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1
Introduction ■ Purpose of Guide, 2
❑ Assumptions, 2
❑ Organization of Guide, 2
■ Definitions, 3
❑ The Fatigue “Five-Box Trick”, 4
❑ Life Prediction Methods, 5
❑ FE Analysis Methods, 5
❑ Design Philosophies, 6
❑ Life Estimation Process, 7
■ Directory Structure, 21
■ MSC.Fatigue Modules, 22
■ MSC.Fatigue Output Files, 26
2
A Simple S-N ■ Problem Description, 30
Analysis ❑ Objective, 30
■ Geometry, 31
❑ Import the Model, 31
❑ View the Stress Results, 32
Main Index
■ Run the Fatigue Analysis, 42
■ Review the Results, 43
❑ View the Life Contour Plot, 43
❑ Tabular Listing, 44
❑ What If?, 44
■ Concluding Remarks, 46
■ Multiple Mean Stress Curve Support, 47
❑ Set Up the Fatigue Analysis, 47
❑ Run the Fatigue Analysis, 49
3
Rainflow Cycle ■ Problem Description, 54
Counting ❑ Objective, 54
■ Concluding Remarks, 67
4
Component S-N ■ Problem Description, 70
Analysis ❑ Objective, 70
■ Geometry, 71
❑ Import the Model and Results, 71
❑ View the Stress Results, 72
Main Index
■ Run the Fatigue Analysis, 83
■ Review the Results, 84
❑ View the Life Contour Plot, 84
❑ Tabular Listing, 85
❑ Design Optimization, 85
■ Concluding Remarks, 88
❑ Batch Operations, 88
5
A Simple e-N ■ Problem Description, 90
Analysis ❑ Objective, 90
■ Geometry, 91
❑ Import the Model, 91
❑ View the Stress Results, 91
6
Residual Stress ■ Problem Description, 112
❑ Objective, 112
■ Geometry, 113
❑ Import the Model, 113
❑ View the Stress Results, 113
Main Index
❑ Run the Fatigue Analysis, 117
❑ Review the Results, 117
■ Set Up Second Fatigue Analysis, 118
❑ Include the Residual Stress, 118
❑ Run the Fatigue Analysis, 119
❑ Review the Results, 119
7
Introduction to ■ Problem Description, 128
Crack Growth ❑ Objective, 128
■ Geometry, 129
❑ Import the Model, 129
❑ Define a Compliance Function, 129
8
Design ■ Problem Description, 150
Philosophies ❑ Objectives, 150
Main Index
❑ Loading Information, 154
❑ Job Control, 154
❑ Results - Factor of Safety Analysis, 154
■ e-N Analysis of Lug, 157
❑ Solution Parameters, 157
❑ Material Information, 157
❑ Loading Information, 157
❑ Job Control, 157
❑ Results, 158
9
Multiple Loads ■ Problem Description, 166
❑ Objectives, 166
10
A Multiaxial ■ Problem Description, 182
Assessment ❑ Objectives, 182
■ Geometry, 184
❑ Import FE Model and Results, 184
❑ Post/Create Groups, 185
Main Index
❑ View the Stress Results, 186
■ Determine the Critical Location, 188
❑ Solution Parameters, 189
❑ Material Information, 190
❑ Loading Information, 190
❑ Job Control, 194
11
Welding ■ Introduction, 210
■ Problem Description for Spot Weld Analysis with Spot Welds
Modeled as Stiff BARS, 211
❑ Objective, 211
Main Index
■ Geometry and FE Results, 238
❑ Creating a Weld Group, 238
❑ Viewing the Stress Results, 239
12
Wheels Module - ■ Problem Description, 250
Analysis of
■ Geometry and FE Results, 251
Rotating
❑ Viewing the Stress Results, 252
Structures
■ Setting Up the Wheels Analysis, 254
❑ Solution Parameters, 254
❑ Material Information, 254
❑ Loading Info, 256
13
A Software Strain ■ Problem Description, 268
Gauge ❑ Objective, 268
Main Index
❑ Rosette Analysis, 285
❑ Single Location Uniaxial Life Analyzer, 288
❑ Single Location Multiaxial Life Analyzer, 289
■ Concluding Remarks, 292
14
Dynamic Fatigue ■ Introduction, 294
❑ Objective, 294
15
Temperature ■ Temperature Corrected MSC.Fatigue Analysis, 348
Corrected Fatigue ❑ Objective, 348
Analysis ❑ Import the Model, 349
❑ Set Up the Fatigue Analysis, 350
❑ Run the Fatigue Analysis, 354
Main Index
16
Aerospace ■ Aerospace Spectrum File Support, 358
Spectrum File ❑ Objective, 358
Support
■ File Definitions, 359
❑ Spectrum file, 359
❑ Example Spectrum File, 359
❑ Load Control file, 360
❑ Example Load Control File, 360
■ Conclusion, 364
17
Multiple Fatigue ■ Introduction, 366
Analysis
■ Example Problem, 367
(Duty Cycle
❑ Solution Parameters, 367
Analyzer)
❑ Material Information, 367
❑ Loading Information, 368
❑ Sequence Information, 369
❑ Event Information, 370
❑ Entering Load Data, 371
❑ Managing the Duty Cycle Form, 374
❑ Job Control, 375
❑ Review Results, 375
■ Conclusion, 377
18
Fatigue Utilities ■ Problem Description, 380
■ Fatigue Preprocessing, 381
❑ Low Damage Removal, 381
Main Index
❑ Arithmetic Manipulation - MART, 384
❑ Multi-Channel Editor - MCOE, 385
❑ Rainflow Cycle Counter - MCYC, 387
❑ Formula Processor - MFRM, 391
❑ File Cut and Paste - MLEN, 393
❑ Multi-File Manipulation - MMFM, 394
❑ Peak-Valley Extraction - MPVXMUL, 395
❑ Simultaneous Values Analysis DAC/RPC - MSIMMAX, 395
❑ Amplitude Distribution - MADA, 397
❑ Auto Spectral Density - MASD, 398
❑ Fast Fourier Filtering - MFFF, 398
❑ Butterworth Filtration - MBFL, 400
❑ Frequency Response Analysis - MFRA, 400
❑ Statistical Analysis - MRSTATS, 401
❑ Header/Footer Manipulation - MFILMNP, 402
■ Advanced Fatigue Utilities, 403
❑ Single Location S-N Analysis - MSLF, 403
❑ Single Location e-N Analysis - MCLF, 404
❑ Cycle and Damage Analysis - MCDA, 405
❑ Cycles File Lister - MCYL, 406
❑ Time Correlated Damage - MTCD, 407
❑ Single Location Vibration Fatigue - MFLF, 408
❑ Stress-Strain Analysis - mSSA, 409
❑ Multi-Axial Life Analysis - MMLF, 409
❑ Crack Growth Data Analysis - MFCG, 410
❑ Kt/Kf Evaluation - MKTAN, 411
Main Index
■ Other Utilities, 423
❑ Environment Settings - MENM, 423
19
Miscellaneous ■ Problem Description, 426
Features ■ Element Centroidal Calculations, 427
■ Group Averaging, 428
■ Extracting Time Histories, 429
■ Identify Critical Location, 430
■ Defining Histogram Matrices, 431
■ Constant Amplitude Zero Mean Time Histories, 434
A
Glossary of Terms ■ Glossary Terms, 436
B
Material Listing ■ Material Types, 456
■ Material Listing, 459
■ Alternative Names, 467
C
Support ■ Where to Get Help, 474
❑ Accessing Help from a Form, 474
Main Index
Main Index
MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Introduction
1
■ Purpose of Guide
■ Definitions
■ When to Use Which Method?
■ Different Methods of FE Import
■ MSC.Fatigue Modules
■ Directory Structure
Main Index
2
Assumptions
This guide makes certain assumptions of the reader. The basic assumptions made are,
a good knowledge of basic computer skills and terminology, and a working
knowledge of finite element analysis. This manual does not deal with creation of finite
element models or any aspects of actual finite element analyses except where
necessary to achieve proper fatigue life estimations.
This manual assumes that the user has little or no experience with fatigue analysis in
general and therefore makes every effort to explain principles of fatigue life estimation
from example to example. It is not meant to be an exhaustive course on fatigue
analysis however. For this we refer you to the MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide and the
many references sited therein.
Organization of Guide
All chapters but this one, serve as tutorials to learn the basics of MSC.Fatigue.
First read this chapter in its entirety and then after a successful installation, it is highly
suggested that you start at the first example and work your way sequentially. Each
exercise introduces concepts that build on each other from exercise to exercise.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 3
Introduction
1.2 Definitions
The first concept to understand before embarking on this tutorial is the definition of
the term fatigue within the confines of this guide. Very often the terms fatigue,
fracture, and durability are used interchangeably. Each does, however, convey a
specific meaning.
What is Fatigue?
Although many definitions can be applied to the word, for the purposes of this
manual, fatigue is failure under a repeated or otherwise varying load which never
reaches a level sufficient to cause failure in a single application.
It can also be thought of as the initiation and growth of a crack, or growth from a pre-
existing defect, until it reaches a critical size, such as separation into two or more parts.
Fatigue analysis itself usually refers to one of two methodologies: either the stress-
life or S-N method, commonly referred to as total life since it makes no distinction
between initiating or growing a crack, or the local strain or strain-life (ε-N) method,
commonly referred to as the crack initiation method which concerns itself only with
the initiation of a crack.
Fracture specifically concerns itself with the growth or propagation of a crack once it
has initiated.
Durability is then the conglomeration of all aspects that affect the life of a product and
usually involves much more than just fatigue and fracture, but also loading
conditions, environmental concerns, material characterizations, and testing
simulations to name a few. A true product durability program in an organization
takes all of these aspects (and more) into consideration.
Note: Fatigue cracks initiate and grow as a result of cyclic plastic deformation.
Without plasticity there can be no fatigue failure. All attempts are made in
this guide to explain how plasticity is taken into account when determining
fatigue life from linear elastic finite element analysis.
Main Index
4
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 5
Introduction
Do not worry too much about this, because the fifth box is the postprocessing or
results evaluation. This can take on the form of color contours on a finite element
model or a tabular listing but also quite often leads back into the three inputs to see
what effect variations of these inputs will have on the life prediction. This is referred
to as a sensitivity or a “what if” study. This is extremely useful at times when you are
not quite sure about the accuracy of one of the inputs. The software denotes this as
“optimization” in places.
FE Analysis Methods
In addition to the three life prediction methods, MSC.Fatigue also supports use of
these methods using stress/strain response results from different finite element
analysis techniques. The table below summarizes which FE analysis types are
applicable to which life prediction methods in this release of the software.
Main Index
6
Design Philosophies
There are three main fatigue design philosophies. Each centers around one of the
fatigue life estimation methodologies. To illustrate the three consider the design of a
stool.
Safe Life
The safe life philosophy is a philosophy adopted by many, but
especially the ground vehicle industry. Products are designed
to survive a specific design life. Full scale tests are usually
carried out with margins of safety applied. In general, this
philosophy results in fairly optimized structures such as a
stool with three legs. Any less than three legs and it would fall
over. This philosophy adopts the crack initiation method and
is used on parts and components that are relatively easy and
inexpensive to replace and not life threatening if failure were
to occur. Most of the life is taken up in the initiation of a crack.
The propagation of that crack is very rapid and short in comparison.
Fail Safe
On the other end of the spectrum of design philosophies is that
of fail safe. This is where a failure must be avoided at all costs.
And if the structure were to fail it must fall into a state such
that it would survive until repairs could be made. This is
illustrated with our stool now having six legs. If one leg were
to fail, the stool would remain standing until repairs could be
made. This philosophy is heavily used in safety critical items
such as in the aerospace or offshore industries.
Damage Tolerant
The middle ground philosophy is that of damage tolerance.
This philosophy, adopted heavily in the aerospace
community and nuclear power generation, relies on the
assumption that a flaw already exists and that a periodic
inspection schedule will be set up to ensure that the crack
does not propagate to a critical state between inspection
periods. As implied, this philosophy adopts the crack
growth method. This is illustrated using our stool (now with
four legs) but with someone inspecting it.
This particular design philosophy is generally used in
conjunction with the fail safe philosophy, first to design for no failure. and then to
assume that, for whatever reason, a flaw exists and must be monitored.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 7
Introduction
Note: All example problems were created on the Windows platform as well as all
graphical dumps of screen shots. The graphics may appear slightly
differently on UNIX platforms; however, all operations are identical unless
specified otherwise. In some situations, you may need to double click the
mouse on the Windows platform whereas on UNIX, a single click performs
the operation.
Main Index
8
Crack Growth
• Pre-cracked structures or structures which must be presumed to be already
cracked when manufactured such as welds
• Pre-prediction of test programs to avoid testing components where cracks
will not grow
• Planning inspection programs to ensure checks are carried out with the
correct frequency
• To simply determine the amount of life left after crack initiation
• Components which are made from metallic, isotropic ductile materials
which have symmetric cyclic stress-strain behavior
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 9
Introduction
Note: Although the method of import is discussed in this section for various analysis codes
and file types, once the results are imported into the database they are all treated the
same by MSC.Fatigue. This means that any linear static or transient stress or strain
tensor results that exist or can be imported into the database are supported by
MSC.Fatigue. Thus, the supported analysis codes are not necessarily limited to those
discussed here and can include customer customization of proprietary or in-house
codes within the MSC.Patran environment.
To prepare to run each of these exercises in this section, create a fully reversed unit load using
PTIME, the same as was done in the very first exercise in the manual. Call it unitload.
Output2 Files
The first type is the Output2 file. This file is very convenient to use because it generally
contains both the finite element results and the model FE connectivity information. To import
an Output2 file:
1. In Pre&Post, select the Import application switch on the main form. (This is the
Analysis switch in MSC.Patran.)
2. Set the Action to Access Results, the Object to Read Output2, and the Method to
Both.
Main Index
10
3. Select the Output2 file, keyhole.op2, using the file browser from the Select Results
File... button and then press Apply.
XDB Files
The second type of MSC.Nastran file supported is the XDB file which is a MSC.Nastran result
database. The results contained in this file are not actually imported into the database but are
retained in the XDB file. A direct access attachment is made between the database and the XDB
file. To access XDB results:
1. In Pre&Post, select the Import application switch on the main form. (This is the
Analysis switch in MSC.Patran.)
2. Set the Action to Access Results, the Object to Attach XDB, and the Method to
Result Entities. Select the XDB file, keyhole.xdb, using the file browser from the
Select Results File... button and then press Apply.
Now we have read results and the model data from an Output2 file and have attached an XDB
file. The exact same results are available from the Results application from the two different
data sources in our example.
You should note that we read the model data from the Output2 file. This was unnecessary to
do since this could have been done from the XDB file also. When you reopen the database and
access any result cases associated with an XDB file, it will be reattached as long as you have
not moved or deleted it.
Input Files
Another mechanism for importing model data only from MSC.Nastran is to read the input file.
This is done either from File | Import with the Object set to Model and the Source set to
MSC.Nastran Input; or this is done from the Import application (Analysis application in
MSC.Patran) with the Action set to Read Input File. You can try this with the keyhole.bdf file
in a new database if you wish.
Note: When you read an MSC.Nastran input file and then import the results from an
Output2 or XDB file, but be sure to set the Method to Results Entities only.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 11
Introduction
Summary
With the database now containing the model and two sets of FE results, run a fatigue analysis
using either the file, nastran_op2.fin or nastran_xdb.fin. Go to the main MSC.Fatigue setup
form and in the Jobname databox type nastran_op2 or nastran_xdb depending on which one
you wish to run and press the carriage return to read in the job parameters. Investigate the job
setup if you wish; then open the Job Control... form and submit the analysis. Successful
completion of this exercise requires that the keyhole.op2 file be read in first and then the
keyhole.xdb file attached to the database. If for some reason the jobs do not run properly,
check carefully the Loading Info... form to make sure the correct Result Cases are selected.
Close the database when you are finished.
In summary, MSC.Nastran FE results and model information can be used in MSC.Fatigue in
the following ways:
1. Read both the model and results information directly into the database from an
Output2 file.
2. Attach an XDB file to the database to access the results and specify to import the
model information from the XDB file into the database.
3. Read the model information from an MSC.Nastran input deck into the database and
use the Output2 or XDB methods to access the results information only.
Main Index
12
4. Go to the main MSC.Fatigue setup form and in the Jobname databox type abaqus
and press the carriage return to read in the fatigue job parameters from the
abaqus.fin file. Investigate the job setup if you wish; then open the Job Control...
form and submit the analysis. Close the database when you are finished.
ANSYS FE Results
You will need the following files to perform this mini-exercise: keyhole.rst, ansys.fin.
To use ANSYS results you must set the
Analysis Preference to ANSYS.This is
done either when you open a new database
and are asked for the New Model
Preferences | Analysis Code or you can
change it anytime from the Preference |
Analysis pulldown selection.
Open a new database called keyhole, and
set the Analysis Preference to ANSYS 5
and overwrite any old database if
necessary.
To read in the results and model data from ANSYS:
1. In Pre&Post, select the Import application switch on the main form. (This is the
Analysis switch in MSC.Patran.)
2. Set the Action to Read Results and the Object to Both.
3. Select the results file, keyhole.rst, using the file browser from the Select Results
File... button and then press Apply.
4. Go to the main MSC.Fatigue setup form and in the Jobname databox type ansys and
press the carriage return to read in the fatigue job parameters from the ansys.fin file.
Investigate the job setup if you wish; then open the Job Control... form and submit
the analysis. Close the database when you are finished.
MSC.Marc FE Results
You will need the following files to perform this mini-exercise: keyhole.t16, marc.fin.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 13
Introduction
Main Index
14
The format of each of these packets is (see the file keyhole.out as an example):
Packet Type 25: Title Card
Header Card Format (I2,8I8)
25 ID IV KC
ID =0 Not applicable IV =0 Not applicable KC=1
User Title Card Format (20A4)
TITLE = Identifying title may contain up to 80 Characters
Packet Type 26: Summary Data
Header Card Format (I2,8I8)
26 ID IV KC N1 N2 N3 N4 N5
ID =0 n/a N1=Number of Nodes
IV =0 n/a N2=Number of Elements
KC=1
Summary Data Card Format (3A4, 2A4, 3A4)
DATE TIME VERSION
DATE = Date neutral file was created
TIME = Time neutral file was created
VERSION = PATRAN release number - not necessary
Packet Type 01: Node Data
Header Card Format (I2,8I8)
1 ID IV KC
ID =Node ID IV =0 n/a KC=2
Data Card 1 Format (3E16.9)
X Y Z
X =X Cartesian Coordinate of Node
Y =Y Cartesian Coordinate of Node
Z =Z Cartesian Coordinate of Node
Data Card 2 Format (I1, 1A1, I8, I8, I8, 2X, 6I1)
ICF GTYPE NDF CONFIG CID PSPC
None of these parameters are necessary but the card must exist.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 15
Introduction
Main Index
16
where
Parameter Description
TITLE 80A1 title stored in an 80 word real or integer array
SUBTITLE1 Same format as TITLE
SUBTITLE2 Same format as TITLE
NNODES Number of nodes (integer)
MAXNOD Highest node ID number (integer)
DEFMAX Maximum absolute displacement (real)
NDMAX ID of node where maximum displacement occurs (integer)
NWIDTH Number of columns after NODID for nodal information (integer)
NODID Node ID number (integer)
DATA Result quantities organized by column index (real)
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 17
Introduction
where
Parameter Description
TITLE 80A1 Title Stored In An 80 Word Real Or Integer Array
SUBTITLE1 Same format as TITLE
SUBTITLE2 Same format as TITLE
NWIDTH Number Of Columns Of Data Stored In The File (Integer)
ID Element Identification Number (Integer)
NSHAPE Essential Shape Code (Bar = 2, Tri = 3, Quad = 4, Tet = 5, Pyr = 6,
Wedg = 7, Hex = 8; Int.)
DATA Result Quantities Organized By Column Index (Real)
Main Index
18
5. Go to the main MSC.Fatigue setup form and in the Jobname databox type
patran_nod or patran_els and press the carriage return to read in the fatigue job
parameters from the patran_nod.fin or patran_els.fin file. Investigate the job setup
if you wish; then open the Job Control... form and submit the analysis. Success of
this exercise requires that the .nod file be read first and the .els file second. If the jobs
fail, check that the proper Results Cases are called out in the Loading Info... form.
Note that the patran_els setup uses Element as the Results Location.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 19
Introduction
2. Select the Result Case and the Result to output and specify the 6
components of the tensor to be output from the Selected Quantities.
3. Under Target Entities, make sure that the Addlt. Display Control is set to
Nodes.
4. Under Display Attributes enter a file name and set the Report Type to Data
Only.
5. Open the Format... form. Set the File Width to 80 and blank out all other
databoxes. Set the Alignment of the Title to Left. Enter four lines for the Title as
such:
TITLE
$NNODES$MAXNOD$DEFMAX$NDMAX$NWIDTH
SUBTITLE1
SUBTITLE2
Set the Value Format of the Entity ID to %I8% and all of the Components to
%E13.7% except for the YZ Component which should be %E13.7%%1N%.
