Failure as a result of metal fatigue is a major cause of structural collapse. Fatigue arises – often unexpectedly – when a structure is subject to repetitive, cyclic loads and at material stress levels considerably lower than the allowable stress for a static load.
Our expertise in fatigue & durability analysis
For over more than years Quadco Engineering are leading experts in the calculation and analysis of structural fatigue problems for a wide variety of applications and different industries.
With the fatigue analysis services we offer, we can identify critical locations and calculate realistic fatigue lives from leading Finite Element Analysis (FEA) results for both metals and composites. We go beyond performing simplified stress analysis and avoid over-designing products by simulating actual loading conditions to avoid costly design changes. We offer advanced capabilities for virtual shaker testing, welds, vibration, crack growth, composites, and thermo-mechanical fatigue analysis.
Fatigue calculations with Finite Element Analysis
When the geometry and especially the loading are straightforward, simple hand calculations often suffice to determine the fatigue life of a component. The expected life of that component at a given stress level is then estimated from an S-N curve.
However, when the geometry and the loading history are complex, the use of Finite Element Analysis to calculate stresses and strains becomes unavoidable. With FEA the hotspot stresses can be accurately evaluated for every load case and thus the fatigue life of a component precisely determined.
Fatigue analysis of welded structures
The welding of structures is applied in many industries, because it is an economical way to combine different metal parts into one. Due to the nature of the welding process, the fatigue strength of the weld is in general appreciably lower than the parent material. Even with a carefully designed welded structure, fatigue failure will most likely occur at the welds. With every durability evaluation of a welded structure, a fatigue assessment of the welds should get a high priority.
Quadco Engineering use advanced software to accurately and efficiently calculate the fatigue damage in structures subject to complex fatigue load cases.
Quadco Engineering experts in metal fatigue analysis
The engineering team at Quadco Engineering are experts in using Finite Element Analysis and have long-standing experience in analysing complex fatigue problems. Quadco Engineering continue to invest in the latest simulation and analysis software and develops in-house software as well, to accelerate the processing of large data sets and to produce comprehensible and well-ordered reports. This allows our customers to quickly implement the analysis results into the optimisation of their design process.
How do we work?
Most of the fatigue analyses and calculations we do, are based on results from a preceding Finite Element Method analysis. This is always the case for complex geometry and complex loading, as it allows to investigate not only a few critical locations, but complete components and assemblies. Moreover, multi-axial loading can result in changing hotspot locations, which can be easily tracked with the advanced postprocessing software we use.
As FEA specialists, we can execute the FEM analyses ourselves, but if required, we can also read in the FEM results provided by our clients or third parties. We can directly read and import a wide range of supported FEA file types.
Material database fatigue properties
Obtaining fatigue properties of materials by testing is expensive and only very little fatigue data is available in literature. To avoid high material test costs for our clients, we have access to a high-quality database with fatigue properties for over 130 materials. This database contains data from material tests performed by the ISO-9001 certified Advanced Materials Characterisation and Test Facility operated by HBM nCode.
Let us know what we can do for you
We are ready to analyse all your fatigue related problems and to guide and advise you to design innovative and more durable products. Contact us today via phone or via contact for our offer or to set up a meeting to discuss your design challenges.
If you want to learn more about fatigue analysis or about the Finite Element Method, take a look at our Introduction to FEA course or our Fatigue Analysis with FEA course.