Fatigue - Random Fatigue (Spectrum Loading) (PFA_FATIGUE_RANDOM)

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Product Highlights:

·         Determines the fatigue life of composite or metal structures subject to a sequence of external cyclic excitations with variable amplitude and period.

·         Capable of detecting a crack at the micro level, i.e., initiation site, and following its development under the applied cyclic loading.

·         Rainflow analysis is used to reduce the complex loading to a series of simple cyclic loadings.

·         For each stress level, the degree of cumulative damage incurred is calculated from the S-N curve, and the individual contributions are combined using Miner's rule.

·         An efficient multi-factor interaction model (MFIM) can be used to account for a broad range of factors that affect the fatigue life of a structure such as temperature and surface finish.

·         Can be used with GENOA-PA to account for the probabilistic nature of fatigue.

·         The S-N curves for constituent materials, which are derived from tests or found in the open literature, are required for the analysis.

Applications/Benefits:

·         Accurately evaluates the service life of composite or metal structures subject to complicated random cyclic loads.

·         Predicts the fatigue failure initiation site and its development in aerospace, automotive and other composite structures.

·         Accounts for the probabilistic nature of fatigue.