environmental factors and machine learning techniques.