6. Press Apply to create the result file which can then be accessed externally by
MSC.Fatigue.
To create an element centroidal results file you follow the same procedure except the Addlt.
Display Control must be set to Element Centroids; you must select NSHAPE and the 6
components in that order from the Select Results mode of the form; the format of the second
line of the Title must be only $NWIDTH and the NSHAPE column Value Format must be
%I8%%1N% (all others should be components should be %E13.7%).
For more information on creating report files, see the MSC.Patran User’s Guide or access the
on-line help from Pre&Post.
Main Index
20
4. Go to the main MSC.Fatigue setup form and in the Jobname databox type universal
and press the carriage return to read in the fatigue job parameters from the
universal.fin file. Investigate the job setup if you wish; then open the Job Control...
form and submit the analysis. Close the database when you are finished.
Note: Both model and results are read even though we only specified that the Model be
read. Also you can achieve the same by typing uf_reader.select_file(
"keyhole.unv", "OPEN" ) in the MSC.Patran command window.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 21
Introduction
fatiguexx or patranxx
executables
Motif resource files bin database
on-line help files schema files
MSC.Fatigue Pre&Post or help result file
MSC.Patran executables
templates
central material database
Main Index
22
FEFAT S-N and crack initiation analysis from FE static and transient
stress/strain data including multi-axial assessments and factor-
of-safety analysis.
FEMLF Multi-axial crack initiation analysis from FE static and transient
stress/strain data including factor-of-safety analysis.
FEVIB Random vibration induced fatigue analysis from FE frequency
response and random vibration stress results. This module uses
the S-N method.
SPOTW Spot weld fatigue analysis using the S-N method and FE results
from MSC.Nastran bar and beam elements which simulate the
spot welds.
PCRACK Crack growth analysis using FE stress results from static or
transient analysis.
SEAMW Seam weld analysis using the stress (cubic) results from a
MSC.Nastran run.
WHEELS Wheels analysis using FE stress results.
SSG Software strain gauge analysis using FE strains results.
Data Management:
PAT3FAT Translates FE analysis stress/strain or force results from
MSC.Patran or MSC.Fatigue Pre&Post databases into a
MSC.Fatigue analysis input file.
PCPOST Crack growth results viewer and tabular listings.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 23
Introduction
Main Index
24
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 25
Introduction
Main Index
26
File Description
name.db This is the database containing the FE model and its results
created by Pre&Post or MSC.Patran.
jobname.fin This is the job control file that is written by Pre&Post or
MSC.Patran when you press the Apply button in the Job
Control... form. The following Actions create this form: Full
Analysis, Partial Analysis, Translate Only, Save Job Only. If you
take a look at this file it contains Parameter=keyword entries. It
defines the analysis set up as specified when you fill out the
various forms. You can read this file in under the Job Control...
form also when the Action is set to Read Saved Job.
jobname.fes This is the fatigue analysis input file. It is a binary file and
contains all information necessary to run a complete fatigue
analysis using the FEFAT analyzer. It is created by the
PAT3FAT and FATTRANS translators which read the
jobname.fin file and the FE results information from the
database name.db. You can view the contents of this file with
the Utilities... option in FEFAT. The Action, Translate Only on
the Job Control... form will create this file and then stop.
jobname.fpp This binary file is created by FEFAT after preprocessing. It is
the result of the rainflow cycle count. The Action, Partial
Analysis on the Job Control... form will create all files up to this
point and then stop.
jobname.fef This is the results file of a fatigue analysis created by FEFAT
when a Full Analysis is requested. It is an ASCII file and can be
read back into Pre&Post or MSC.Patran to create life contour
plots. It is also read by the MSC.Fatigue module PFPOST to do
tabular listings of results. A jobname.fef_tmpl file is also
created which is a template used when read back into Pre&Post
or MSC.Patran defining the meaning of each column of results
data in the jobname.fef file.
Main Index
CHAPTER 1 27
Introduction
File Description
jobname.msg This is the message file containing all messages during an
analysis. If a job does not run properly for some reason, this is
the file to look in first to find clues as to the problem.
jobname.sta This is a one line status file read by the Monitor action from the
Job Control Form... which is updated constantly as the analysis
proceeds.
Main Index
28
Main Index
MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
A Simple S-N Analysis
2
■ Problem Description
■ Geometry
■ Set Up the Fatigue Analysis
■ Run the Fatigue Analysis
Main Index
30
Objective
To introduce the S-N fatigue life prediction method,
commonly referred to as the “total life” method.
All files necessary to perform this and subsequent examples are found in
<install_dir>/mscfatigue_files/examples (UNIX)
x:<install_dir>\mscfatigue_files\examples (Windows)
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/simpleSN.op2
Main Index
CHAPTER 2 31
A Simple S-N Analysis
2.2 Geometry
A linear static finite element analysis has been performed
already with a load magnitude of 10,000 Newtons. To
begin, read this model and results information into a new
database using MSC.Fatigue Pre&Post (referred to as
Pre&Post from here on) or use MSC.Patran. From the
system prompt or a DOS window in a clean directory
invoke Pre&Post or MSC.Patran.
fXX or fatXX or fatigue where XX is the version
number
p3 or patran
Note: Pre&Post or MSC.Patran can also be invoked from the Start menu on
Windows workstations. In all cases, be sure that Pre&Post or MSC.Patran is
running from the working directory.
After the graphical interface starts open a new database from File | New and call it
keyhole. The model was run through an MSC.Nastran analysis, so keep the Analysis
Preference set to MSC.Nastran when asked.
Main Index
32
Main Index
CHAPTER 2 33
A Simple S-N Analysis
Main Index
34
Solution Parameters
Now open the Solution Params... form. On this form, set only these parameters:
1. Mean Stress Correction: None
The time signal we are using is fully
reversed, R=-1. The S-N curve itself
was generated by testing numerous
polished test specimens at different
constant amplitude, fully reversed
(R=-1) loading conditions. (The
parameters (power law) that defines
the S-N curve was determined by
regression analysis of the raw data.)
Therefore no mean stress correction
is required since there is no mean
stress to speak of.
Note: Acceptance values for Mean
Stress Correction are Goodman,
Gerber, Multiple Mean, or None. In
Section 2.7, we shall demonstrate, the
Multiple Mean Curve Method.
2. Stress Combination: Max. Abs. Principal
This is the stress parameter that will be used in the fatigue analysis. The
stress tensor from the FE analysis results will be extracted at each node.
However only a single stress value can be looked up on the S-N curve. So the
six component values of the stress tensor will be resolved to the maximum
absolute principal value which will be used as the stress look up parameter.
Press the OK button to continue.
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Material Information
Now press the Material Info... button on the main MSC.Fatigue form.
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The next cell becomes active and a listbox appears. Select default_group.
This is a default group of entities defined in the database. It contains all the
nodes and elements of the model. This defines the area of the model (the
entire thing) to which this combination of material, finish, and treatment are
to be assigned.
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Note: The dashed line portion of the S-N curve indicates a region where the S-N
curve is invalid. The S-N fatigue analysis method is generally only good for
high cycle fatigue problems, meaning that the number of cycles to failure is
generally very high. Note that this invalid region is below about 104 cycles.
Another region of the curve is the “cut-off” region where the endurance
limit is defined (108). Anything above this limit will be reported back as
being beyond the “cut-off” (infinite life).
The material information is complete. Select File | Exit to close the plot and eXit to
quit PFMAT. Press the OK button to close the Material Info... form.
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Loading Information
Now in order to do a fatigue analysis using linear static FE results we must define how
the load varies with time. This is easily done in MSC.Fatigue using the Loading
Database Manager, PTIME.
Open the Loading Info... form. Then press
the Time History Manager button. This will
launch PTIME. The load will be defined as a
constant amplitude, fully reversed loading.
This will have the effect of oscillating the
10,000 Newton load from +10,000 to -10,000
newtons.
Note: Pre&Post or MSC.Patran will be
suspended during this operation
until PTIME is closed. This is
indicated by the blue busy signal in
the top right corner. Since PTIME is a separate process, this suspension is
necessary to make Pre&Post or MSC.Patran’s graphical interface recognize
any new time signals.
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Note: The mean of this signal is zero. In fatigue analysis, constant amplitude
loading is usually accompanied by a description of the mean, commonly
referred to as the R-ratio. The R-ratio is the minimum value of the signal
divided by the maximum value and is a measure of the signals mean value.
In this case R=-1 signifying a fully reversed load where the maximum and
minimum absolute magnitudes are identical.
Select File | Exit to close the plot and press or double click the eXit switch in PTIME.
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select Stress Tensor from the second listbox and then press the Fill Cell
button. This will fill the cell with the internal IDs of the selected load case and
its stress results. This is the significance of the numbers 1.1-3.1-2-. They are
internal IDs only but are necessary to identify the results.
Note: The actual load case ID numbers you see may differ from those shown here.
What you want to select is the DEFAULT, Static Subcase and the
corresponding Stress Tensor at layer Z1.
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Tabular Listing
Press the Analysis switch to bring the main
MSC.Fatigue form back (this is not necessary in
MSC.Patran). On the MSC.Fatigue Results...
form, change the Action to List Results and press
Apply. This will start the module PFPOST which
tabularly lists the fatigue analysis results.
Accepting the jobname and the default filtering
values, by pressing OK a couple of times, will get
you to the main menu. Press or double click the
Most damaged nodes switch to view a tabular
listing. Note the life value of approximately
10 5.65 =4.5E5 cycles on Node 1. Press Cancel to
quit the listing and press or double click eXit to
leave PFPOST.
What If?
As one small exercise to introduce the concept of “what if” analyses, change the
Action to Optimize and press Apply (you do not need to enter a node number) on the
Results... form. This will launch the module FEFAT in its design optimization mode.
FEFAT is the FE-fatigue analyzer used to calculate fatigue life. It can be run in both
batch and interactive modes. When it comes up, press Worst Case to automatically
select the node with the lowest life prediction. Enter a Design Life of 1E6 (a million)
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cycles. Press the OK button. The analyzer will re-analyze the fatigue life at Node 1 and
will report the life value to you. Pressing the End button will put you into the main
optimization menu.
Hint: When you change materials, they must be the same types of materials
(steel vs. steel, aluminum vs. aluminum, etc.) If you wish to change from
steel to aluminum then the Young’s modulus changes would invalidate
the results. There are some general guidelines on how to do this properly,
however, in the MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide.
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Hint: To read the correct life value from the curve for this exercise, you must
multiply the maximum principal stress at Node 1 by two (666 MPa) since
the total range of the signal is twice the stress determined by the FE
analysis since it is experiencing full reversal.
Note: Note about plasticity: as mentioned in Introduction (Ch. 1), fatigue cannot
occur without some local plasticity. The S-N method makes no effort to
define the amount of plasticity or compensate for it in any specific manner.
All plasticity is built into the S-N curve itself.
The S-N curve used in this exercise is known as a material S-N curve. This is
significant because you must know beforehand what the S-N curve you use
actually represents. In this case the S-N curve is representative of the actual
material and relates local stress (σ) to life. That is, the monitored stress used
to create the S-N curve is the stress at the actual failure location. This will
become more clear when we discuss another type of S-N curve (component
S-N) in a later exercise.
Exit from Pre&Post when finished with this exercise. Keep the files and directory for
use in the next exercise.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params form. Set the Mean
Stress Correction optionmenu to Multiple
Mean Curves. Use the default values for all
the other widgets. Press OK to close the form.
Material Information
Open the Material information form. It is
identical to the standard S-N analysis, except:
• An ASCII materials database is used
(extension .mnd) instead of the
standard Materials database (.mdb).
• Selecting the Materials Database
Manager button brings up a text
editor instead of PFMAT.
• Even though the Surface Finish,
Treatment and Kf cells are visible
they are not available for input.
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Click on the Materials Database Manager button to view the file containing the
Multiple Mean Stress Curve data.
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Select the Material MANTEN from the listbox and pick the default_group for
analysis. Click OK.
Loading Information
Open the Loading information form. This form should be still filled out from the
previous example. Press OK to accept the inputs.
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Lets take a closer look at the stress time history at this node. In order to do this the
Action needs to be changed to Extract Time History. Enter Node 1 in the databox and
press Apply. The MFATFE module is now displayed. On the first form select the
Utilities switch. Next select the Node/Element options switch and press OK. On the
next form press OK to accept the Result Filename, then select the User input switch
and set the Node/Element ID to 1. Press OK. Select the Time History Extraction
switch and press OK. This will bring up a table that shows the maximum and
minimum stress values for Node 1. Press Cancel to close this form and bring up the
graphical representation of the data as shown below.
To close this picture select File | eXit. Select Return, then select return to Main menu, and
finally select eXit to close the MFATFE module.
Make a note of this life as we will compare this life with and offset time history to demonstrate
the Multi Mean Stress Curve concept.
Verification: On the General Setup form, change the Jobname to multi_mean_offset.
Offset the Time History on the loading form by applying an offset of 0.3 that will yield
an offset range mean of 100 Mpa. A 100 Mpa mean stress S-N curve exists in the
database for MANTEN, the material used in the analysis above.
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Run the Job and list the results. The life at the same location (Node 1) drops to 2.3E3
repeats. The offset stress time history at Node 1 is shown below.
For a stress range of 666 Mpa, the 100 Mpa mean stress curve yields the life calculated.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Rainflow Cycle Counting
3
■ Problem Description
■ Set Up the Fatigue Analysis
■ Run the Fatigue Analysis
■ Review the Results
■ Concluding Remarks
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Objective
• To predict the life of the keyhole subject to a varying load signal.
• To understand how to normalize the FE stresses.
• To introduce the concept to rainflow cycle counting.
• To introduce the concept of damage summation.
• To investigate the effect of mean stress.
• To investigate the probabilistic nature of fatigue.
Note: The geometry and materials information are identical to that of the previous
exercise.
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Loading Information
Open the Loading Info... form. Then press the Time History Manager button. This
will launch PTIME. The time variation of the load will be defined by a signal called
SAETRN which is stored in the loading central database in the MSC.Fatigue
installation directory.
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Rainflow Cycle Counting
overwrite. The transformation from will then appear. We simply want to scale the
load up so all that is needed is to input a scale factor of 10 in the second databox. Press
OK when done.
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Select File | Exit to close the plot and press or double click the eXit switch in PTIME.
Note: In the previous example we entered unity for the Load Magnitude accepting
the FE load as being the true representation of the load and thus the stresses.
The time history, UNITLOAD, scaled the stress distribution between 1 and -
1 to signify the time variation of the loading. This time the time history
SAETRN is used to define the actual loading as it changes with time. The FE
load magnitude is therefore simply an arbitrary number used to obtain the
stress distribution. The stresses in the FE analysis need to be normalized by
this FE load magnitude of 10kN, to simulate the stress distribution due to a
unit load.
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The load magnitude acts as a divisor to normalize the stresses to obtain a stress
distribution due to a unit load as in the equation σij(t)=P(t)σij/Pfea, where σij and Pfea
are the stress tensor and load magnitude from the FE analysis, P(t) is the externally
defined time variation of the loading, and σij(t) is the resulting time variation of the
stress tensor (at any particular location in the component). This can be done because
the analysis is linear elastic. Using linear elastic FE analysis and associating an
external time variation of the loading for fatigue analysis is called the “pseudo-static”
method. “It might be said that all stress analyses are basically fatigue analyses, the
differences lying in the number of cycles of applied stress.” - quote from Carl C.
Osgood, Fatigue Design (1982).
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Damage Summation
It is important to break up a variable signal into a number of constant amplitude
signals in order to assess the life from the S-N curve. The curve itself is created by a
series of constant amplitude tests. So for each cycle in the signal you must look up the
proper stress from the S-N curve. What stress to look up is the job of rainflow cycle
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counting. The next challenge to tackle is the summation of the damage from each cycle
in order to report a total life due to all cycles. This is accomplished by way of the
Palmgren-Miner linear damage summation law.
This states that damage can be
summed by determining the ratio of Total Damage= ∑ N i ⁄ N f
the number of cycles experienced to the i
∆D 1 = N 1 ⁄ N f
number of cycles to failure for a given ∆D 2 = N 2 ⁄ N f
1
stress range or level and then summing 2
all the ratios for every stress range.
When this number, known as Miner’s
Constant, reaches unity, failure is said
to have occurred. The predicted life is
then determined by summing the
percentage of life used by each stress
level for the entire time signal. Life is then reported back as to the number of times the
given time signal can be applied before failure.
Hint: This is where user-defined fatigue equivalent units come in handy, because
rarely does one want life reported in “repeats” of the time signal, but rather
in more meaningful units such as hours, miles, years, laps, missions, etc.
This is accomplished by defining these user-defined units in the PTIME,
loading database manager, utility. Use the Change an entry | Edit details
option.
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Tabular Listing
On the MSC.Fatigue Results... form, change the Action
to List Results and press Apply. This will start the
module PFPOST which tabularly lists the fatigue
analysis results. Accepting the jobname and the
default filtering values by pressing OK a couple of
times will get you to the main menu. Press or double
click the Most damaged nodes switch to view a
tabular listing. Note the life value of approximately
105.26=184,000 repeats of the signal on Node 1. This is
significantly less damaging than the previous example
considering the life is reported in repeats of the time
history and not as individual cycles. To get the number of cycles, we would have to
multiply the life result by the rainflow cycle count. Press Cancel to quit the listing and
press or double click eXit to leave PFPOST.
Histogram Matrix
Let us take a look at the results of a rainflow cycle count. From the Results... form,
change the Action to Optimize and press Apply (you do not need to enter a node
number) on the Results... form. This will launch the module FEFAT in its design
optimization mode. When it comes up, press Worst Case to automatically select the
node with the lowest life prediction. Enter a Design Life of 1E6 (a million) repeats.
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Press the OK button. The analyzer will re-analyze the fatigue life at Node 1 and will
report the life value to you. Pressing the End button will put you into the main
optimization menu.
Now convert the cycle histogram plot to a damage histogram plot. This is done by
either returning to the main menu and selecting results Display | plot Damage
histogram or with the cycle histogram plot still displayed, select Plot_type | Damage.
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Now you can see the damage caused by each bin. Notice that the lower stress ranges
produced zero damage. All damage came from cycles in the higher stress range,
which is to be expected. Select File | Exit when done viewing the graphics.
Effect of Mean
Stress
Now let us investigate the
effect of mean stress on the
fatigue life predictions. First
remember that the S-N
curve we are using was
produced for an R-ratio of
minus one, or no mean
stress in other words. The
time history used in this
example has a
predominately tensile mean. The initial life prediction did not take into consideration
this mean stress and therefore could perhaps be giving a somewhat non-conservative
answer. From FEFAT’s design optimization menu, select Sensitivity analysis | Mean
stress correction (all) then press or double click the Recalculate switch. A listing
showing no correction plus two mean stress correction methods appear: Goodman
and Gerber. Note that both of them give more conservative answers.
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σa σm 2
------ + ------- = 1 Gerber
Se Su
Graphically this
looks like the plot
to the right where,
at least for
Goodman, if you
draw a line
connecting Su to
the intersection of
σa and σm and then
continue it on to
the stress
amplitude axis,
this will indicate
the equivalent
stress Se with zero mean. This stress is then used to look up damage on the S-N curve.
Note: As a stress range of a cycle becomes larger and larger, there tends to be less
and less possible variability in the mean of that cycle. This is indicated on the
cycle histogram plot since the base of these type of plots tends to be
triangular in nature, which means that as the stress gets larger, the mean
stress has less of an effect on the fatigue life.
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Note: Scatter is associated with S-N curves and other damage curves due to the
fact that, for example, if you take 10 identical test coupons and subject them
to what you think are identical tests, you will get ten slightly different
answers. The material parameters associated with S-N curves take this into
consideration with the Standard Error of Log(N) (SE) determined by
regression analysis of the raw data.
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Note: MSC.Fatigue does not take into account the frequency (speed at which cycles
are experienced) or the sequence (when a particular cycle is experienced
relative to other cycles) of cycles from a given signal. Rainflow cycle
counting simply counts the number of cycles and determines their range and
mean. Frequency and sequence can have an influence on the fatigue life but
is a third or fourth order effect on life prediction in most cases. MSC.Fatigue
does provide you with certain fatigue analysis utilities to determine if these
influences are important after the initial analysis using the MSC.Fatigue
module MTCD (for time correlated damage).
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Component S-N Analysis
4
■ Problem Description
■ Geometry
■ Set Up the Fatigue Analysis
■ Run the Fatigue Analysis
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10”
P
P
P
P
2”
A simple bracket as shown has a design life of 7 years (61,320 hours). Loading occurs
at the end of the short section which has been welded and the component is
constrained at both ends of the main bar. Because failure is known to occur at the
weld, the finite element modeling at the loading point and the stresses found there can
be ignored for the purposes of this exercise. The load applied in the model was 900 lbs
total. In service, the component experiences loading of 3000 lbs in the direction of the
finite element load and 7000 lbs in the reverse direction. This occurs once every 30
minutes. Only a 4% failure rate is allowed.
Objective
• To introduce the concept of a component S-N curve.
• To learn how to enter materials data into the database manager.
• To determine if the component achieves its design life.
