A time-domain stepwise fatigue assessment to bridge small-scale fracture mechanics with large-scale system dynamics for high-speed maglev lightweight bogies

•A new time-domain stepwise fatigue assessment is proposed to successfully tackle structural integrity problem of maglev bogies.•Small-scale fracture mechanics based damage tolerance are well bridged with large-scale vehicle system dynamics.•Fatigue life of defective components correlate with routes and suspension parameters.•When initial crack length is 3 mm, remaining life of swing bar of high-speed maglev lightweight bogies is reduced significantly.