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Fatigue Technology

Fatigue Calculator: This website contains a useful set of  web based fatigue analysis software tools for computing fatigue lives of metallic machine components and structures.  It is intended to be a single source containing all of the information needed for an accurate fatigue life or durability assessment.  Fatigue is the decreased capacity to function because of prolonged exertion.  Simply stated, sooner or later all materials will fail when they are cyclically loaded.  The physics of fatigue is complex and dependant on many factors.  As a result, several methods have been developed and are used to assess the fatigue resistance of components and structures.  No single method is best for all situations so several methods have been included here: stress life, strain life, fracture mechanics crack growth and welds.  Guidance is provided as to when, why and how the various techniques should be used.  If you are not already, we suggest that you become familiar with constant amplitude fatigue analysis before using the other types of analysis.

What's Going On?

Check out the new High Temperature Fatigue section.  Let us know what you think of this new calculator, info@fatiguecalculator.com.

The method of analysis are described in our recent publication, TMF Made Easy.

Current Events 

SAE Fatigue Design committee meeting April 16-17, 2007  www.fatigue.org

Fatigue Seminars

Fatigue Made Easy 

Fatigue failures have been documented and researched for over 150 years. Despite all of the understanding that has come from this research, unexpected failures still occur. Why? Fatigue is a complex subject, and it is easy for a non-expert to become overwhelmed by all of the detailed fatigue theories and features of analysis software. This training session, taught by Dr. Darrell Socie, makes fatigue easy and provides a few simple ideas and concepts that can be used every day by design and test engineers.

Official Announcement

Seminar Notes (pdf)

Multiaxial Fatigue

More than 80% of all failures in the ground vehicle industry are fatigue-related, and most of the related components are subjected to multiple loads, potentially leading to a multiaxial state. Accurately calculating the fatigue damage of these components is a critical aspect of designing to product life cycle. The analyses, however, are only as good as the underlying algorithms. This seminar, taught by Dr. Darrell Socie of the University of Illinois, will provide an overview of multiaxial fatigue theory and offer useful tools & techniques that can be used every day by design and test engineers.

Official Announcement

Seminar Notes (pdf)

Probabilistic Aspects of Fatigue

Fatigue damage accumulation is a stochastic process that results in considerable variability in the durability of all structures and components. Sources of this variability include customer usage, material properties, component geometry and manufacturing processes. Modeling errors introduce additional uncertainties in any fatigue assessment. This seminar with Dr. Socie will provide tools and techniques for determining the risk of failure and identifying the major risk contribution factors.

Official Announcement

Seminar Notes (pdf)

 

 

 

Acknowledgements:

This site was written by Benjamin Socie with assistance from Heather Felker, Bethany and Michael Socie.  

Stacie Glass and Fred Leckie provided valuable assistance with the Stress Concentration Finder.  Bastien Weber provided the source code for the Dang Van method.

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Disclaimer:

We have done our best to ensure the accuracy of all of our calculations, but my father's lawyer recommends we advise you to double check our calculations before endangering life and limb.  We cannot be held responsible for any consequences you may encounter.