• To determine what level of loading can be achieve and what failure rate
could be expected - a sensitivity study.
• To understand what files are created by an MSC.Fatigue analysis.
Table 4-1 Chapter 4 Necessary Files
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bracket.op2
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4.2 Geometry
Invoke Pre&Post or MSC.Patran as you did in the previous examples. The geometry
can be found in the file bracket.op2. The results are from MSC.Nastran. Copy the file
to your working directory. Open a new database in a clean, empty work directory
from the File | New menu. Give the name bracket to the database.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. On this form leave all the defaults except:
Certainty of Survival: 96
As we learned in the last exercise, the
S-N data can have significant scatter
associated with it. We are asking
MSC.Fatigue to calculate a fatigue live
with 96% certainty of survival based
on the scatter in the S-N data. This
corresponds to a 4% failure rate.
Press the OK button to continue.
Material Information
The component was tested under constant amplitude, fully-reversed conditions to
produce S-N data. In the previous examples we have used S-N curves that are
representative of the material and independent of geometry. They related local stress
(σ) to life. Now we have a different situation where the actual component geometry
itself as well as the material has been used in tests to create the S-N curve. This type of
S-N curve is called a component S-N curve. These type of curves relate nominal stress
(S) to life and are dependent on the geometry of the component. If you change the
geometry, the curve will no longer be valid. The nominal stress is a location away from
the actual failure location. This is usually because it is impossible to place a
measurement device such as a strain gauge in the failure location. The stress for the S-
N curve was measured using strain gauges at a point one quarter of an inch from the
weld on the main bar and 5 inches from each end of the bar. Node 514 of the model
corresponds to this measurement point for the S-N curve. The point of measurement
is sometimes referred to as the reference location.
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For this model we have an S-N curve that needs to be input to PFMAT, the materials
database manager. Two methods of entering this data will be given.
Table 4-2 S-N Data Set for Bracket Assembly
Properties SI Imperial
S-N Properties:
Stress Range Intercept, SRI1 10,710 MPa 1553 KSI
First fatigue strength exponent, -0.33333 -0.33333
b1
Fatigue transition point (cycles), 1E7 1E7
NC1
Second fatigue strength -0.2 -0.2
exponent, b2
Standard error of Log (N), SE 0.2 0.2
R-Ratio of test, RRAT -1 -1
Monotonic Properties:
Young’s Modulus, E 205,800 MPa 29, 850 KSI
UTS 700 MPa 101.5 KSI
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Now a series of forms will open requesting data entry. On the first form, Names, enter:
1. Primary name: BRACKET_SN
2. Anything else you want - not required
On the next form, Static Data, enter the generic (monotonic) information:
1. UTS: Ultimate Tensile Strength (MPa): 700
2. E: Elastic modulus (MPa): 205800
Only these two parameters are required to be entered. The next form (E-N data) is for
strain data. Skip over this form by pressing the OK button. The next form is for S-N
data. Select Component from the pulldown menu.
For the rest of the data, enter
the SI values as indicated in
Table 4-2. Press the OK
button when done. Fracture
Mechanics Data is
requested next. Just press
the OK button to skip over
this. Multiaxial data is
requested next. Skip over
this form also by pressing
the OK button. The material
will be entered into the
database. Press or double
click the Graphical Display
switch to view the S-N
curve.
Hint: We are entering the data here in SI units. All underlying fatigue
calculations are done using SI units. However if you wish to enter and
view materials data in Imperial units, set the preference using
Preferences | Stress units | PSI. You can save this setting globally, or
just locally in your working directory (or not at all) so that each time you
invoke PFMAT it remembers to display values and plots in your units of
preference.
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Note: S-N curves are characterized by a power law and thus appear as straight
lines in log-log space. The equation is S=SRI1(N)b where SRI1 is the y-
intercept and b is the slope (after Basquin). It is interesting to note
historically that, although invented in 1870 by August Woehler, the S-N
curve was not actually displayed graphically until some 30 years later. And
it was not until 10 years after that that the curves were characterized in
equation form. Our curve actually has two slopes and a transition point. If
the second slope were zero it would act as a fatigue limit.
Exit from PFMAT when you are done using the File | Exit and the eXit switch.
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Note: The above mentioned MAT file can also be created from scratch by using the
“Edit” button on the form shown above.
Either of the above mentioned two methods will put the second data set into the
database. Graphically compare bracket_sn and bracket_sn2 by running PFMAT
interactively and using the Graphical display option. To run interactively you can
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either just type pfmat at the system prompt or go back to Pre&Post or MSC.Patran and
spawn it from the MSC.Fatigue Material Info... form. Make sure both bracket_sn and
bracket_sn2 are loaded as data set 1 and 2 using Load | data set n.
Hint: If you do not have any S-N data, but only know E and UTS, you can have
PFMAT generate generic material properties based on empirical
formulas and the type of material. Simply enter E and UTS as if you were
going to enter your own S-N data and the Material Type Number (see the
MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide) and the S-N parameters will be generated
automatically for you. (99=steel of unknown heat treatment) Of course
you have to turn on the Generate all parameters from UTS toggle.
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Close the Material Info... form when you are done by pressing OK.
Loading Information
To create the time history which represents the actual loading conditions of the
bracket, use PTIME and the X-Y points option representing y-values only. The time
history will have a maximum of 3000 lbs and a minimum of –7000 lbs. No other
information has been given so you can assume that there are no peaks and valleys
between these points and that only these two points are required. You will enter the
values 0, 3000, –7000, and 0 to create this loading.
The 1/2 hour interval can be modeled using the fatigue equivalent units. This is a term
relating to the real value of one repeat of the time history. In this case, you can use 30
minutes, 1/2 hours, 1/48 days, etc. The answer will be the same of course, but you can
choose the best parameter for reporting the life of your product.
Open the Loading Info... form and press the Time History Manager button.
Note: If you have been working sequentially through this document, then you will
already have some entries in the PTIME database. The version of the form
that is displayed will be different than the one shown here. On this form,
select Add an entry and then select the option X-y time series, which is the
equivalent of selecting Enter X-Y points on the shown form.
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Note: The load case ID may be different than that shown here.
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nodes but only Node 514 is of interest to us. This is only the case when using
component S-N curves. Contour plots from material S-N curves and the crack
initiation method are perfectly valid and meaningful.
Note: Since only Node 514 is valid in this analysis, it would have been better to
have created a group (under Group | Create) that contained only Node 514
and then have assigned it as the region of analysis in the Material Info... form
as opposed to using default_group.
Tabular Listing
Now let us find out what the actual fatigue life is at Node 514. On the MSC.Fatigue
Results... form, change the Action to List Results and press Apply. This will start the
module PFPOST which tabularly lists the fatigue analysis results. Accepting the
jobname and the default filtering values by pressing OK a couple of times will get you
to the main menu. Press or double click the User specified nodes switch, enter 514 as
the node number. Note the life value of approximately 10 4.115 =1.303E4 repeats
(=6,515 hours) hours. This is certainly less than the design life of 7 years (61,320 hours).
Press Cancel to quit the listing and press or double click eXit to leave PFPOST.
Design Optimization
The objectives of this example have been partially met. The life of the component is
below that of the design life for a 96% confidence level. You can enter the design
optimization portion of MSC.Fatigue to answer the other objectives. This can be done
by picking Optimize from the MSC.Fatigue Results... form. This time however, enter
Node 514 as the node to optimize (or select it graphically from the screen).
Once in FEFAT’s design optimization mode, you can reanalyze the component. Enter
the design life of 61,320 hours. You should obtain the same life estimate of around
6,500 hours. Press End to continue.
Note: A file called pfatigue.ents is created when you select nodes or elements from
the graphical screen or type them into the Results...| Optimize form. Node
514 is contained in this file in this case. You can also simply type 514 in the
Node/Element field also in FEFAT.
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You will be placed into the FEFAT design optimization main menu. Select Parameter
optimization | Scale factor to back calculate a scale factor that will be needed to
achieve the appropriate design life of 61,320 hours and then press or double click
Recalculate. This should give you a scale factor of about 0.5 which tells you that to
achieve your design criteria you need a 50% reduction in load. This may be
unacceptable.
You can also set the Design criterion under Parameter optimization to determine the
certainty of survival after 7 years. Remember to press the Recalculate switch. Note that
it is less than one percent. So premature failure is certain.
You have submitted a report to your manager which has caused panic and have been
asked to re-analyze the component after using a modified welding technique, which
is more expensive. After re-testing, a new S-N data set has been generated. This is
BRACKET_SN2 which was imported earlier.
Try a new analysis using this modified S-N data set to see if the life is satisfactory.
Reset the analysis from the main menu of FEFAT by selecting the Original parameters
switch. Next go to Material optimization and change the S-N curve to
BRACKET_SN2 and press or double click Recalculate.
You should find that the new life is around 97,000 hours or approximately 11 years.
By back calculating a scale factor again in FEFAT, you will get around 1.1, which
means your component should be able to survive a 10% overload and still maintain
the design criteria. Also, the failure rate after seven years should be less than 0.1%.
This can all be seen by repeating the steps done with the new S-N curve.
Sensitivity Analysis
As one last exercise in this example,
select Sensitivity analysis | Scale
factors. Enter the following for scale
factors: (.5, 1.5, .1). This includes the
parentheses. Press or double click the
Recalculate switch. A sensitivity
analysis will proceed and the results
displayed tabularly. The scale factor
input signifies (to, from, increment) a
50% reduction to a 50% overload by
increments of 10%. (You can also enter
a series of values separated by commas
or spaces.)
It is, of course, more interesting to view
the results graphically. Select results
Display | Sensitivity plot. The last
sensitivity analysis results will be
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Component S-N Analysis
plotted. You have specified to scale the loading (or the stresses) or you can think of the
scale factors as stress concentration factors (Kt). Now you can see how sensitive the
component is to loading. The same thing can be done for certainty of survival.
Hint: When you do a sensitivity plot in FEFAT, it creates a couple of files, one
XY (.xyd) plot file and a template (.tem) file that can be read into
Pre&Post’s or MSC.Patran’s XY plotting application. From the
MSC.Fatigue Results... form, set the Action to Plot Sensitivity. There you
will see all sensitivity plots that have been created by FEFAT. You can
simply select one and it will plot after you press the Apply button.
When you are done, close the plot (File | Exit) and exit from FEFAT.
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Batch Operations
In this example you ran one of the MSC.Fatigue modules in batch mode. Most
MSC.Fatigue modules can be run in batch mode either by including the batch
commands in a file and then issuing the command using the @ sign to direct the
module to read the commands from the file (pfmat @filename). Or the commands can
be included on the same line as the command:
fefat /opt=p/inp=filename/out=filename/ov=y
Batch operation can be quite convenient if you have to do a lot of repetitive tasks. See
the MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide for batch operation descriptions.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
A Simple e-N Analysis
5
■ Problem Description
■ Geometry
■ Set Up the Fatigue Analysis
■ Run the Fatigue Analysis
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90
Objective
• To introduce the Crack Initiation method
• To understand cyclic hardening/softening
• To learn how cyclic stress-strain and strain-life curves are created
• To understand how plasticity is accounted for
• To relate stress-life to strain-life prediction methods
Table 5-1 Chapter 5 Necessary Files
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/spiderCI.op2
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5.2 Geometry
The geometry of the model and the FE results of the linear static analysis can be found
in the file spiderCI.op2. By now you should know how to invoke Pre&Post or
MSC.Patran. Do so now in a clean working directory.
Node 2314
Node 3650
Node 981
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. On this form, set only these parameters:
1. Analysis Method: None
This is analogous to a mean
stress correction method as
was done in the S-N method.
Selecting None is equivalent
to no mean stress correction.
2. Plasticity Correction: Neuber
We will correct for plasticity
using the Neuber method.
This is explained in the next
section.
3. Stress/Strain Combination:
Max. Abs. Principal
This is the stress parameter that will be used in the fatigue analysis identical
to what we have used in all previous examples thus far.
Press the OK button to continue.
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Material Information
This is where the major differences
lie between what you have learned
thus far with the Total Life method
and the Crack Initiation method.
Press the Material Info... button on
the main MSC.Fatigue form.
Create a Group
Before selecting the material we
wish to use, first create a group
which contains all the nodes and
elements of the finite element model
except the nodes that have no stress
results associated with them. Select
Group | Create from the main menu
bar of Pre&Post or MSC.Patran. Call
it spider_only, change the Group
Contents to Add all FEM. Press the
Apply button.
Now remove unwanted nodes.
Change the Action to Modify. Press
the Change Target Group and select
our new group, spider_only. In the Member List to Add/Remove databox, type Node
10000:10006. Press the Remove button, then close the form. These nodes are associated
to an MPC and have no FE results associated to them. They are removed from the
analysis to avoid confusion.
Select a Material
First let us set up this
form and then we
will discuss the
materialinformation
involved in a Crack
Initiation analysis.
We will specify a
material, a surface
finish and treatment
and a region on the
model to which this
combination will
apply just as we
have done in
previous exercises.
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1. Material: BS4360-50D
Only materials with strain data appear in the listbox.
2. Surface Finish: Polished
Select Polished for now as most cyclic material data is created using polished
test specimens, therefore we wish to use the data “as-is.”
3. Surface Treatment: No Treatment
4. Region: spider_only
Select the group we just created in the previous step to calculate lives for the
entire model less those that have no results associated with them.
The first part of the right hand side can be recognized as the elastic stress-strain
equation (Hooke’s law) and the second part defines the plastic strain. This equation is
identical to the Ramberg-Osgood equation that relates total strain to the elastic strain
plus plastic strain in the monotonic sense. The only differences are the primes (’) on
K’ and n’ to signify that it represents a cyclic condition as opposed to a monotonic
condition.
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1. It appears that RQC100’s cyclic yield point is below its monotonic yield
value. This implies it is weaker under cyclic conditions. This is known as
cyclic softening or strain softening.
2. MANTEN’s cyclic yield point is above its monotonic yield point, implying
that it is stronger under cyclic loading. This is known as cyclic hardening or
strain hardening.
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When a material softens under cyclic material properties, this can be very bad from a
durability standpoint. This is why many structures or components fail prematurely
even though, supposedly, they have been designed to remain below yield. The
problem in these cases is that the actual yield point is much lower when subject to
cyclic loading.
5
Cyclic Hardening 3 5 σ
1 3 5 1 3
1
stress
strain
t t ε
2 4 2 Hysteresis
Control Condition 2 Loops
4 4
Measured Response
1
Cyclic Softening 1 σ
1 3 5 3 5 3
5
stress
strain
t t ε
4
2 4 2 4 Hysteresis
Control Condition Measured Response 2 Loops
Hint: You can put the elastic line on the stress-strain curves by selecting
Plot_Type | Elastic Line. To remove the line select Plot_Type | Remove
Lines.
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Strain-Life Curve
From each of these strain-controlled
tests also comes another piece of
information: the number of cycles to
failure. This information can be
plotted onto its own curve called the
strain-life curve. Select File | New
Plot and then select Strain-life plot.
You can compare the two strain-life
plots for MANTEN and RCQ100.
Note that they cross each other and
therefore exhibit different life
behavior depending on the stain level
experienced. So it is impossible to say
from the plot which would perform
better.
Note: The failure criterion (that is, when a crack has actually initiated) is
determined by ASTM standard E606. It is not a specified length of the crack,
but instead a percentage drop in load as measured by the test device. When
a crack initiates the component can no longer sustain the same level of stress
for the same strain rate. If you actually looked at a test specimen after
reaching the failure point, there would appear to be an engineering sized
crack of, say, 1 to 2 mm in length.
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∆ε σ' b c
------ = -----f- ( 2N f ) + ε f' ( 2N f )
2 E
(Elastic) (Plastic)
Like the stress-strain curves, it also is broken into an elastic component and a plastic
component which can also be plotted separately (Plot_Type | EP Lines). The
summation of the two lines makes the total strain-life curve. The following notes are
made about this plot:
1. The elastic and plastic lines cross each other at some point which is called the
transition point.
2. The transition point defines the difference between high cycle fatigue
(HCF) versus low cycles fatigue (LCF).
3. To the right of the transition point is considered HCF because elastic events
dominate plastic events.
4. To the left of the transition point is considered LCF because plastic events
dominate elastic events.
The software makes every attempt to inform you (in FEFAT’s design optimization
mode) what amounts of HCF, LCF, or transition life the component is experiencing.
Why is this important?
The type of fatigue being experienced will dictate the remedy or solution. For
example, in HCF you might try a higher strength steel, or change the surface
finish/treatment or mean stress (residual) to better the fatigue life. If LCF is being
experienced these remedies would have little or no effect and in some cases, perhaps
even worsen the situation. The solution there is to find a material that is more resistant
to plastic deformation, such as a more ductile material.
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Note: The crack initiation method, taking into account elastic and plastic
contributions to fatigue life, is more widely applicable to a greater range of
problems (HCF and LCF) whereas the Total Life method breaks down below
the transition point (usually around 105 cycles) because plasticity dominates.
This is why S-N curves are only good for HCF.
When finished, select File | Exit to close any plot and eXit to quit PFMAT. Press the
OK button to close the Material Info... form.
Loading Information
Open the Loading Info... form. Then press the
Time History Manager button to launch
PTIME. The load will be defined as a constant
amplitude, fully reversed loading. This will
have the effect of oscillating the 15 KSI load
from +15 KSI to -15 KSI.
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Note: If you have been working sequentially through this document, then you will
already have some entries in the PTIME database. The version of the form
that is displayed will be different than the one shown here. On this form,
select Add an entry and then select the option Copy from central, which is
the equivalent of selecting Copy from central on the shown form.
Use the List button to select SINE01. This will copy a unit sinusoidal signal to your
local directory.
Now select Change an entry | edit Details. Enter
SINE01 as Target Filename and allow overwrite when
asked and enter the following, leaving defaults for those
fields not mentioned:
1. Description 1: Constant Ampl., Fully Reversed
Sinusoidal Unit Load
2. Description 2: whatever you want
3. Load type: Pressure
4. Units: PSI
5. Fatigue equivalent units: Cycles
We are defining a single occurrence of this
fully reversed, constant amplitude signal as
one cycle of the loading.
Press the OK button to go on.
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A Simple e-N Analysis
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104
time
G
matrix of strain cycles with their respective H
ranges and means. The Crack Initiation method
B D
helps to, perhaps, better understand rainflow
F
cycle counting. C
σ
The reason rainflow cycle counting works so well H
E
is because it actually counts the number of stress- A
G ε
strain cycles (hysteresis loops) in a time varying
signal. So consider a signal stood on its end. As it
is loaded from point A to B and unloaded from point B to point C, this converts into
the section A-B-C in stress-strain space. On loading from point C to D, in stress-strain
space, it actually remembers it was on the original path from A to D and the
interruption B-C-B is counted as one cycle. E-F-E also counts as a cycle as does G-H-
G. All cycles fall inside of one large, outer cycle (A-D-A) representing the maximum
and minimum of the signal. Cycles with some noticeable area inside within this large,
outer loop cause damage while those that are straight lines are purely elastic and
cause no damage.
Elastic-Plastic Correction
Now before damage can be determined and summed for each cycle certain corrections
need to take place, the main correction being the conversion of purely elastic stresses
and strains to elastic-plastic stresses and strains. Other corrections will be dealt with
in later chapters.
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Plasticity is accounted for in the Crack Initiation method by the Neuber method. The
elastic stresses and strains are looked up on the elastic line and then corrected to fall
onto the cyclic stress strain curve to determine the elastic-plastic stresses and strains.
This elastic-plastic strain is used to look up damage on the strain-life damage curve.
Neuber’s elastic-plastic correction (sometimes called a notch correction) is based
on the simple principle that the product of the elastic stress and strain should be equal
to the product of the elastic-plastic stress and strain from the cyclic stress-strain curve.
Then through an iterative method, the elastic-plastic stress and strain can be
determined. This is illustrated below.
∆σ 1/n’
∆ε = σ
+
2E
[ ∆σ
2K’
]
Ε∆εe 2
∆σ∆ε = E∆ε
∆εe2
σ, ε
∆εe
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106
Hint: An easy way to recover the Maximum Principal Stress is to use the
Report function in the Results application. Press Results application
switch on main Pre&Post or MSC.Patran form. Set the Action/Object to
Create/Report. Select Stress Tensor | Max Principal. Change the mode of
the form to Target Entities (the second button icon) and change the Target
Entity to Nodes and type in Node 2314. Press Apply. The report is sent to
the invoking UNIX or DOS window.
Now before doing anything else, look this strain level up on the strain-life curve:
55,900 reversals = 29,110 cycles. To do this yourself, go to the Material Info... form and
invoke the database manager and graphically plot the strain-life plot for BS4360-50D.
Using the left mouse button, click on the curve to have the coordinate locations
reported to you in the lower left corner of the graphics screen. (On UNIX the
coordinates are reported above the graphics on the plot command line.) This will of
course be an approximation.
Now correct for plasticity. The value we just read off the curve was using the elastic
strain only. To find out what the elastic-plastic strain is we need to use the cyclic
stress-strain curve for BS4360-50D. We need to solve this equation for σ and ε,
knowing σe and εe: σeεe = σε = 124.5. This has to be done using trial and error.
