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Thinking about this some more. (Am trying to think of ways to improve fatigue performance of the NDS spokes on one of my rear wheels. )
Say you compare two of the same rear wheel with the exception that one has CX rays on both DS and NDS, and the other has thicker Race spokes on the DS. You build them and you end up with the same tensions in both. Am I correct in saying the wheel with the thicker DS spokes is stiffer, and therefore for a given cyclic loading, and cyclic stresses on the NDS spokes be less and therefore have better fatigue performance?
Is that correct?
Hovis-
Am I correct in saying the wheel with the thicker DS spokes is stiffer
Yes
for a given cyclic loading, and cyclic stresses on the NDS spokes be less and therefore have better fatigue performance?
It's not as simple as that, otherwise plain gauge spokes would be better than butted. The way the stiffness of the spokes interacts with the stiffness of the rim to distribute loads around the wheel is complex. Broadly speaking, making each individual spoke stiffer results in less uniformity of load between spokes, while making the rim stiffer results in more uniformity of load between spokes.
gbj_tester
Yes
No, unless you also have the DS tighter, and the rim is probably already the limiting factor rather than the spokes.