The structures that are subjected to repeated or otherwise varying loads usually fail due to fatigue. Fatigue is often cited as the most common form of failure. It occurs at relatively low stresses, below the critical static value, however, after many stress reversals there is observed continuous reduction of fatigue strength. Finite element analysis software is used for identification of stress hotspots in the structure, but are not able to predict if those hotspots are critical areas for fatigue failure or when fatigue might become a problem. Simulea durability engineers, assisted by FE analysis and assessment, are able to accurately predict how long a product will last under any combination of time-dependent or frequency-dependent loading conditions using appropriate method for calculation e.g. stress and strain life methods. A fracture analysis can be conducted for the designs where cracks and defects may be present, especially in cast and welded structures. Our engineers, based stress analysis results, can predict crack growth path, critical crack size and remaining life.

Simulea fatigue and fracture analysis expertise includes:

• High and low cycle fatigue analysis
• Thermo-mechanical fatigue
• Vibration fatigue
• Crack propagation analysis
• Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM)
• Threshold stress intensity calculation