Graphically display the cyclic stress-strain curve. Then use the mouse as you did on
the strain-life curve to find a stress and a strain that lies on the stress-strain curve that
has the product of approximately 124.5. This again will be an approximation. You may
end up with slightly different answers than reported here if you perform this exercise
yourself: ε = 2.835e-3, σ = 45,290. Quit from PFMAT when you are done if you
followed this exercise.
Hint: It might help to zoom in on the area of interest of the curve for a more
accurate coordinate reading. Either press the right mouse button in the
bottom left zoom corner and again in the top right zoom corner or use the
View | Window X and Window Y options and type coordinate values in.
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A Simple e-N Analysis
Now look this new value of strain up on the strain-life as you did before. So our guess
is that the life prediction will be around 22,2880 reversal = 11,440 cycles.
Note: The S-N curve usually is reported as stress range (∆S) versus cycles to failure
(N). The ε-N curve is usually reported as strain amplitude (εa) versus
reversals to failure (2N). Be aware of these facts since they could throw your
calculations off by a factor of two or more if you think you are using range
instead of amplitude or reversals instead of cycles.
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2. The number of rainflow bins can influence the accuracy between using stress
vs. strains. Try this as an exercise to see the influence of the number of bins
on the fatigue life prediction.
From the Results... form select Re-Analyze and enter Node 981 2314 3650.
These are the nodes with the highest stresses. This will run FEFAT for you.
When FEFAT appears accept all the defaults except change the Matrix size to
64. Then do it for 128 bins. Note that the fatigue life predictions increase to
over 14,000 cycles. Now go back to the original job setup and change the
General Setup Parameter, FE Results: to Strains, and go to the Loading Info...
form and select the Strain Tensor in the Load Case ID column. Re-run the
analysis and do the same Re-Analyze operation as you did when using the
stress FE results. Note that for 32 bins, the same exact results are determined
for all three nodes. Even for a higher matrix size, the strain FE results are less
conservative than when using the FE stresses. This is because the resolution
of the bins is better when using stresses.
3. You should be very careful using FE strains from plate models. Because
many FE codes do not calculate or do not include the out-of-plane strain (εz),
which is needed to determine the proper strain combination parameter (max.
abs. principal, signed von Mises, etc.), it is safer to use the stresses from the
FE analysis.
4. One final thing to be aware of using FE strains: the strains that are usually
stored in the database when imported from a typical analysis code such as
MSC.Nastran are stored as strain tensors, not as engineering strain.
MSC.Fatigue multiplies the three shear strain components by two to convert
them to engineering strain before using them in a fatigue analysis. This does
not happen when external result files are used.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Residual Stress
6
■ Problem Description
■ Geometry
■ Set Up First Fatigue Analysis
■ Set Up Second Fatigue Analysis
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112
Objective
• To illustrate how residual stress can be incorporated into a fatigue analysis
• To investigate mean stress effects in Crack Initiation
• To investigate surface finish and treatment
Table 6-1 Chapter 6 Necessary Files
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/mold_linear.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/mold_nonlin.op2
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Residual Stress
6.2 Geometry
The geometry of the model and the FE results of the linear static analysis and the
residual stress can be found in the files mold_linear.op2 and mold_nonlin.op2. Two
FE analyses were performed on this geometry. The first was to simulate a normal fill
(the operating load) of 12.5 KSI. The second was to simulate the overload that imposed
the residual stress (20 KSI). The load was imposed and then removed using a non-
linear load step analysis in MSC.Nastran.
To begin, invoke Pre&Post or MSC.Patran in a clean working directory.
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listbox and set the Quantity to von Mises. Note the area of high stress is in the fillet
area as expected. You can rotate the model using the middle mouse button and then
dragging, for a better view.
Node 2314
Node 3650
Node 981
Stress Distribution due to Residual Stress after
Operating Load Overload
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Residual Stress
Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. Nothing needs to be
changed here. Simply accept all the defaults.
Material Information
Open the Material Info... form. Set the following on this form as done in previous
exercises:
1. Material:
SAE4340-
350A_QT
2. Surface
Finish:
Polished
3. Surface
Treatment:
No
Treatment
4. Region: default_group
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Loading Information
Open the Loading Info... form. Then press the Time History Manager button to
launch PTIME and define a unit load with R= ∞ . Use X-Y time series with three points
(0, 1, 0) to define this simple load simulating a fill of the injection mold form zero load
to the maximum and back to zero.
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Note: You must have at least one load case associated to a time varying load.
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Hint: You can do this with either job (mold or residual). Type in the name of the
analysis you want to investigate in the Jobname databox on the main
MSC.Fatigue job setup form. Any options you select will retrieve the
jobname and use it.
Now select Sensitivity analysis | Mean stress correction (all). Then press or double
click the Recalculate switch. Note the life values calculated for each:
Table 6-2 Mean Stress Effects
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Residual Stress
∆ε σ f' – σ m b c Morrow
- ( 2N f ) + ε f' ( 2N f )
------ = -------------------
2 E Mean Stress
SWT mean stress correction has the effect of shifting the entire curve and
plotting a new parameter on the right hand side of the equation by
multiplying by the maximum stress.
2
∆ε σ f' 2b b+c
------ σ m ax = --------- ( 2N f ) + σ f'ε f' ( 2N f ) SWT
2 E Mean Stress
To illustrate this last point using FEFAT, do a sensitivity plot from each analysis by
increasing the loading. You will see that at higher load levels the answers tend to
converge between the two analyses, negating the effect of the residual stress. Follow
these instructions assuming you are at the Design Optimization main menu of FEFAT
still:
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122
1. Select Original parameters. This resets the analysis to all original settings.
2. Select Sensitivity analysis | Scale Factor. Enter (1,3,0.2) including the
parentheses to calculate all factors between one and three by increments of
0.2.
3. Select Recalculate. This will calculate lives based on SWT.
4. Select Change Parameters. Change the Mean Stress Correction to Morrow.
Leave all other settings as is.
5. Select Recalculate. This will calculates lives based on Morrow.
6. Select new Jobname and re-do these steps with the other analysis job if you
wish.
Table 6-3 Mean Stress Effects
Scale
mold (no residual stress) mold (with residual stress)
Factor
SWT Morrow SWT Morrow
1.0 67,000 132,000 225,000 323,000
1.2 23,700 37,700 51,500 65,500
1.4 10,100 15,300 18,172 21,500
1.6 5,400 7,600 8,400 9,600
1.8 3,200 4,400 4,700 5,200
2.0 2,100 2,800 2,900 3,200
2.2 1,500 1,900 1,950 2,100
2.4 1,100 1,400 1,400 1,500
2.6 820 1,050 1,040 1,100
2.8 640 814 801 860
3.0 515 650 635 680
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124
Surface finish and treatment corrections are imposed by changing the material
properties. This is accomplished by changing the slope of the S-N curve or for strain-
life curves, the slope of the elastic line at the endurance limit. A scale factor for each
finish or treatment is stored in the materials database. These factors are based on the
UTS of the material and derived from empirical data.
Surface treatments and finishes tend
again to only effect HCF jobs. To
illustrate, you can perform an exercise
similar to that done in the previous
section where the load was increased by
doing a sensitivity analysis on the scale
factor. Except this time do it for different
surface finishes or treatments. Note that
the answers tend to converge between
the various surface finish/treatments at
higher load levels. The curve to the right
shows two strain-life curves, one with
polished and one with some other finish,
where only the HCF end is effected.
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Residual Stress
Scroll spreadsheet.
2. Loading Info... form. Aside from selecting an entire FE load case as a offset
which varies from node to node, you can also set a constant offset for any
specified FE load case. If you scroll the spreadsheet over on this form you
will also see a column to specify an Offset.
Scroll spreadsheet.
3. FEFAT: Residual stress can be entered in the form of a loading or stress offset
when performing analysis interactively using FEFAT. In the Design
Optimization mode, Sensitivity analysis on residual stress is possible as well
as in the Parameter optimization menu to back calculate a residual stress to
meet the design life.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart GuideG
CHAPTER
Introduction to Crack Growth
7
■ Problem Description
■ Geometry
■ Set Up the Fracture Analysis
■ Run the Fracture Analysis
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128
Objective
• To introduce the LEFM life prediction method, commonly referred to as
“Crack Growth.”
Table 7-1 Chapter 7 Necessary Files
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/simpleSN.op2
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Introduction to Crack Growth
7.2 Geometry
Copy the file simpleSN.op2 to a clean working directory to begin.
A linear static finite element analysis has been performed already with a load
magnitude of 10,000 Newtons. To begin, read this model and results information into
a new database using MSC.Fatigue Pre&Post or use MSC.Patran. Open a new
database from File | New and call it keyhole. The model was run through a
MSC.Nastran analysis so keep the Analysis Preference set to MSC.Nastran when
asked.
where
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and the definition of stress intensity, defined as driving force, K, the applied stress,
σ, the crack size, a
K = Yσ ( πa )
where
Y is known as the compliance function and describes the geometry in which the
crack exists.
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Introduction to Crack Growth
The first thing that you are asked for is the units in which to define the geometry.
Select 1. Millimeters. Then select option four, 4. Generate a Y function table. Call it
keyhole when asked. A file called keyhole.ksn will be created containing the
compliance function lookup table.
mm (inches)
you will specify dimensions. The dimension of our
keyhole model are as shown here.
76.2 (3.0)
Press the Define button on the top of the form. At 9.525 (0.375) Dia.
3.175 (0.125)
Notch Root Radius
this point you will be asked for the dimensions of
the geometry, B (thickness) and W (width). Enter P
9.525 (0.375) Thick
9.525 and 94 mm. Press the carriage return each
time and a final carriage return when asked if any
changes are necessary. To generate the compliance function, select the Calculate item
on top of the form.
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At this point you are presented with one final menu selection which allows you to
either plot, tabulate or create another compliance function. Select Plot Y function
against crack ratio.
This plot gives you a good feel as to how the crack will grow as it gets larger. In this
case, as the crack ratio (a/W) increases, the crack growth rate will accelerate whereas,
at first, the growth rate will be much slower. When you are done select File | Exit to
close the plot and then quit from PKSOL by selecting eXit.
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Introduction to Crack Growth
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134
Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. On this form, set
these parameters:
1. Select a Compliance Function: KEYHOLE
The name of the compliance function that
you created earlier should appear in this
listbox. Select it.
2. Stress Combination: Max. Abs. Principal
This is the stress parameter that will be
used in the fatigue analysis. The stress
tensor from the FE analysis results will be
extracted at each node, the maximum
absolute principal calculated and then
averaged over all nodes defined in the
Region specified on the Material Info...
form. It is this stress that will be used to
determine the stress intensity range for
each cycle.
3. Crack Length Units: Inches
Define the units in which all the below
parameters will be defined.
4. Initial Crack Length: 0.1
This is the initial crack length which can be anything but zero. If zero is
entered this acts as a flag to tell MSC.Fatigue to use minimum crack sizing
rules to determine the minimum crack size for valid fracture mechanics
analysis. Here we have entered a typical engineering crack size that might be
detectable after crack initiation.
5. Final Crack Length: 2.13
We do not know what this will be but it cannot be any larger than from the
end of the notch to the other side of the keyhole specimen. It is very likely
that the crack will not actually grow to this size before catastrophic failure.
6. Notch Depth: 2.3
This is the physical depth of the notch (keyhole) in this compact tension
specimen. By entering a non-zero value here, MSC.Fatigue will compensate
for notch influences.
7. Notch Radius: 0.375
This is the radius of notch. The default is zero.
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Introduction to Crack Growth
Material Information
Press the Material Info... button on the main MSC.Fatigue form.
Make a Group
Before proceeding, use the Group facility to create a group of
nodes that is representative of the far field stress. The stress
from these nodes will be averaged and used in the
determination of the stress intensity as earlier described in the
equation K = Yσ πa. This is where the departure from the other
two methods can be somewhat confusing. The region that is
defined on the Material Info... form should not contain the
nodes from the entire model or an interested portion thereof,
but must contain the area of the model that is representative of
the stress in this stress intensity equation. What this stress
should be is best described as the stress that would be there if
there were no crack (or notch) in the structure. So in this case
the stress would be load divided by area (P/A) where the area
is the entire cross section without the notch.
Open the Group | Create form from the main pull down
menus of Pre&Post or MSC.Patran. Give the new group a
name such as far_field. Select all the nodes from Element 166.
This can be done by activating the Entity Selection databox and
graphically selecting them (use the shift key for multiple
selections) or simply type the node numbers in as Node
211:213 594:595 606:608. Press the Apply button to create the
group and the Cancel button to close the form.
Note: Although the above statements are true, the nodes selected here to represent
the far field stress have been chosen somewhat arbitrarily to force the crack
to grow rapidly for illustration purposes only.
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Introduction to Crack Growth
MANTEN from the list. You can then select the Graphical Display | Apparent delta
k plot switch to view the da/dN curve. You will be asked to enter an R-ratio. Enter 0.5
and press the OK button. The curve will be displayed.
Note: You can enter a couple of R-ratios if you wish. Mean stress is accounted for
in Crack Growth analysis by using the curve corresponding to a given stress
cycles R-ratio
Fast
Fracture
Effects
Paris Equation
Region
Threshold
Effects ∆K
In fatigue we are concerned with stable crack growth occurring below a catastrophic
level. When you plot crack growth rates against ∆K on log scales, you get sigmoidal
shaped curves like these which have three distinct regions. There is a linear region in
the middle of these curves which is described by the Paris Equation. At the bottom end
of the curves there is a threshold below which no crack growth occurs (very similar to
a fatigue limit). This is caused by crack closure and the interaction of the crack with
the micro-structure. If the mean stress is raised the threshold decreases because the
cracks are held open for more of the time. At the other end of the curve, crack growth
rates increase as the maximum stress of each cycle gets close to the fracture toughness
of the material.
The curve you just plotted in PFMAT is called the Apparent ∆K curve describing the
apparent driving force acting on the crack. However there are many effects that this
equation does not take into account, such as crack closure, corrosive environments,
the influences of a notch, and static fracture mode contributions to name a few.
MSC.Fatigue models these by using an Effective ∆K curve which has the effect of
linearizing the entire Apparent ∆K curve through all three of its distinct regions. It is
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this Effective ∆K that is the actual (effective) driving force that is then used in the Paris
Equation to determine crack growth. Select File | New Plot | Effective delta k plot to
view this da/dN curve.
The material information is complete. Select File | Exit to close the plot and eXit to
quit PFMAT. Press the OK button to close the Material Info... form.
Loading Information
We are going to use the same loading as was used in Rainflow Cycle Counting (Ch. 3)
but with a different scale factor to accelerate the crack growth for illustration
purposes. So open the Loading Info... form and then press the Time History Manager
button:
Note: If you have been working sequentially through this document, then there is
a good chance that the entity SAETRN already exists in your database. To
check this, select List all entries. If the entity SAETRN is listed, you will
need to delete it before continuing. Go back to the PTIME main menu, select
Delete entries, then go and select the database entry SAETRN and press
OK. You will be asked to verify that you want to delete this entry. Now that
the entry has been deleted, we can get a fresh copy from the central database.
Select Add an entry..., then select Copy from central. Use the List button to
select SAETRN from the central database.
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1. Description 1: Leave as is
2. Description 2: Blank this out
3. Load type: Force
4. Units: Newtons
5. Number of fatigue equivalent units: 1
6. Fatigue equivalent units: Repeats
Press OK to continue. Plot the time history if you wish and then select File | Exit to
close the plot and press the eXit switch in PTIME.
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Note: It should be clearly understood that even though the growth of microscopic
cracks is governed by linear elastic fracture mechanics, the microscopic crack
extension process by fatigue still necessitates local plasticity. At the tip of a
fatigue crack there is a plastic zone. The crack tip plastic zone is assumed to
be negligibly small in relation to crack size, especially for high strength
materials, but essential to the fatigue crack growth process.
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Tabular Listing
On the MSC.Fatigue Results... form,
change the Action to List Results and
press Apply. This will start the
module PCPOST which tabularly
lists the fracture analysis results and
also plots the final situation.
The main menu of PCPOST includes
a host of items, the most useful
perhaps, being the Results summary
page. Selecting this will reveal that
the crack grew to a bit over 10 mm
before fracture and took over 400
repeats of the SAETRN time history. The mode of failure is also revealed (stress
intensity exceeding the fracture toughness of the material). Press the End button to
continue.
Also plot the final a-N curve. This plot will be described in more detail shortly. This
reveals how the crack grew over time. Select Return to return to the main menu of
PCPOST.
Interactive Operation
Back on the MSC.Fatigue Results... form, change the Action
to Optimize and press Apply. This will invoke the Crack
Growth analyzer PCRACK.
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By running PCRACK interactively we can re-run the entire Crack Growth analysis
and make any changes necessary. You will be presented with a number of setup
screens before the job is started.
1. Loading Definition: The first of these is where you can alter the scaling factor
or impose a constant residual offset. Accept all the defaults by pressing the
OK button.
2. Output Parameters: The second screen is for graphical updates and general
output parameters. Change the Results File Output Interval and the Screen
Update Interval to 0.25 Repeats. This is done so that the updates do not occur
at the end of the signal but somewhere in the middle of the signal where the
crack growth rate and stress intensity are more certainly non-zero. This
interval is simply a snap-shot at a particular time or location in the signal; so
we will get four snap-shots per repeat of the signal. Press OK to continue.
3. Local Geometry Definition: On this page you select the compliance function.
Press OK. The form then updates to allow you to modify initial and final
crack length specifications and notch dimensions. Accept the defaults and
press OK.
4. Material and Environment Selection: The last page allows for selection of
material and environment. Accept the defaults and press OK.
The Crack Growth analysis will initiate
and you will be presented with a
graphical screen that updates as the
crack grows. You will see the plot
update as well as the numbers on the top
of the plot and the modifying effects to
the right of the plot. The plot features
crack size versus life in cycles. The
following explanations are given from
left to right and top to bottom:
1. Repeats: This is self
explanatory. This reports the
number of repeats of the time
history that the component has
survived.
2. Size: This reports the length of
the crack at the given snap-shot in time.
3. DLKAPP: This is the apparent stress intensity (∆K) or the apparent crack
driving force without accounting for any modifying effects.
4. DLKEFF: This is the effective stress intensity (∆K) or the actual crack driving
force which is based on the apparent ∆K with modifying effects. All
modifying effects are listed to the right of the plot. If a modifying effect is
highlighted, it was being experienced at that particular snap-shot in time.
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5. da/dN: This is the current crack growth rate at the reported time.
6. CLOSURE: This is an effect used to modify the apparent ∆Κ. When this
modifying effect is lit, the component is currently experiencing crack closure
which necessarily slows down the crack growth.
7. HISTORY: This modifying effect to the apparent ∆Κ is caused by the
sequence of cycles. A large cycle followed by many smaller cycles can
actually cause a slow down in the crack growth rate due to an extension of
the plastic zone around the crack tip. This is called crack retardation. It than
takes some time for the driving force to become sufficiently large to
overcome that plastic zone and continue the crack propagation.
8. NOTCH: In our example we modeled an additional notch into our compact
tension specimen. The influence of a notch is also accounted for as a
modifying effect to ∆K apparent.
9. ENVIRON: If we had selected a material and used an alternate environment
(a function of the material properties), this modifying effect would be lit.
10. STAT FRAC: Static fracture modes are accounted for also as modifying
effects. These occur when the driving force approaches the fracture
toughness of the material causing the crack to grow rather rapidly.
All of these effects are discussed in more detail in the MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide.
When the analysis is done you are presented with a page describing the final situation
just as was done when using the result listing facility, PCPOST. Press the End button
when you are satisfied that the same answers are given as the original analysis. The
PCRACK main Post Analysis Menu will appear. This is very similar to the Design
Optimization main menu of FEFAT for Crack Initiation and Total Life jobs.
Optimization
From this Post Analysis Menu you can do
numerous things such as view the final situation
graphically or tabularly, interpolate on life as has
been discussed already, or change any of the
original parameters without re-doing the entire
job setup.
As an exercise let us change the material from
MANTEN to RQC100 as was done with the
original Total Life analysis to see the effects on the
propagation life of the component. Select Edit analysis parameters | Select material
and environment. When this form appears, change the material to RQC100 and press
OK. Press or double click the Recalculate switch on the main menu. You will be asked
to allow overwrite of the output file. Select the Yes button. The job will restart using
the new material.
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Hint: A stress tensor is expected but you can simply put in one value for the X-
component and zero for the rest and specify the X-component only to be
used in the analysis.
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MSC.Fatigue Files
MSC.Fatigue Crack Growth analysis creates the same files as the other methods with
the following two exceptions:
Table 7-2 MSC.Fatigue Files
File Description
jobname.tcy This binary file is the equivalent of the jobname.fpp
(simple_cg.tcy) preprocessing file created after rainflow cycle counting for the
other two methods. The jobname.tcy file is also the result of the
rainflow cycle count but after time cycle re-ordering created by
PCRACK’s preprocessing phase. It serves as the input to the
actual Crack Growth analysis. The Action, Partial Analysis on
the Job Control... form will create all files up to this point and
then stop.
jobname.crg This is the results file of a fracture analysis created by PCRACK
(simple_cg.crg) when a Full Analysis is requested. It is a binary file and can be
processed by the result listing facility, PCPOST, only. It cannot
be read back into Pre&Post or MSC.Patran to create life contour
plots as with the jobname.fef file created by the other methods.
Hint: If you experience difficulty with a Crack Growth job, check the following
files for clues: batlog.lst, jobname.sta, jobname.msg, pfatigue.prt. It
is also helpful to interactively run the programs from the system prompt
by issuing the proper commands: pksol, pcrack, pcpost.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Design Philosophies
8
■ Problem Description
■ S-N Analysis of Lug Weld
■ e-N Analysis of Lug
■ LEFM Analysis of Lug
■ Concluding Remarks
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Objectives
• To use the weld classifier to determine the type of weld
• To determine the useful life of the weld using the Total Life method
• To run a factor-of-safety analysis on the weld
• To determine the crack initiation fatigue life of the lug itself
• To investigate sensitivity of initiation life to alternative surface finishes
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File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/lug_weld.op2
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solutions Params... form and set the widgets as
follows leaving the defaults if not mentioned:
1. Mean Stress Correction: None
2. Design Criterion: 96
Set the design criterion at 96% certainty of
survival.
3. Run Factor of Safety Analysis: ON
Turn this toggle ON. More will be explained about this analysis later.
4. Options: Life Based
5. Enter a Design Life: 100
This will correspond to 100 years of operation as will be designated when the
service loading is defined.
Material Information
Since the assembly has a welded connection, it is appropriate to assess the life of this
feature using the Total Life approach since the weld material properties are unknown.
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Design Philosophies
Enter the materials database manager PFMAT either from the MSC.Fatigue forms or
directly from the system prompt by typing pfmat. One of the selections in PFMAT is
a Weld Classifier. See if you can determine which type of weld you are dealing with
by answering the questions from the weld classifier.
Hint: The assembly has a welded detail on the surface of a member with
potential cracks initiating at short weld attachments. The weld toe is
more than 10 mm from the member edge. The shear stress is less than
half the applied direct stress.
The weld classifier should identify the weld as Class F type 2.9 if all the inputs are
correct. You will refer to this weld class in the Material Info... form. Exit PFMAT.
Open the Material Info... form and fill out the spreadsheet for a single material as
follows:
1. Material: classF
2. Finish: No Finish
3. Treatment: No Treatment
4. Region: reference
The Group called reference does not yet
exist. You will need to create it. The classF
entry is a component S-N curve. If you
remember back to the discussion about
component S-N curves you will recall that
they are representative of the component’s
geometry (the weld in this case) and the
measured nominal stress is from a reference
location away from the weld failure itself
(such as where a strain gauge could be
properly located).
For the sake of this example, let us assume
that we know only approximately where this reference location is but only within a
certain tolerance. Select all the nodes on the surface one element thickness away from
the weld on the flat plate and two elements thick. The analysis will assume that each
of these nodes is the reference location respectively and we will make the
determination of the worst case later. Call the new group reference.
Note: In this particular case the reference location for this Class F component S-N
curve corresponds to Node 284 on the model. This node is in the area away
from the stress concentration but reasonable for definition of Class F weld.
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Loading Information
Open the Loading Info... form and select the Time History Manager button. The load
history, to be called LUGLOAD, consists of a single cycle with a min = 0 and max =
10. (The actual load applied is ten times greater than that applied in the FE model.) The
units are Force in Newtons. The service load simulates the lug being lifted which
happens two times a day. The fatigue equivalent unit should be Years with one repeat
of the time history simulating 1/(2lifts*365days) = 0.00137 years. Enter this
information into PTIME using Enter X-Y points where the y values are 0,10,0. To
reiterate the details:
1. Filename: LUGLOAD
2. Description 1: Lug Loading
3. Description 2: whatever you want
4. Load type: Force
5. Units: Newtons
6. Number of fatigue equivalent units: 0.00137
7. Fatigue equivalent units: Years
On the Loading Info... form, associate the time variation of the load that you just
created to the FE load case by filling out the spreadsheet.
1. Load Case ID: 1.1-3.1-1-
Select the only result case available, Default, Static Subcase and Stress
Tensor, NON-LAYERED.
2. Time History: LUGLOAD
3. Load Magnitude: 1.0
Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and set the Action to Full Analysis and press the Apply
button to run the job. Monitor the job form time to time. Since you have requested to
do a Factor-of-Safety analysis, when you see the message
Safety factor analysis completed successfully.
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Design Philosophies
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Note: In an earlier exercise we stated that making a contour plot of life (or safety
factor in this case) from a component S-N analysis is meaningless and only
the result at the reference location has any meaning. This is true, except in
the case where you are not quite sure where that location is and wish to
weigh the relative importance between different locations. Really only Node
284 has the correct safety factor but you can tell the relative magnitude
difference if some other node were the actual reference location. With this
simple loading, it is obvious that all other nodes will be less than Node 284
but with more complicated loading situations, this quickly becomes unclear.
Hint: PFPOST can also tabulate safety factor results. When you invoke
PFPOST, type the .fos extension onto the jobname. This way it will pick
up the jobname.fos result file created by a Factor-of-Safety analysis
instead of the default jobname.fef file from regular life analysis.
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Design Philosophies
Solution Parameters
Accept all the defaults on this form.
Material Information
The material used in this analysis is BS4360-50D. This
material is already in the materials database. Assume
there is a good machined finish with no surface treatment. Open the Material Info...
form and fill out the spreadsheet as follows:
1. Material: BS4360-50D
2. Surface Finish: Good Machined
3. Surface Treatment: No Treatment
4. Region: default_group
This group contains the nodes for the entire model.
Loading Information
The load history is identical to that of the S-N analysis of the lug weld problem.
Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and set the Action to Full Analysis and press the Apply
button to run the job. Monitor the job form time to time until it is complete.
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Results
Open the Results... form from the main MSC.Fatigue setup form and read the results
in.
Do a contour plot of the log of the life
(in Years) or list the results using
PFPOST to identify the node with the
shortest life. Note that the initiation
life is approximately 3000 cycles at
Node 7 or about 4 years assuming 2
lifts per day.
On the Results... form set the Action to
Optimize, select Node 7 to run the
design optimization mode of FEFAT.
Set the design life to 100. After re-
analyzing Node 7 and entering into
the main menu, do a Sensitivity
analysis on surface Finishes (all). Do
not forget to press the Recalculate
switch. Note that a polished surface only increases the life to less than 6 years. This is
obviously not sufficiently long, even with a polished surface.
The Safe Life design philosophy would have us scrap this component after 4 to 6 years
depending on surface finish/treatment we could apply or impose. This would be OK
if the component were small and inexpensive and easy to replace such as automobile
parts. However, this is not an option in the case, and the existence of a crack will not
hinder the operation, nor is it a safety critical item. However, this calculation is only
to crack initiation. There may still be many years of life left in this assembly depending
on how fast this crack propagates.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. Before we can fill this
form out completely we need additional information
about the crack geometry, namely the compliance
function. Run PKSOL (press the Compliance Generator
button) and create a compliance function for a specimen
with a double crack at a hole in tension where R = 15mm
and W = 70mm. Call it LUG. These are the PKSOL steps:
1. Millimeters
2. Generate a Y function table
3. Output K-Solution Filename: LUG
4. Cracks a holes
5. Double crack at a hole in tension
6. Define
7. R: 15
8. W: 70
9. Changes: Carriage Return - no changes
10. Calculate
Select Plot Y function against crack ratio to see the graph of the crack ratio.
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Hint: You can plot the compliance functions from the Solution Params... form
(if you have done so from PKSOL first) by selecting a compliance
function from the listbox and pressing the Plot button. To remove the
plot, press the Unpost or Delete buttons.
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Design Philosophies
Material Information
Open the Material Info... form. Before filling the form out however, create a group
with only Node 223 in it. Call the group far_field. Node 223 is chosen to indicate the
area of nominal or far-field stress. It is not too close to the high stress gradient where
the influence of the hole is dominant. LEFM theory is based on a nominal far-field
stress.
The material again is BS4360-50D and the environment is air. The properties for this
material are already in the materials database manager. On the Material Info... form
set the cells of the spreadsheet as follows:
1. Material: BS4360-50D
2. Environment: air
3. Region: far_field
This group contains the node of the far field stress point only.
Loading Information
The load time history is identical to the previous two lug analyses.
Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and set the Action to Full Analysis and press the Apply
button to run the job. Monitor the job form time to time until it is complete.
Results
Open the Results... form and with the Action set to List Results, press Apply to invoke
PCPOST. View the Results summary page and the final a-N curve. Note that the
crack takes over 150 years to grow to a critical size before total failure. Then close
PCPOST.
The Damage Tolerant design philosophy would have us determine an inspection
interval. Re-run the analysis by changing the Action to Optimize. Accept all the
defaults on each setup screens presented to you by PCRACK. When the analysis
begins you will notice that the crack grows, but fairly slowly. Therefore, you could feel
good about a fairly long interval between inspections (say once a year).
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Design Philosophies
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Multiple Loads
9
■ Problem Description
■ S-N Analysis of Engine Mounting Lug
■ Crack Growth Analysis of Engine Lug
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Objectives
• To assess the fatigue life of safety critical items
• To demonstrate setup of multiple loading conditions
• To determine the critical location
• To assess a damage tolerant design
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Multiple Loads
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/mounting_lug.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/lug.mat
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/lug.ksn
As you can see, each load case gives a different stress distribution. It is not clear from
these stress plots where the critical location will be when combined. To begin, start
Pre&Post or MSC.Patran and import the model and results using the MSC.Nastran
results file mounting_lug.op2 into a new database called mounting_lug.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solutions Params... form and set the Design
Criterion (certainty of survival) at 96%, i.e., we are going to
predict the lifetime we expect 96% of these mounting lug
components to exceed. Accept the default Goodman mean
stress correction method (which tends to be a bit
conservative) in conjunction with the Abs. Max. Principal
stress to use in the fatigue analysis.
Material Information
A material test was performed for this titanium alloy and a material S-N curve created.
It needs to be loaded into the materials database. Copy the file lug.mat to your
working directory. Go to the Tools pulldown menu and select MSC.Fatigue (for the
MSC.Patran version) or Fatigue Utilities (for the Standalone version). Under this
pulldown menu select Material Management and then ASCII Materials File Reader.
Use the form that comes up to read in the lug.mat file.
An alternative method would be to issue the
pfmat @lug.mat
Note: If you open this file, lug.mat, and examine its contents you will find all the
parameters necessary to define and load the material, lugmaterial, into the
database. Any MSC.Fatigue module that runs in batch mode can accept a file
of parameters to define its operation. Use the file name as the argument with
the @ symbol in front of the file name. Likewise, the parameters themselves
can be used as the arguments also, e.g., fefat /opt=a/inp=jobname/ov=y.
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Define a Group
The fatigue problem is clearly going to be
around the hole, so we can speed up the
analysis by calculating fatigue damage for
this area only. To create this group we are
going to enlist the help of the List function. First open the Group | Create form. Create
a new group called hole. In the Entity Selection databox include only the elements on
the inside of the hole. The easiest way to do this is to use the graphical polygon
picking. Zoom in on the hole using the View Corners icon on the top level form (you
click and drag a rectangle around the area of interest). Set the Select Mechanism to
pick only Quad elements. Select all the inside elements by placing the cursor just
inside the inner-most layer of elements and press and hold down the control key to
surround the elements as you drag the mouse. Each click of the mouse will define a
new corner of your polygon. Double click to close the polygon when you get near the
starting point.
Start
View End
Corners Icon Drag Polygon Making the
Polygon Pick
Select Mechanism Drag Hold down the
Click Control key
and click the mouse
to create polygon
corners.
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Loading Information
In practice the load could be in any direction. However for practical reasons we can
not have an infinite number of load cases, so we have applied a finite number around
the perimeter of the hole and will simulate loading in any particular direction by a
linear combination of the nearest two load cases. In the original FE analysis, eight load
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Multiple Loads
cases were set up around the perimeter. To simplify things for this example we use
only four of these in the fatigue analysis. Of course, the more load cases you use in a
case like this, the more accurate the simulation of the load distribution at any instant.
In this analysis the four load cases used are in positive
and negative x and y directions, respectively.
Originally the x and y loadings contained both
positive and negative content. The problem with this
is that when you have loading via a pin as in this case.
The stress distribution for a unit negative x loading is
not -1 times the stress distribution for a positive x
loading. Positive and negative loads have to be
treated as separate load cases, with separate load
histories. For this reason, the x and y loadings are
separated into positive and negative parts.
Hint: This was simply achieved using a MSC.Fatigue utility routine module
called MFRM (formula processor). If you have a measured or derived
time variation that you wish to separate into positive only and negative
only components, use MFRM.
Multi-file Display
Look at the time variations of the four load cases. Open the Loading Info... form and
press the Time History Manager button. This time, instead of copying from the
Central database, copy from Remote and specify the directory where the example
files reside such as, e.g.,
<install_dir>/mscfatigue_files/examples/
or
x:\<install_dir>\mscfatigue_files\examples\
Note: You can select all four histories by holding down the Shift key as you select
them.
You will need to Change an entry | edit Details and change the load Units to
kNewtons, the Number of fatigue equivalent units to 1000, and the Fatigue equivalent
units to Flights for each history. Each repeat of the combined load history is equal to
1000 flights.
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Note: If you make a mistake selecting the files for multi channel display, you can
always add to or delete from the currently selected list. Simply press the List
button again and a menu will appear allowing you to make modification to
the list of files. If you are already in graphical display, select File | New
File(s) to return to the file selection screen.
Note that all the histories have positive values. The stress distributions from the FE
analyses will be used to define the actual sign (positive or negative). Click on Full Plot
to see the same plots as shown above. Close the graphics by selecting File | Exit and
then quit from PTIME.
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Note: The spreadsheet is filled out in exactly the same manner as with a single
load. With multiple load cases however, it is only necessary to Get/Filter
Results... once. Each subsequent time you fill in a cell with a load case ID, all
results remain in the selection listbox. Also note that the actual load case IDs
may vary from what is shown in the table.
Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and set the Action to Full Analysis and press the Apply
button to run the job. Monitor the job form time to time until the job is complete. The
job, because of the complexity of the loading, takes a few minutes to run.
where the elastic FE stresses, σij, from each load case, k, are normalized by the load
magnitude from the FE analysis, Pfea and then multiplied by the time variation of the
loading, Pk(t). The result of summing over all load cases gives the total stress time
variation at each location of the model.
Or in terms of strains for Crack Initiation jobs:
Time FE Load FE Load Local Strain
Histories Case Results Case Loads Histories
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Results
The quick evaluation is to read the results in and do a contour plot of life. Do this by
opening the Results... form from the MSC.Fatigue main form and press the Apply
button with the Action set to Read Results.
Now make a fringe plot of life. Open the Results
application from the main form in Pre&Post or
MSC.Patran. Select the result case called Total Life,
mountinglug_snfef and select Log of Life (Flights)
and press the Apply button. A fringe plot of only the
first ring of elements will appear.
Critical Node 1121
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Multiple Loads
Note: If you have not noticed already, when results are read into the database a
new color spectrum, fatigue_spectrum, is made which has the opposite
color scheme as that used for plotting stresses. This is done to display lowest
life in red just as highest stress is plotted in red. You can change the
spectrum under the Display | Spectrums if necessary to revert back to the
other spectrum, standard_spectrum. You may have to re-create the plot to
make the spectrum active.
The lowest value of around 6 in the spectrum/range means that the shortest predicted
lifetime is around 2E6 Flights. This comfortably exceeds the design life of around
30,000 Flights. Close the Results application by pressing on its switch again in the top
menu bar and then re-open the MSC.Fatigue main form if it is not already open.
Now go to the MSC.Fatigue Results... form and set the Action to List Results and press
the Apply button. List the Most damaged nodes as done in previous exercises to find
the node with the lowest life (Node 1120). This will be useful later. Exit from PFPOST.
Change the Action to Optimize from on the Results... form. Do not select a node on
this form. Press Apply. Use the first page of FEFAT’s Design Optimization option to
select the Worst Case node. Enter the design life of 30000 flights and press OK. Press
the End button after being presented with the analysis results for the worst case node.
First look at the cycles results Display | plot Cycles histogram and damage
histograms (results Display | plot Damage histogram). You can see that the loadings
in the critical region are predominantly tensile.
Cycles Damage
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Multiple Loads
Solution Parameters
Copy the file lug.ksn to your working directory.
Open the Solution Params... form. A compliance function for the specimen has been
created to define the crack geometry. It was empirically derived via specimen tests
and curve fit to a polynomial function. It was in this form, using PKSOL, that it was
input (by defining the coefficients of User parametric definition).
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Hint: Compliance function files(.ksn) have the same format as .dac (time
history) files and can be plotted by PTIME and other MSC.Fatigue
modules that do graphical X-Y displays such as MQLD.
In this case the starting crack size is the minimum detectable crack size of 1.5 mm and
the final crack length is the width of the lug from the critical location. In practice of
course, the fracture toughness K1C may be reached before the crack grows right
through, and in any case, the Y function may not be valid at this point. For instance,
the Y function used in this calculation is not valid beyond a/T=0.85.
Fill out the Solution Params... form as follows:
1. Select a Compliance Function: lug
2. Stress Combination: Max. Abs. Principal
3. Crack Length Units: Millimeters
4. Initial Crack Length: 1.5
5. Final Crack Length: 24.0
Leave the defaults for all else not specified here and close the form.
Material Information
Open the Material Info... form.
The material information form looks similar to that for the S-N analysis, but has a few
notable differences. Number of Materials is grayed out, because we can consider only
one material at a time. The options to correct for surface finish and roughness are no
longer appropriate, but the material may have a number of LEFM data sets for
different environments. lugmaterial has only air data, but if you select BS4360-50D
there are 5 sets of different environments.
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Create a Group
The Region means something different here also. The software will average the stress
across the calculation region for use in the crack growth calculation. In this analysis,
we will use the stress from the critical Node 1120 only. Open the Group | Create form
and create a group called critical_node. This stress used in the equation for K (shown
earlier) is known as the far field stress or the stress that would be there if there were
no crack (or notch influence).
Once this group is created close the form and go back to the Material Info... form.
Loading Information
The loading information form is
exactly the same as for the S-N
job.
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Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and set the Action to Full Analysis and press the Apply
button to run the job. Monitor the job form time to time until it is complete.
Results
PCRACK can also be run interactively by selecting Optimize from the Results... form
menu. This is more revealing as you get an on-line display of crack growth.
Do this now and accept all the defaults, and overwrite existing files. Watch the crack
grow to failure.
Note that failure is not predicted
to occur within the 30,000 Flight
design life (~49,000 Flights). The
final a-N curve can usefully be
used to determine acceptable
inspection intervals. Note also
that the crack only grew over 5
mm before the fracture toughness
of the material was exceeded.
There are a number of other ways
of postprocessing the results.
These can be accessed by running
PCPOST (the List Results option
from the Results... form menu.)
You may like to explore these if
you wish.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
A Multiaxial Assessment
10
■ Problem Description
■ Geometry
■ Determine the Critical Location
■ Evaluate Results
■ Concluding Remarks
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Objectives
• To assess where the critical fatigue locations are in a component due to
multiple loading conditions
• To explore the application of the biaxiality analysis feature and
interpretation of the results
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• To assess the multiaxial stress state and make decisions on the validity of the
fatigue analysis, i.e., are the original uniaxial assumptions valid, does
proportional loading have to be taken into account, or does a critical plane
analysis need to be done.
Table 10-1 Chapter 10 Necessary Files
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/knuckle.out
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/knuckle*.nod
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/knuckle.nod_tmpl
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/knuckle.ses
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/knuckle_ma.fin
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/knuckle*.dac
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/knuckle_ma.fef
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10.2 Geometry
Because this is a fairly large model with a time consuming analysis, and for the sake
of simplifying this example, it has been semi-automated for you. This is done to help
speed up the study of this exercise. However, all the steps necessary to reproduce the
results manually are indicated if you so desire.
To begin, start up Pre&Post or MSC.Patran and open a new database giving it the
name knuckle. (Any Analysis Preference will do for this analysis, but leave it at
MSC.Nastran when asked.) Initially you will need these files copied over from the
central installation area to a clean, empty working directory: knuckle.out,
knuckle*.nod, knuckle.nod_tmpl. (There are 12 .nod files where * = 1 through 12.)
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Post/Create Groups
The entire model should have appeared in the graphics screen including the loading
devices. The neutral file that you read in the previous step contained some convenient
groups called KNUCKLE_ONLY and SURFACE_NODE. Post the
KNUCKLE_ONLY group from Group | Post; select KNUCKLE_ONLY and press
Apply. Only the knuckle itself should appear in the viewport now.
These groups were created automatically for you, however we digress a bit here to
teach you how to easily create some convenient groups for subsequent fatigue
analysis. These techniques are especially helpful with large solid models. This
discussion is not crucial to the successful completion of this exercise. You may skip to
the next step if you wish.
Graphically surround all element of the model using the mouse by clicking and
dragging from the top left corner down to the bottom right corner. All the elements
with free faces will be selected. Press the Apply button to add these elements to the
List A form, then on the List A form press the Add to Group... button. On the form
that appears, give a new group name such as Surface_elements and press the Apply
button. Press Cancel to close the form. A new group now exists with only the external
elements.
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Now on the Create List form, set the focus (click the mouse) in
the Element Face databox. The Select Mechanism will appear
again from which you should select Free face of element.
Then surround the entire model (by clicking and dragging
with the mouse) as you did before to select all free faces. Press
the Apply button. The List B form will fill with the nodes associated to the free faces.
Add these nodes to the group Surface_elements. Now you have a group with only the
external elements and the external nodes of the model.
Cancel the Create List form to close it down.
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you need to resolve your stresses, MSC.Fatigue can do this for you with a couple of
easy steps. Physically the out-of-plane stresses must be zero (unless subject to some
sort of hydrostatic pressure).
Note: It is always good to know in what coordinate system the stresses have been
output from the FE analysis, i.e., the global system, or some defined element
coordinate system.
Calculate Normals
Although this is not necessary for this example, to have MSC.Fatigue surface resolve
your stresses for you during a fatigue analysis you must first create a vector file (for
coordinate transformations).
Before submitting your fatigue job, open the Job Control... form. The Calculate
Normals option is an essential precursor to running the biaxiality analysis with a solid
model if you know your results are not surface resolved (z-normal is not zero). This
routine determines surface normals at each surface node, and writes them to the file
jobname.vec. MSC.Fatigue detects the presence of this file and uses it to define a local
coordinate system at each surface node that has its z-axis normal to the surface. The
stress results in the fatigue analysis input file are then written in this coordinate
system, permitting the software to carry out a biaxiality analysis in the x-y plane only.
Do not run this unless you have some time
to spare because of the size of this model.
(Besides the stresses are already surface A Normals
resolved.) A graphical depiction of a Calculation
normal vector calculation is shown to the
side.
During the fatigue analysis translation
surface resolved stress tensor files are
created with the name jobname_lc#.nod
where the # is the load case number. There
will be one file for each load case in the
fatigue analysis setup. You can read these
.nod files back into the database exactly as
described earlier (using the jobname.nod_tmpl file) to evaluate the success of the
surface stress resolution (by plotting the Z component stress from these files).
Note: If you do run the Calculate Normals option while going through this
problem, be sure to use a different jobname than the one used in the analysis
described in this chapter. The analysis will detect the .vec file and use it if the
job names are the same. This will not effect the fatigue results but will result
in an erroneous biaxiality analysis because each nodal stress tensor is in its
own local coordinate (since it is already surface resolved) which is unknown
by Pre&Post or MSC.Patran which makes the local coordinate
transformation invalid.
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Hint: Another way to easily and conveniently read in an old job setup file is to
type the jobname in the Jobname databox on the main form and press the
carriage return. If a file called jobname.fin is detected in the local
directory, it will be read. This can be more convenient than opening the
Job Control... form.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form.
1. Analysis Method: S-W-T
S-W-T (Smith-Topper-Watson) is a variant on the
standard strain-life methodology which takes into
account the mean stress of each cycle.
2. Plasticity Correction: Neuber
Neuber is the default elastic-plastic correction method.
3. Run Biaxiality Analysis: ON
This is the only real variant from previous examples.
4. Biaxiality Correction: None
This is the default correction method. Correction methods will be discussed
later.
5. Stress/Strain Combination: Max. Abs. Principal
The Max. Abs. Principal is the default choice of Stress/Strain Combination.
This is the principal strain that has the largest magnitude (in a uniaxial test,
this would be the axial strain).
6. Certainty of Survival (%): 50.0
The Certainty of Survival (%) defaults to 50%. This means that the
component will have a 50% chance of surviving the calculated life. The
probability is based on the scatter defined in the material parameters.
7. Run Factor of Safety Analysis: OFF
Many components are designed for infinite life, e.g., crankshafts; these are
better analyzed using a Run Factor of Safety Analysis. This is not covered by
this demonstration.
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Material Information
Open the Material Info... form. The original material of this component is not used in
this example analysis. Instead a representative material, for illustration purposes only,
has been selected.
The material information form is used to assign fatigue properties to different parts
(groups) of the model. You can have up to 20 different groups which may have any
combination of materials, surface finishes and treatments. Clicking on the material
box gives access to a picklist of suitable materials from the database. Corrections can
be made for surface finish and treatment. These are valid only for steels, though you
can set up your own corrections if desired. In the case of this analysis, no correction is
made, because the specimens were tested as-cast, i.e., with the same surface condition
as the component. The region for this analysis is the group containing the surface
nodes only. This speeds up the analysis.
The spreadsheet on the Material Info... form is filled out as follows:
1. Material: MANTEN
2. Finish: No Finish
3. Treatment: No Treatment
4. Region: KNUCKLE_ONLY
Note: You can change the Region to the group Surface_elements that you created
earlier if you wish as long as the nodes exist in it also. A very common
mistake that results in an error during translation is that the selected group
does not contain nodes when a nodal fatigue analysis has been requested or
the group does not contain elements when an element centroidal fatigue
analysis has been selected.
Close the Material Info... form down when done. Always use the OK button when
changes have been made. If you use the Cancel button, any changes will not be saved.
Loading Information
Copy the load variation signals to you local directory. They are called knuckle*.dac
where * is a wild card for the twelve load cases.
Open the Loading Info... form.
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One point ought to be made here. Nine of the 12 loads are forces in Newtons. The other
three are Moments in Nmm. We loaded all files as Forces (N). In practice, this makes
no difference at all to the analysis. The load type and units are simply labels. It is up
to the user to make sure that the loading in the time history file and the loading in the
FE model use consistent and compatible units regardless of how they are labelled.
called ltypes.ind and utypes.ind. You can edit these files to add your own load types
and/or units if they do not exist. For instance, edit utypes.ind and add the following
line at the bottom of the file:
92 11 0.001 0 Nmm
The first number indicates the unit type ID; the second is the load type ID defined in
ltypes.ind that the units are associated to; the third defines the conversion from SI
units (N, m); the forth is an offset; and the fifth is the common name. See the
MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide for more details.
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If you are able to modify this file and wish to edit the details to change the moment
units, you will have to stop and restart PTIME for it to recognize the changes.
If you don’t have access to modify these files then simply select Nm as the unit types
since it will not make any difference to the resulting fatigue calculations.
Note: The only time that the actual load type and units are important is when you
use the PTIME option Change an entry | Unit conversion to convert the
selected time history to other units, although a compatibility check is made
between the header of a .dac file and that specified in the jobname.fes file.
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loads are set to 333 (N) instead of 1000. This effectively scales all the loads up by a
factor of 3. This has been done to make the pictures prettier - the first pass analysis
showed very little damage. The other peculiarity is the sign. This is due to a difference
between the coordinate set used in the FE model and that in which the load histories
were defined. The spreadsheet should be filled out accordingly.
Hint: There is a toggle called Fill Down on the Loading Info... form. If you have
many load cases, it becomes a tedious task to fill out each cell in the
spreadsheet. If you turn this toggle ON when you select anything such as
a Load Case ID or Time History, all cells below the active cell will also be
filled in by selecting the next Load Case ID or Time History available.
This is a very convenient tool.
Note: Depending on the coordinate system in which your stresses are defined, you
may want or need to set the Transform to Basic option ON in the Loading
Info... form. This will have the effect of transforming all results into the
global system such that all results are in the same coordinate system before
nodal averaging. This ensures proper nodal averaging and that the
subsequent surface resolution will be as good as possible.
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Job Control
If you do not want to wait for the analysis to run, copy the file knuckle_ma.fef to your
directory and go on to the Evaluate Results (p. 197). Otherwise, open the Job
Control... form and set the Action to Full Analysis and press the Apply button to run
the job. Monitor the job form time to time until the job is complete. Because of the
complexity of the loading, the job takes a while to run.
Note: If you do not want to wait that long, you might want to do the fast analysis
run instead.
Fast Analysis
Your analysis can be made to run faster by selecting the Simplified Analysis toggle in
the Job Control... form for a multiple load case analysis and turning it ON. The
analysis will perform peak-valley-slicing to reduce the time histories and run the
analysis using these reduced time histories. This quickly identifies the nodes with the
most damage and then the original time histories are used in a complete analysis on
only the identified locations.
Note: This does make it more difficult to view the critical locations in the form of a
contour plot because only the damaged locations are retained in a Simplified
Analysis. The contour plot will not be continuous over the entire model.
CPU Times
There are certain thing that will affect the CPU time it takes to run a fatigue analysis.
These are:
1. Number of Analysis Locations (Nodes or Elements). Selecting only a certain
group of locations can certainly speed up the operation. Knowing which
areas to include in the group(s) you create is the challenge if you do not know
where the critical locations are before hand.
2. The Number of Load Cases. There is not much you can do about this. The
number of load cases required is generally the number of load cases
required. However you may be able to eliminate some load cases if they have
no influence on the life.
3. The Number of Time History Points. The number of points in each time
history is a significant factor. The longer the time histories, the more
computationally intensive is the rainflow cycle counting procedure. Peak-
valley-slicing can be used to reduce time histories and still retain the
damaging events.
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4. The Processor Speed. The final influence on the CPU time is the processor
speed of course.
Peak-Valley-Slicing
The original load histories which were around 44,000 points, have been reduced using
a multi-channel peak-valley-slicing program called MPVXMUL. They have been
reduced down to around 1600 points.
Peak-valley-slicing is a fairly simple mechanism which tracks and extracts the peaks
and the valleys of all signals to be used in an analysis. Whenever a peak or a valley is
encountered in one of the signals, the corresponding points from the other signals are
also retained. This procedure can be accomplished directly from PTIME using the
Multi-channel... | Peak Valley Extract option, which will run MPVXMUL. You may
wish to try this while the analysis is running.
Open PTIME from the Loading Info... form and invoke
PTIME from the Time History Manager button. Then
select the Multi-channel | Peak Valley Extract option.
When MPVXMUL appears select DAC as the file type.
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Hint: All your listings have been written to the file pfatigue.prt, which is an
ASCII file that acts as a report file for all MSC.Fatigue activity.
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If you are so inclined you may run FEFAT’s design optimization mode to view
rainflow histogram plots or do sensitivity analyses or a number of other activities.
This is done from the Results... form with the Action set to Optimize. Since these
operations have been covered in detail in previous exercises, this will be left out of this
discussion.
Hint: The influence of individual load cases can be investigated using FEFAT
from the Job Control... form with the Action set to Interactive.... From the
Preprocessing and analysis pick in FEFAT you can specify a single node
to process and then edit individual load cases to change scaling factors or
even the time histories themselves. Be aware that the jobname.fpp and
jobname.fef files will be overwritten each time however.
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When the biaxiality analysis is negative (as indicated by the Mohr's circles of stress),
the maximum shear plane where cracks tend to initiate is oriented as shown in the
diagram. In the early stages of initiation the type A cracks grow mainly along the
surface in Mode 2 (shear), before transitioning to Mode 1, normal to the maximum
principal stress.
When the biaxiality is positive however the cracks tend to be driven more through the
thickness. These are therefore more damaging for the same levels of shear strain.
Uniaxial loading is a special case.
φp ae Rarity/Difficulty
Non-proportional Loading may vary may vary Most rare and tricky to deal
with.
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Biaxiality Indicators
A biaxiality analysis calculates three main indicators available for graphical plotting
along with the damage and life.
1. Mean Biaxiality Ratio: Plot this result
type from the Results application. This
is the average value of the biaxiality
ratio over the entire combined time
signals for every location. The average is
carried out throughout the loading
history, except values are ignored if the
stress does not exceed a gate value set by
default to 20% of UTS. Zero indicates
uniaxial (or below gate), -1 pure shear
(torsion), +1 equi-biaxial and 0.3 plane
strain. We can see here that most of the
model remains below the gate, the
critical region is very close to uniaxial and the steering arm experiences
considerable shear (torsion). If you have ratios of +0.3 or more, it may be
better to use the signed Tresca strain combination method, as this will be
more conservative.
2.Biaxiality Ratio Standard Deviation:
This parameter provides a measure of the
variability of the biaxiality ratio, i.e., is the
loading proportional or not. Small values
(close to zero) denote proportional
loadings. Non-proportional loadings are
more difficult to handle, and the results
may be misleading. If you plot this (use
the standard spectrum selection on the
form - Display | Spectrums... ) you will
see that once again, the critical area
presents no problem and all the action
seems to be on the steering arm.
Proportional loading indicates that the magnitudes of σ1 and σ2 vary
proportionally to one another. Large standard deviations in the biaxiality
ratio indicate non-proportionality between these two stresses.
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Biaxiality Cross-Plots
Close down the Results application (by selecting
the Results switch again on the main form) and go
back to the main MSC.Fatigue setup form. Open
the Job Control... form; set the Action to
Interactive... and press Apply to run the FE fatigue
analyzer FEFAT.
FEFAT will start by presenting you its main menu.
Select Assess multiaxiality. The next screen
presented will ask you what location to assess
besides the jobname and output file which should be defaulted to knuckle_ma. Enter
7977 as the node number for the location to assess multiaxiality. Press the OK button
to proceed accepting all the other defaults. The analysis will present you with a
summary form. Press End to close this form down and be placed in the main Analysis
Postprocessing menu for assessing multiaxiality.
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A Multiaxial Assessment
Note: The gate value used was zero (the default). To properly check for mobility
you should set a reasonable gate value to exclude small stress/strain cycles
that may mislead you in the interpretation of the angle spread which will be
reported larger than it really is for the damaging cycles only.
4. Angle Distribution:
This is another way of
looking at the stress
tensor mobility. This
plots displays the
number of times each
angle, φp, appeared
during the loading
sequence. A spike
indicates the
predominate angle.
The other angles that
appeared occasionally
are generally due to the
lower stress cycles as
indicated by the
previous plot.
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Finally repeat these steps for a different node where there is a lot of mobility in the
stress tensor, say Node 1045 which is located on the steering arm. A multiaxial
condition results in plots as seen at this node: random and scattered for ae and φp not
constant (flops back and forth between two predominant angles indicating a shear
condition). Note however that the stress range is much less than that at Node 7977 and
therefore is not of concern to us. Exit from all programs when you are finished.
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206
into consideration that a cycle may begin on one plane and close on another. The notch
correction procedure of correcting for plasticity also becomes complicated and uses a
kinematic hardening model (the equivalent of using Neuber and Masing’s hypothesis
for a uniaxial stress state). It is an advanced subject and beyond the scope of this text.
But procedures do exist in MSC.Fatigue.
The moral of the story is to not assume a non-proportional loading situation just
because the external loading and geometry are complex:
1. First assume a uniaxial stress state and perform the fatigue analysis.
2. Run a biaxiality analysis to produce the stress state parameters needed to
evaluate multiaxiality.
3. Evaluate the biaxiality parameters at the critical locations to determine if any
corrections need to be made for proportional or non-proportional loading.
The evaluation criteria for proportional or non-proportional loading is as such:
1. If ae is close to zero and φp is constant, uniaxial assumptions stand.
2. If ae is non-zero but constant and φp is constant, a state of proportional
loading exists. Compensation can be made by using the Material Parameter
or Hoffman-Seeger methods to modify the uniaxial material properties.
Hint: For ae=0 Signed Tresca, Signed von Mises and Max. Abs. Principal
should give close to the same results. If ae is negative, Max. Abs.
Principal is the best choice. If ae is positive, Signed Tresca is the best
choice. These comments apply to the crack initiation approach. If using
stress life it is best to stick with Max. Abs. Principal.
3. If neither ae or φp are constant but vary significantly above the stress gate, a
state of non-proportional loading exists. Compensation must be made by
using the full multiaxial fatigue analyzer, FEMLF to do critical plane
analysis.
Note: Critical plane analyses can be computationally expensive since they requires
multiple calculations at every location.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart GuideLK
CHAPTER
Welding
11
■ Introduction
■ Problem Description for Spot Weld Analysis with Spot Welds
Modeled as Stiff BARS
■ Geometry and FE Results
■ Define a Group of CBARS
■ Spot Weld S-N Analysis
■ Concluding Remarks
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11.1 Introduction
The Spot Weld Module supports three commonly used methods for modeling Spot Welds:
1. Spot welds modeled as stiff MSC.Nastran CBARS.
2. Spot welds modeled as MSC.Nastran CWELD elements. The ALIGN, GRIDID and
ELEMID options on the CWELD connectivity are supported.
3. Spot welds modeled with MSC.Nastran CHEX/MPC elements.
Each of these methods are illustrated with examples.
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Welding
Objective
• To illustrate spot weld fatigue analysis setup and usage
• To determine the location of the weakest spot welds due to the imposed loading
conditions
Table 11-1 Chapter 11 Necessary Files
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/spot.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/horizontal.asc
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/vertical.asc
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/torque.asc
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Point 2
Point 3
Sheet 2
Sheet 1
Weld
Point 1
nugget
A typical spot-weld is illustrated above. The shaded part is the spot weld nugget. Again, the
length of the CBAR element must be 0.5(s1+s2) where s1 and s2 are the thicknesses of sheets 1
and 2 respectively. Point 3 is on the axis of the weld nugget and at the interface of the 2 sheets,
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Welding
i.e., 0.5s1 from Point 1. All forces and moments are taken to be in the MSC.Fatigue CBAR
element coordinate system illustrated below. This is taken to be a Cartesian system with the Z
axis going from Point 1 to Point 2.
Plane 2
y
y z
Plane 1
z x
MSC.Fatigue spot-weld coordinate system
The translator extracts forces and moments Fx,y,z and Mx,y,z in the MSC.Fatigue coordinate
system, and in the conventional right-handed sense, from the results in the database, for each
of the three specified points. These forces and moments (except Mz) are used to calculate
nominal stresses (structural stresses) on the inner surface of sheet 1 and sheet 2, and in the weld
nugget at the interface of the two sheets, at intervals around the circumference of the spot weld
(θ=0 degrees to 360 degrees by increments of 10 degrees). The forces and moments at points
1 and 2 are those applied by the spot welds on the sheets, and the forces and moments at point
3 will be those applied by the upper section (between point 3 and point 2) on the lower section
(between point 1 and point 3).
Fy My
My
Sheet 1
Fy
My
Nugget Fx Mx
Fy Fz
Fx Mx
Fz
Fz Fx Mx
Sheet 2
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Note: d ifferent groups may be created for spot welds that connect across different flange
D
pair thicknesses. However, care must be exercised to ensure that duplicate elements
(CBARS) do not exist in different groups. Overlaps are not permitted. If this does
occur, the characteristics of the CBAR from the last group will be adopted.
Automatic group creation, meaning grouping CBARS that connect across the same
flange thickness pairs, is feasible when the Material form is filled out (see next
section) if the bulk data file for a model is read into the Patran database.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. There is only one
setting on this form for a Spot Weld analysis, namely the
design criterion, or Certainty of Survival. By default it is
set at 50%. This parameter has been discussed in detail in
previous exercises. It is the association with the scatter of
the S-N curve. To be 90% confident of reaching the
design life, set this value to 90. For our example problem
simply accept the default of 50%.
Material Information
Setting up the material information for a Spot Weld analysis is similar to other fatigue analyses
with a few differences. The major difference is that you must define groups with CBAR
elements only. The spot weld nuggets themselves can differ in radius, and the sheets to which
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they attach can differ in thickness. For each combination of spot weld nugget radius and sheet
thicknesses you must define a group. Also each location on the spot weld (sheet1, sheet2,
nugget) can be associated with a different S-N curve.
for Nf < Nc1, the transition life. For Nf > Nc1 a second slope b2 is used. It is possible to correct
each cycle with amplitude S and mean stress Sm to calculate an equivalent stress amplitude S0
at R=0:
S + MS m
S 0 = -----------------------
M+1
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1. Number of Groups: 1
Up to 165 different combinations of spot weld nugget diameters, sheet thicknesses,
and corresponding S-N curves can be created. If you change this setting, be sure to
press the carriage return to affect the change. The spreadsheet rows will update to the
number you specify here.
2. Group: beams
Click on Group and pick BAR as the element type. Pick the group beams that you
created in the previous step and click on Fill Cell. We will not use the create Sub
Group option as we are assuming that all welds have the same properties, and default
values will be filled in the cells. You may want to experiment with this using your
own model by reading in a model that has element properties and experiment with
the Sub Group option. This option splits a selected group into a series of groups
based on the thickness pairs found at the end of the bar elements and load up the cells
automatically. The next cell will become active.
3. Diam: 4.8
This is the spot weld nugget diameter for the specified group of spot welds. If the
properties for this model were in the database this would have been calculated
automatically from a look up table (see MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide). Note that the
units must be consistent with that specified in the General Setup Parameters. The
diameter is specified in millimeters (and the sheet thicknesses). Enter the value and
press the carriage return. The next cell will become active.
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4. S-N(nug): spot_nugget_generic
This is the S-N curve for the spot weld nugget.
5. S-N(sh1): spot_sheet_generic
This is the S-N curve for the top sheet of the spot weld.
6. T(sh1): 1.8
This is the thickness of the top sheet. Enter the value and press the carriage return to
accept the number. The next cell will become active.
7. S-N(sh2): spot_sheet_generic
This is the S-N curve for the bottom sheet of the spot weld.
8. T(sh2): 1.8
This is the thickness of the bottom sheet. Enter the value and press the carriage
return. The last cell will become active.
9. SF: 1.0
This is an additional scale factor you may apply in the form of a Kf if desired. Accept
the default of unity by pressing the carriage return.
If more groups of spot welds had been defined, the next row would become active for data entry
just as we have filled out the first row. Close the form by pressing the OK button when finished.
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Loading Information
This is identical to all other fatigue analyses using the pseudo-static method. Transient FE
results are also supported. Open the Loading Info... form. You will notice that it appears
identical to all other analyses discussed thus far.
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Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and set the Action to Full Analysis and
press the Apply button to run the job. Monitor the job from time to
time until the job is complete. The job, because of the complexity of
the loading, and the number of spot welds takes a few minutes to run.
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Stress and fatigue damage are calculated at 10 degree intervals around the spot weld for the two
sheets. This also increases the calculation times.
Note: By default, calculations at the nugget are not done. You must run the Spot Weld
analyzer, SPOTW, interactively to do nugget calculation or to reduce the number of
angle calculations around the spot weld.
As already mentioned, this method requires spot welds to be modeled as stiff CBAR elements
in MSC.Nastran. The forces transmitted through these CBAR elements are used to calculate
the structural (nominal) stresses in the weld nugget and the adjoining sheet metal at intervals
around the perimeter of the nugget. These stresses can then be used to make fatigue life
predictions on the spot weld using a S-N (Total Life) method. Life is calculated using Linear
Damage Summation (Miner’s rule).
Results Evaluation
Open the Results... form and Read Results into the database. Two
results files are created by a Spot Weld analysis:
The jobname.fef (spotweld.fef) file is the normal result file that is
similar to other result files and is the result file read into the database.
It contains ten columns corresponding to worst damage, life, and log
of life for each spot weld including the angle of failure, the node ID (sheet 1, 2 or the nugget -
ID=0), and the maximum force encountered. The other results file is called jobname.spt
(spotweld.spt). It is an ASCII file that is queried by the actual spot weld analyzer, SPOTW,
with result reported at all angles and locations.
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change any setting you wish such as the marker type, the scale factor, and the color mapping.
Also try plotting some of the other results. When you are finished, press the Insight toggle
switch again to close Insight and return to the standard graphics screen.
Results Listings
Return to the main MSC.Fatigue setup form and on the
Results... form set the Action to List Results. This runs
the Spot Weld analyzer SPOTW in its List global results
mode.
Exit SPOTW and go to the Job Control... form and run
SPOTW from the Interactive... action. You can now see
all the options of SPOTW. The analysis was performed
in batch mode through Pre&Post or MSC.Patran,
however you can also run it interactively using the first selection, Estimate fatigue life. Listing
the results from the Results... form put you directly into the List global results option.
Another result listing option is the lisT.spt file. Press this button to list results. The Results
Filename SPOTWELD.SPT will be read. Keep all defaults and select OK. A Results
summary of the worst damaged element will be displayed.
Polar Plots
From SPOTW’s main menu select Results polar plot. Accept all defaults and press OK. This
will spawn a graphical program called MPOD that displays polar plots of damage. These plots
show life for the nugget and the two sheets around the circumference of the spot weld showing
you at which angle the worst damage occurs. It is very much like a critical plane analysis
display. The plot to the left shows life from the worst case element.
If you run Results polar plot again and this time select Maximum stress rate for the plot
parameters, you will get a different plot.
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The plot to the right shows the maximum stress ranges for the sheets and the nugget. Note that
this plots shows three curves, one for the nugget and each sheet. Sheet 2 shows the most stress
range and thus the reason for damage appearing from only sheet 2 in the first polar plot above.
The stress range in the other sheet and the nugget do not cause much, if any, damage.
Note: You may not see a third curve corresponding to the nugget calculations as shown in
the plots above when you do this on your own. This is because by default the nugget
is not calculated. If you want the nugget calculations, you have to turn them on when
running SPOTW interactively.
Sensitivity Analysis
SPOTW also has a Design optimization mode very similar to that of FEFAT. In fact, most of
the same options exist. Only those that are different are discussed here. It can be accessed from
the Results... form directly when the Action is set to Optimize or you can enter it from the Job
Control... form when you run SPOTW in Interactive... mode. You can play “What if games”
on the sheet thicknesses, nugget diameter, loading...etc. To enter Design optimization you must
supply an element number or specify the WORST element. The calculation will proceed with
a summary page and then you are placed in the Design Optimization main menu where you can
do a multitude of things similar to the FEFAT fatigue analyzer optimization mode.
For example, try a Sensitivity analysis | sheet 2 thickness and enter “(1.0,3.0,0.5)” which
indicates sheet thicknesses from 1 mm to 3 mm by increments of 0.5 mm will be analyzed.
Then go to result Display | Sensitivity plot to do a graphical display of the results.
You can experiment with other options as you see fit and when you are done, exit SPOTW and
quit from Pre&Post or MSC.Patran.
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Objective
• To illustrate Spot Weld fatigue analysis with CWELDS
• Reading CWELD results from the MSC.Fatigue or Fatigue Utilities menu
• To illustrate the auto spot weld group creation on the Materials form.
Table 11-2 Necessary Files for Section 11.6
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/spot_cweld.bdf
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/spot_cweld.op2
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Material form
The third objective of the exercise will be illustrated here. Open the Material form and do the
following:
1. For the Element Type select
CWELD.
2. Select the cweld_elem group
created above.
3. Turn Create Sub-groups on.
4. Click on the Fill Cell button.
The Material form cells will load up
automatically with 2 groups, with each
group of spot welds connecting a
different pair of flange thicknesses,
determined from the properties in Model
input file.
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Note: The diameters are calculated from the flange sheet thicknesses from an internal table
in the software and are based on mm units. Users may define their look up table in a
Spotweld.sys ascii file and place the file in the run directory
For this exercise, change the diameters of both groups to 5.4839 mm. The reason for this will
be evident in the next exercise. Press OK to accept the inputs.
Loading Form
As per the previous exercise, select the Loading Info… button on the main MSC.Fatigue form
and fill it out as follows:
1. Select the available Static
Loadcase (this time there will
only be one)
2. Pick the Weld Forces
(translational or rotational) for
the Load Case
3. Pick HORIZONTAL for the
time history
4. Normalize the loading history
by specifying the maximum
value of 999 in the load
magnitude cell.
5. Press OK to accept the inputs.
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For more complex models, Users may want to read the results into the Patran database and
display results using marker plots as per the previous exercise.
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Objective
• To illustrate Spot Weld fatigue analysis with CHEX/MPC
• Converting CHEX/MPC results to equivalent BAR results
• To illustrate the auto spot weld group creation on the Materials form.
• Displaying Analysis results on the CHEX Spotwelds.
Table 11-3 Necessary Files for Section 11.7
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/spot_chex.bdf
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/spot_chex.op2
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Note: Only the element GPFORCE results belonging to the selected results case will be
used.
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Element forces and moments of the selected spot weld elements are calculated. The results for
the selected result case will be named
Material form
Open the Material form, select CHEX as the modeling method and press Fill Cell. The
Material form is filled automatically with the Spot Weld Groups.
Note: The same number of Spot Weld groups are created as per the previous exercise. The
flange thickness associations are also the same. The only difference is that the
diameters of the Spot weld nuggets are calculated from the volumes of the HEXA
elements instead of through derivation from the flange sheet thicknesses. We will
use this diameter for results comparison with the previous exercise.
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Loading Form
As per the previous exercise, the steps for filling out the loading form are exactly the same.
1. Select the Static Loadcase
2. Pick the Spot Weld Forces
(translational or rotational) for the
Load Case
3. Pick HORIZONTAL for the time
history
4. Normalize the loading history by
specifying the maximum value of 999
in the load magnitude cell.
5. Press OK to accept the inputs.
Note: Apart from the damage angle, the results are identical to the previous exercise. The
damage angle, is correct in both cases as it is relative to the definition of the
orientation of the weld.
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From the form shown at the right, select the Result Case and the
Result Type in order to display the results on the posted group.
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in which failure at the middle sheet (the common node between the two spot welds) is ignored.
The worst result for the remaining calculation points is written to both spot weld elements in
the resulting .fef file. The figures below show the results of the 3 sheet connection correction.
This option makes postprocessing the results easier by eliminating spurious predicted failures
at the middle sheet. Note however, that if the middle sheet really would fail (as we have noted
above that the life predicted on the middle sheet is indeed correct as it has the lowest thickness),
this will not be predicted either! However this does not appear to happen much in practice.
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The tubes are welded as shown and a point load of 394N is to the top of the upper tube.
Objective
• To illustrate seam weld analysis setup and usage
• To demonstrate the unique capability of automatically extracting the seam weld
analysis group
• To determine the most damaged nodes on a seam weld
The .op2 files necessary for the example problem are included in the installation as indicated
in the following table.
Table 11-4 Necessary Files for Section 11.9
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/seamw.op2 (Windows)
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/seamw_unix.op2 (UNIX)
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Note: This .op2 file contains the results from a MSC.Nastran run using the STRESS(cubic)
case control command that extrapolates element centroidal results to the nodes using
a cubic extrapolation function and PARAM,SNORM,22.5 which generates shell
normals to improve the accuracy of results in curved shells. Users should refer to the
MSC.Nastran User’s Guides for more information on these commands.
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Solution Parameters
Click on the Solution Parameters... button. The Mean Stress
correction, that is based on the Haigh Diagram, can be set
ON or OFF. For this example we will set it to OFF. The
certainty of survival can be adjusted but we will accept the
default 50%. Select OK to continue.
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Material Information
This form is used to create the seam weld analysis groups and select the fatigue properties of
the weld material. Fatigue analysis is carried out at the toe of the weld using the nodal stresses.
To make life easier for the user, the software will automatically create a group for these nodes.
The user needs to enter the weld group and the plate group (or the default group) and the
software creates a group of the shared nodes between these. Open the Materials Info... form,
click on the group entry. The Create Weld Group form should now appear as shown in the
following form.
Select the appropriate weld and plate groups and create a new group titled weld_toe.
Note: Internally, MSC.Fatigue appends “MW_” to the beginning of this name. If you wish
to create a node list for plotting results, this must be selected before creating the MW
group. We will not do this for this example. Click on Apply - a warning message
about the contribution from triangular elements that end up in the created group
(MX_toe.weld) is displayed. This message can be ignored. A new group containing
the nodes and elements along the weld_toe is now posted in the display window as
shown below. Note that only the toe elements are extracted which is the unique
feature of this module.
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Note: The new group should be automatically posted to the viewport and look like the
diagram below. If not, you can post it by going to Group | Post on the main
MSC.Patran form an selecting the group MW_weld.toe.
The new group is stored in the database with a MW_groupname. Note that groupname cannot
have any spaces, either leading, trailing or anywhere in between. There is no limit on the
number of MW_groupname groups that may be created and analysis is performed and results
are reported on the MW_groupname groups. If a MW_groupname group exists in the database
the group cell in the main form get populated automatically.
Note: If the Create node list was turned on, the user can now create a node list for plotting
various results by clicking in the Node list text box and selecting nodes from the
display of the MW_group (e.g., 1025, 139, 1040, 135, 1041, 142, 1038, 132, 1039,
148, 1042, 144, 999, 151, 995). The result plotted is in the order in which the nodes
are selected, i.e. the x-axis is the node list. Selecting Create node list creates a node
list file and the list may be reversed by clicking on the reverse node list button. Use
the Cancel button to return to the main form.
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Complete the Materials Information form by assigning the following values to the various cells
of the spreadsheet:
SN Flexible = SEAM_STEEL_FLEX
SN Stiff = SEAM_STEEL_STIFF
Flex Ratio = 0.5 - bending/total stress ratio. This controls the cut-off for which S-N curve to use
M1/M2 Ratio value = 2.5 – M1/M2 is a fatigue material property used in mean stress correction
based on the Haigh Diagram.
Multiplier = 1.0
Offset = 0.0
Loading Information
Open the Loading Info... form.
In this example we have carried out a quasi-static FE analysis on a single load case with a point
load of 394N. We now need to determine how long the weld will last when subjected to a time
varying load with a maximum of 394N.
Pick the Load Case ID cell. This will update the form. Now select the Get/Filter results button
and pick the Select All Results Cases toggle. Press Apply and the 2 FE load cases appear in
the form.
Select the first load case (in fact either load case can be picked and the final results should be
the same) and the stress tensor and click on Fill Cell, the load case is now entered into the table.
Complete the rest of the spreadsheet as follows:
• Time History = SINE01
• Load Magnitude = 1.0
• Scale Factor = 0.5
• Offset = 0
Click OK to submit the loading information.
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The worst damage occurs at node 87 with 5.856E6 repeats to failure. Press OK to exit from
the results listing program and then exit PFPOST.
The listed results can also be plotted from the Interactive menu of the solver (SEAMW) by
selecting the Job Control button from the main MSC.Fatigue form and setting Action to
Interactive. Press Apply.
The SEAMW menu is displayed.
Selection of the Plot Damage Distribution produces the GUI shown in the figure below.
Nodes can be listed using standard input. Enter the Nodes 995 and 1025 as shown on the form.
It is important to note that the nodes must exist in the database for the plot to be created.
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The software then reads the list and extracts the required values from the FEF file and creates
a DAC file for plotting in MQLD.
Note that the x-axis increment is unity and the increments correspond to the node list in the Plot
Damage Distribution form.
If you created a node list file earlier, then go ahead and select the Plot Damage Distribution
option again. This time set the Method of Node Selection switch to ASCII File and select your
node list. The filename will be demo_qsg_MW_xxxxx.ent where xxxxx is the group name
you gave it when you created it. Accept all other defaults and press OK. The following MQLD
form will be displayed.
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CHAPTER
Wheels Module - Analysis of
12 Rotating Structures
■ Problem Description
■ Geometry and FE Results
■ Setting Up the Wheels Analysis
■ Fatigue Analysis and Results
■ Concluding Remarks
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The model is an 80 in (L) by 20in (R) hollow cylindrical modeled with cquad4 elements
(t=0.01in.) meshed using a 10 in. by 10 degree increment mesh. The tube is clamped at
each end and point loads of 0.5 lb. have been applied at 10-degree increments in
separate subcases on the peripheral nodes. The reason for the application of the load
of this magnitude is due to the fact that the wheels module, treats the output stresses
in KSI units and any significant stresses in the plates will lead to erroneous
interpretation of reported lives.
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Now load the data file by selecting the Analysis option from the menu bar or use the
Analysis button in prepost standalone. When the form appears, set Action to Access
Results, the Object to Read Output2, and Method to Both (model and results); then,
press the Select Results File button, select the file cylinder_model.op2, and press
Apply. The model will then appear on the screen.
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Note: The figure above shows the results for the first Result case. If you were to
select the first nine subcases using the same Fringe Result and Quantity
value, you would see an 80-degree “Rotation” of the load in 10-degree
increments.
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Solution Parameters
Click on the Solution Parameters button. The form
shown is shown below. Set the Mean Stress
Correction to Goodman.
Biaxiality analysis or the stress combination methods
are not available, since the Wheels module performs a
critical plane S-N analysis using surface resolved
stresses at every surface node. Although this is not
necessary for this model, other models, in particular
solid element models, will require stresses to be
surface resolved. The option to generate surface normals is available from the job
control menu.
The surface angle selects the increment at which the analysis will be performed. In this
case surface stresses will be resolved in 10-degree increments as well as the analysis.
Make sure that the Surface Angle in Degrees databox is set to 10.
The certainty of survival is not selectable in this module – the S-N curve is used
without any modifications. Press OK and close the form.
Material Information
The materials form is shown below. Select:
Material - 7075_HV_T6
Finish – No Finish
Treatment – No Treatment
Region – default_group
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Select the default values for the remaining fields and press OK to close the form.
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Loading Info
Click the Loading Info Button and the following form will appear.
This form allows us to specify the loading environment. The default number of load
conditions is 5 and for this module it is important to understand the concept of a load
condition. The load condition represents a particular type of loading. The first load
condition could be the set of subcases for one revolution that define a straight roll, the
second could be a set of subcases for one revolution that define a turning condition,
and similarly for the third, fourth and fifth load conditions. A typical usage profile
for a wheel is shown in the table below.
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… … … … … …
350°(subcase 36) σ36,1 σ36,2 … σ36,350 σ36,360
The loading form allows user selectable units for reporting life. Here, approximately
500 repeats of the loading is equivalent to 1 mile. Enter the respective quantities in the
cells as shown in the Loading Information form.
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Click on the loading conditions cell. The form is updated. Now select the Get/Filter
Results... button and a new form is displayed. See below.
Select the item Default, 36 subcases and click on the Filter button to populate the
bottom list box. Here all the subcases are lumped into one but it is possible to remove
subcases, that appear in the lower window, by picking the subcase and clicking on the
remove button. The Clear button clears the entire selection while the remove button
allows the analyst to pick and remove the selected subcases.
Since, we are using all subcases we will accept them by clicking on the Add button.
The overwrite button allows the analyst to change the selection in case a mistake is
made. Click on the Close button to accept and load the Select Loading Condition
Results listbox loading information form with the line “Default 1. (1.36)” or
something similar. Now select this value and the Stress Tensor value and press the
Fill Cell button. The Loading Condition ID cell will now be filled in.
Since we previously set the life reporting units to miles, we will set the design life to
1000 miles. The design life is the target distance and allows reporting a factor of safety
on the calculated life.
Set the loading factor to 1.0 and press OK.
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Note: The Calculate Normals option is available. This would be used to generate
surface normal files for solid element models.
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The log of life fatigue fringe plot is shown in the figure below.
The fringe plots show the expected results – since the boundary conditions do not
change and the loading is identical for every subcase, the maximum and minimum
principal stresses for every subcase are identical. Consequently, we see progressive
concentric circles of increasing life from the lowest in the middle of the cylinder (area
of maximum stress under the applied load) to highest in between the constrained ends
and the middle.
Note: Plots of the other items (from the Select Results listbox) are not shown here.
The user may want to exercise these other options and review their plots.
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Each cell represents a stress from the surface angle and the subcase (rotational angle).
Each row is a stress time history for the node at the particular surface angle and may
be plotted by using the extract time histories from the interactive menu. The lower
figure shows the damage values for each surface angle increment for load condition 1
and the maximum damage. The row labeled D0 shows the damage sum from all load
conditions for each surface angle increment.
When the option Results postprocess is selected on the main FEROT form and the OK
button is pressed, the following form is displayed.
This menu allows further postprocessing of the results that requires the .ROT file for
input to generate a new output results file (username.fef file). This file can either be
listed or read back into the MSC.Fatigue database by specifying the same Jobname in
the main form as the output filename. The extraction options are:
• Specific Angle – Extract results at a specific angle at all analysis nodes. Since
the surface angle selected for our example case was 10 degrees, results may
only be extracted for angles in ten-degree increments up to 360 degrees.
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• Worst Case – Extract the worst (lowest life, maximum damage) results for all
conditions including the worst case (accumulated damage from all
conditions) results.
When the option Extract Time Histories is selected on the main FEROT form and the
OK button is pressed, the following is displayed.
Click on the Input FES filename browse button and pick the FES file
QSG_DEMO.FES. Press OK.
Click on the Calculation points browse button to display the calculation nodes. Enter
the node number 501.
Click on the load conditions browse button to display the available load conditions.
Enter the load condition number 1.
Enter the surface angle at which the stress time history is desired. For this example,
we will use 0.
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Enter the output filename (e.g., QSG_DEMO). An extension will be added to the
filename that identifies the node number, load condition and the surface angle. A plot
of the stress time history will be automatically generated as shown below.
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CHAPTER
A Software Strain Gauge
13
■ Problem Description
■ Geometry and FE Results
■ Time History Extraction
■ Correlation Techniques
■ Concluding Remarks
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Objective
• To create a software strain gauge on the FE model in the same location and
orientation as the physical strain gauge
• To extract FE results in the same coordinate system as the gauge
• To synthesize the measured strain history from the FE model
• To run fatigue analyses on both measured and simulated strain histories for
comparison purposes
• To assess the stress state in the prototype at the measurement location
Table 13-1 Chapter 13 Necessary Files
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/mounting_lug.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/soft_sg.fin
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/soft_sg_m1.dac
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/soft_sg_m2.dac
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/soft_sg_m3.dac
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Hint: Users may also find the Soft S/G useful simply for obtaining static stress
and strain results from particular locations within elements, or in
particular directions.
Open the main MSC.Fatigue setup form and set the Analysis to Soft S/G. You will
notice that the form changes appearance from the normal setup form and only
displays three main buttons. Each of these buttons will be invoked in turn starting
with Gauge Tool....
The first button will invoke the Gauge Tool application for placement, creation and
modification of the software gauges. Open this form now.
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0.1. This specifies to use the global x-axis as the gauge x-axis. You can achieve
the same by selecting the 1-direction in the Select Mechanism and then
selecting the global axis from the viewport.
6. Press Apply
When you press Apply, a yellow marker will appear
on the location that you selected to create the gauge.
The form will update for the second step which is to
define the area for the gauge. You may wish to zoom
in on the area of interest for a better view. Use the
View corners icon on the top form.
7. Element Type: 2D: Shell elements
You can either select shell elements or the free faces
of solid elements. Set this to 2D: Shell elements.
8. Select Shell Elements: Elem 166 167 178 179
Set the focus in this databox. The Select
Mechanism changes to allow selection of either
shell elements or faces of solid elements
depending on the Element Type setting. Type
Elem 166 167 178 179 in the databox or graphically
select the four elements around the point of interest.
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.
Note: The only requirement for
selecting an area of
elements around the point
is that the area be large
enough to contain the
gauge. If the area is not
large enough an error will
occur. Note that the relative
angles, gauge length, and
gauge width are displayed
on the form for
informational purposes.
Also, if there is too much
curvature, the gauge
creation may fail. You
should choose relatively flat
areas for gauge placement.
9. Press Apply
Pressing the Apply button a
second time will create the
gauge.
or for Windows in
x:<install_dir>\mscfatigue_files\gauges.def
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The file can exist in the local work directory, your home directory or in the installation
area and will be recognized in this order also. A variety of gauge types is shown
above.
where
dms is the German abbreviation for strain gauge
n is “t” or “b” indicating whether the results set is extracted from
the top or bottom of underlying shell elements making up the Soft S/G
m is the gauge type number (its unique type identifier)
oo is either “el” or “ep” indicating elastic or elastic-plastic
ppp is the number of the gauge applied to the model, e.g., 001, 002,
etc.
Go to Group | Post if you wish, and you will see any Soft
S/Gs that have been created. The element and node numbers
are contained in the groups. The rest of the necessary
information resides in the name of the group and in the
subsequent results extraction.
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This is the displacement to move the gauge in the y-axis direction of the
existing gauge.
4. Delta Theta: 30
This is the rotation in degrees that the gauge is to be rotated relative to the
current orientation.
5. Element type: 2D: Shell elements
Again select 2D: Shell elements as the means to define the surface.
6. Select Shell Elements: Elem 166 167 178 179
Select the same elements as
before to define the surface
where the modified gauge will
be placed. To properly modify
the location and orientation, you
must select a surface area that
will contain the new location and
orientation of the modified
gauge or an error will occur, e.g.,
if you translate the gauge off of
the defined area.
7. Reverse normal: OFF
If necessary you can reverse the normals of the gauges. The gauge outward
normals are calculated as the average of the outward normals of the selected
elements or faces.
8. Press Apply
Now that the gauge has been created and modified to the proper location and
orientation, close the Gauge Tool form by pressing the Cancel button.
FE Results Extraction
The next step is to extract the results from the FE result sets
and create new result types in the location and orientation of
the Soft S/G. Press the Results Extraction... button on the
main MSC.Fatigue setup form with the Analysis still set to
Soft S/G.
Another form will appear listing all available result cases that
contain MSC.Nastran stress results and all available Soft
S/Gs that have been created. The process is simple:
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and
Gauge Stress, Centroidal
The results in the Gauge Stress, Average subcase are, for each element, the average of
the results from the four corners of the element and the element centroid. For Gauge
Stress, Centroidal, they are the results from the origin of the gauge coordinate system.
For a rosette or tee gauge, the average results will, in general, be a little different for
each element, depending on the stress field in which the gauge is placed.
For Centroidal results, the same results should be written to all the gauge elements.
Select Cancel to close the form.
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Note: If you read the soft_sg.fin file in, then you can skip ahead to page 281 and
run the translation.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. Set the
parameters as follows:
1. Analysis Method: S-W-T
This parameter is ignored in the analysis.
2. Plasticity Correction: Neuber
You can use either Neuber, Mertens-
Dittmann, or Seeger-Beste methods
according to which elastic-plastic
correction method you wish to use in the
Soft S/G. If you select Mertens-Dittmann
or Seeger-Beste you will be required to
enter shape factors on the material
information form. Analysis for any gauges
which are elastic will ignore this selection.
If you want to estimate elastic-plastic
strains, you should ensure that the gauges
have ep included in the group name.
We will use Neuber for our example.
3. Run Biaxiality Analysis: ON
This should be set to ON. There will be no need to execute the Calculate
Normals option because the stress analysis results written to the gauges are
already in a surface resolved coordinate system.
4. Biaxiality Correction: Hoffmann-Seeger
Select Hoffmann-Seeger. The option Material Parameter is not allowed for
Soft S/G. Analysis for any gauges which are elastic will ignore this selection
(the same as setting it to None).
The rest of the information on the Solution Params... form is ignored, so it is OK to
accept the defaults.
Material Information
Open the Material Info... form. This form is used to assign material and other
information to the individual gauges. The strain gauge software requires that each
gauge be a group, consisting of one shell element for each leg. Valid group names take
the form dms_m_n_oo_pp as described previously.
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The strain gauge software will assume for a tee gauge or a rosette that gauges 1-3 are
in numerical order of elements. Gauges are numbered in an counterclockwise
direction.
The Material Info... form and
spreadsheet should then be
filled in as follows:
1. Number of
Materials: 1
This should be set to
the number of strain
gauges that are to be
processed. For our
example, it will be set
to 1.
Note: There is a limit of 20. If
more that 20 are to be
processed you will
have to break the
analysis up into
multiple analyses.
Therefore, on the spreadsheet, there will be one row for each gauge or
rosette.
2. Material: RQC100
This is the material on which the gauge is positioned.
3. Finish: No Finish
This is not used, so any setting is OK.
4. Treatment: No Treatment
This is not used, so any setting is OK.
5. Region: dms_t_4_ep_001
Select the name of the group defining the gauge.
6. Kf: 1
This is a surface finish correction factor and is not used by the strain gauge
software. Leave blank or set it to 1.
7. Shape factor: 0.0
This is the shape factor (Formzahl) or plastic strain concentration factor
required for the Mertens-Dittmann and Seeger-Beste methods. Valid values
are greater than 1. Typical values are around 1.5 to 3.0. Zero (0) can also be
used and is interpreted as infinity. In this case both methods reduce to the
Neuber method. Leave this blank or set it to 0.0.
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8. Multiplier: 1.0
This should not be used. Leave it blank or set it to 1.0.
9. Offset: 0.0
This should not be used. Leave it blank or set it to 0.0.
Close the form by pressing the OK button when finished.
Loading Information
The Loading Info... form should be used in the same way as for any other MSC.Fatigue
job. The results can be from a transient analysis (time step analysis) or from a set of
static load cases which will be associated to time variations in the normal way (which
are defined using PTIME).
When selecting actual results, the user should choose one of the following result types
for the extracted strain gauge results:
Gauge Stress, Average
for the stresses averaged from the four corners and the centroid of each strain gauge
element, or
Gauge Stress, Centroidal
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Note: For this example you must select the Gauge Stress, Average stress tensor in
order to fill the Load Case ID cells out correctly in the spreadsheet. Also note
that the actual load case IDs may differ from those shown here.
The Loading Info... form is now complete. Press the OK button to accept the form.
Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and set the Action to Translate Only. This will save or
create the MSC.Fatigue job (soft_sg.fin) file and run the PAT3FAT translator to
produce the intermediate (soft_sg.fes) input file required by SSG when the Apply
button is pressed. Answer Yes to any questions.
When the translation is complete you are now ready to run SSG.
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When SSG appears, you will be asked for the MSC.Fatigue input file you created in
the previous section. Select soft_sg.fes and accept all other defaults on the SSG input
screen and press OK a few times to start the software strain gauge extraction process.
The process will take place quickly.
Note: The extracted strain time history can now be used to correlate with the direct
test signal.
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To display the next plot use the View | Scrn_Options | Next Scrn pulldown
selection. You will need to press OK several times (accepting the defaults) before the
next plot screen is displayed. In cases where there appears to be an almost one-to-one
correspondence, it might be better to show a cross-plot instead. You can change any
of the overlay plots to cross-plots using Plot_Type | Crossplot. You will need to press
OK several times (accepting the defaults) before the cross-plot is displayed. You can
go back to overlay by using Plot_Type | Overlay. The overlay and cross-plots for the
three gauge legs are shown below comparing the measured to the synthesized signals.
Leg 1
Leg 2
Leg 3
Signal Statistics
Another means of comparison is to look at the signal statistics that are displayed by
MQLD. This plot shows the maximum, minimum, mean, standard deviation, and
RMS values for the displayed plot.
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Note: Only one of the dac files can be selected at a time using this method.
Rosette Analysis
Now perform a rosette analysis. You can
do this by invoking MSSA from the system
prompt (mssa). When MSSA appears,
select the first option: 1 - Strain Gauge
Rosette Analysis | Analyze.
A rosette analysis requires the strain
signals from the different legs of the gauge
as input. Run two rosette analyses, one with the three synthesized signals and the
other with the three signals representing the measured strains.
On the first form that appears, accept all the defaults by pressing the OK button. Our
strain gauge rosette is Rectangular and Stacked and the Output Type requested is
strain.
The next screen requests
the three signals
representing each leg of
the rosette. Select the first
three measured signals,
soft_sg_m*.dac, using the
List button and also set
the Biaxiality Ratio
calculation to Yes. Accept
all other default values
and press OK. The rosette
analysis will commence.
After the analysis, you are
placed into a
postprocessing menu
where you can plot the
outputs of the rosette analysis. The outputs are maximum, minimum, absolute
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maximum, signed shear strains, and the angle, f, and biaxiality ratio, ae, as a function
of time. All of these outputs can be plotted. Use Plot all outputs to see all these signals.
Not all of the plot will appear on the same screen; use View | Scrn_Options | Next
Scrn to view the next page of plots. Select File | Exit when you are done viewing all
the plots. Successively plot Biaxiality vs. Principal, Angle vs. Principal, and angle
Distribution. Note the general uniaxial nature of this particular problem.
Repeat this operation for the other three synthesized signals, soft_sg0010*.dac and
compare the outputs from the first run with the measured signals as shown below.
Note: The output that you get out of a rosette analysis is dependent on the type of
gauge and how many legs it has.
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Measured Rosette Analysis Output
Note: MCLF assumes elastic-plastic correction has taken place already by default,
otherwise you must set the Strain Type to Fully Elastic to invoke a notch
correction procedure.
Accept all other defaults and press OK.
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prompt. When MMLF first appears you must give it a job name or select an existing
job. Since none exist yet, type in soft_sg_multi as the jobname. You will be asked
whether you would like to create this new job. Answer Yes. A number of input screens
will be presented to you. The input for each of these screens is mentioned below.
Note: MMLF assumes elastic-plastic correction has taken place already. It has no
notch correction procedures built into it as does FEMLF or MCLF.
Accept all other defaults and press OK.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Dynamic Fatigue
14
■ Introduction
■ Analysis Using Transient Results
■ Modal Superposition Method
■ Vibration Fatigue
■ Comparison Studies
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14.1 Introduction
All fatigue is dynamically induced. That is, there must be some level of dynamic
loading in order for fatigue damage to occur. It is probably a true statement to say that
nothing in real life is actually static, or not moving at all. Even slight changes in
temperature will cause stress fluctuations in an otherwise apparently static structure.
Some dynamic loading is hardly detectable, changes very slowly, and is quite
repeatable while other types are quite noticeable and very random in nature such as
engine noise from an automobile.
The pseudo-static approach for calculating a stress time response, where unit stresses
are associated with load time histories, is valid if the frequency of the input loading is
below the lowest natural frequency of the structure. However, for cases where the
dynamic response of the structure comes into play, the usage of transient response or
random response is appropriate to compute fatigue life.
Objective
• Perform analysis using transient results
• Perform analysis using the modal superposition method
• Random Vibration Fatigue analysis
• Run comparative studies
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/key_tran.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/key_stat.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/key_tran.asc
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/transient.fin
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/static.fin
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File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bs_fresp_v.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bs_fresp_h.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bs_fresp_t.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/7d_44-50.dac
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/8d_44-50.dac
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/9d_44-50.dac
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bs_modal.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bs_static.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bd_modal.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bd_fresp_v.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bd_fresp_h.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bd_fresp_t.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/abarun.fil
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bd_trans_v.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bd_trans_h.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bd_trans_t.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/bd_trans_vth.op2
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. All the defaults have been selected for this analysis.
Material Information
Open the Material Info... form. The material chosen is the MANTEN steel alloy with a
Polished finish and the treatment set to No Treatment. The material already resides in the
materials database.
Loading Information
Open the Loading Info... form. This is
where the analysis setup differs when
using transient FE results. For the
transient analysis the loading time history
is defined by the FE analysis in the input
deck and therefore it is not necessary to
create externally. You will notice that the
Loading Info... form appears quite a bit
different than for a pseudo-static setup.
The following observations are made:
1. The Results Type is set to
Transient. This is the
controlling setting for the
appearance of this form.
2. Note that no access to the Time
History Manager is available
when set to Transient since this
is unnecessary.
3. Results can be extracted from, this is the results from widget, three different sources:
Database, MSC.Patran FEA, or External, with the Database being the most
common source.
Note: External PATRAN Results files can be accessed in the same manner as for pseudo-
static cases with multiple loading except the # symbol in the file name now refers to
the time step number. They must start at 1 and exist up to the number of time steps
indicated, e.g., filename1.node, filename2.nod, ...
4. A scale factor is allowed to uniformly scale the FE results for all time steps selected.
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Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and submit the analysis. Monitor it if desired.
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Evaluate Results
Finally read or list the results from the two jobs to see that they are approximately the same
(2100-2600 repeats). There is a difference between the two which is due to the fact that the
modal transient takes into account the dynamic effects of the mass distribution whereas the
pseudo-static does not, as mentioned earlier.
The differences would be even greater for models with more mass and for loading services that
approached the natural frequencies of the structure.
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An advantage of this method is that due to the similarity with the quasi-static method, this
technique can be used in S-N, E-N, Spot weld, Seam Weld, Crack Growth and Multi-axial
analysis.
Here is an example of how to do modal superposition using MSC.Nastran. Analogous methods
exist for other solver codes. Some familiarity with each solver code is required to extract the
correct information.
1. Run MSC.Nastran modal analysis (SOL = 103) for your model and request stress to
be written to the .op2 or .xdb file (STRESS = ALL). Use the EIGRL card to select
frequency range of interest and / or number of modes.
2. Run MSC.Nastran modal transient (SOL = 112) with same EIGRL card. Define the
time history loading in the MSC.Nastran deck using TABLED1 cards in the normal
manner. Request the output to be SDISPLACEMENTS (PUNCH) = ALL. This gives
the modal participation time histories for each mode of interest. If six (6) modes are
solved for, this will give an ASCII punch file with six (6) time histories.
Note: In the latest version of NASTRAN steps 1 and 2 can be combined into a single run
by specifying the first subcase in the SOL 112 run as the normal modes run.
3. Run MSC.Fatigue Pre&Post or MSC.Patran and import the .op2 file from the SOL
103 run (step 1) into the database. Fill the Solution Control and Materials forms as
required.
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4. Open the Loading information form, enter the number of modes recovered in the
number of static conditions data box, and turn the fill down option on. Click on the
Load Case ID cell and the Get/Filter Results button to display the stress results from
the SOL 103 run. Select the first mode and the associated stress tensor and click on
Fill Cell. This should load up the cells in the first column of the spreadsheet with the
modal stress IDs corresponding to the number of modes recovered.
5. The creation of the Time histories off the modal participation factors in the punch
file is achieved by clicking on the Read Punch button. This button will be displayed
on this form when the user clicks on the Time history cell. A local Time history
database that contains the time histories from the participation factors in the punch
file is created in the local run directory. The local database can now be used to load
the cells in the second column by clicking on the first cell in the Time history column
and selecting Fill Cell (MSC.Fatigue accesses the local database automatically).
6. Run fatigue analysis as usual.
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25061 points.
400 2E6
9 pts/sec
Displayed:
25060 points.
from pt 1
RMS Power (uE^2. Hz^-1)
Max = 345
at 2270 sec
Min = -999
at 0 sec
Mean = -206.6
S.D. = 134.6
0 1
0
Time (sec) 2784 Frequency (Hz.)
It is not the intention of this manual to teach the user all there is to know about random
vibration. For those unfamiliar with random vibration techniques, refer to Vibration
Fatigue Theory (p. 625) in the MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide.
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Definitions
These are some of the terms you might come across when going through the Vibration
Fatigue example:
• Power Spectral Density (PSD)
• Transfer function
• Irregularity factor
• Narrow band
• Wide band
• White noise
• Probability Density Function (PDF)
• Expected mean crossing
• Expected number of peaks
• Spectral movement
All of these terms are defined in Appendix A, Glossary Terms (p. 436).
E [ P ]T m
Fatigue Damage = ---------------- ⋅ ∫ S P ( S ) dS
K
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To obtain a time history of stress or strain response, either a steady state or transient
analysis would be required. For the random response history indicated this would
obviously be a transient analysis. In the frequency domain a transfer function would
first be computed for the structural model. This is completely independent of the
input loading and is a fundamental characteristic of the system, or model. The PSD
response caused by any PSD of input loading is then obtained by multiplying the
transfer function by the input loading PSD. Further response PSDs caused by
additional PSDs of input loading can then be calculated with a trivial amount of
computing time. An essential requirement of a structural analysis in the frequency
domain is that it results in a PSD which is equivalent to the time history obtained
using the transient approach. The rest of the design process is then concerned with
using the vibration fatigue tools to compute fatigue life directly from these PSDs of
stress. These tools either estimate rainflow histograms (or PDFs), or fatigue life
directly. These are shown schematically in the dashed box in the figure above under
the heading fatigue modeler. This is intended to show that the time and frequency
domain processes are actually very similar. The only differences being the structural
analysis approach used (time or frequency domain) and the fact that a fatigue modeler
is required to transform from a PSD of stress to the rainflow cycle histogram. In this
context the vibration fatigue modeler can be envisaged as just another form of
rainflow cycle counting.
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Open a new database and call it bracket.db. Press the Import toggle switch (Analysis
in MSC.Patran) on the main form. When the form appears, set the Action to Access
Results, the Object to Read Output2, and the Method to Both; then, press the Select
Results File button and select the file bs_fresp_v.op2. Press the Apply button to read
in the file. Now set the Method to Result Entities and select the file bs_fresp_h.op2.
Press Apply. Repeat for the bs_fresp_t.op2 file.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. Set the
parameters as follows:
1. Analysis Method: Dirlik
The default is Dirlik which is the
recommended method. If you select All,
all the analysis methods mentioned in the
theoretical background section will be
used.
2. Mean Stress Correction: None
This is set to None in order to compare to
the pseudo-static analyses which were
also set to None. The mean stress
correction is based on the same principles
as that done for pseudo-static S-N fatigue
analysis.
3. Stress Combination: Max. Abs. Principal
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This is the default. In general this is the combination method that makes
most sense. In actually, the ability to determine the principal stresses and
their directions from the transfer function of stress components is a very
unique feature of the vibration fatigue capability. Most FEA codes do not
have this ability.
4. Certainty of Survival: 50%
This parameter is identical to that used in regular time based S-N analysis
using the scatter in the S-N data to adjust the life prediction based on a
probability of survival.
Press OK to proceed and close the form.
Material Information
Open the Material Info... form. This
form is used to assign material and
other information to regions of the
model. In fact it is identical to the
time domain S-N material set up
form which you should be familiar
with from previous exercises.
The Material Info... form and
spreadsheet should then be filled in
as follows:
1. Number of Materials: 1
2. Material: MANTEN
3. Finish: Polished
4. Treatment: No Treatment
5. Region: default_group
Accept the defaults for anything else on the form and close the form by pressing the
OK button when finished.
Loading Information
Open the Loading Info... form. Before completing this form we need loading input
PSDs. These PSDs will be created from the time signals we used in the pseudo-static
runs. On the Loading Info... form press the PSD Manager button. This will spawn
PTIME, the loading database manager.
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Hint: PSDs can be created in a number of ways. They can be created as shown
here from existing time signals. They can also be imported as ASCII text
files (Add an entry... | ASCII convert + load) or they can be created
manually by supplying xy points (Add an entry... | x-Y psd entry).
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9. Fill Cell
Press the Fill Cell button. This will fill the Frequency Resp. cell with the
appropriate IDs in the spreadsheet above. The Input PSD cell then becomes
active.
10. Select a PSD File Name: 7D_44-50.PSD
Select the PSD representing the vertical force which we created earlier.
The Loading Info... form is now complete. Press the OK button to accept the form.
Before going on, however, a word or two on loading input PSDs is appropriate.
Vibration fatigue analysis makes certain assumptions of loading input. Those
assumptions are that the signal is random, stationary and gaussian in nature. Random
means that the signal contains no deterministically dominant event such as a spike
occurring occasionally or a superimposed dominating sine wave. Truly random
signals can only be characterized by their statistics such as root mean square (rms) and
mean levels.
Stationary means that those statistics are not changing significantly with time. Any
section of the signal should show very close statistical agreement.
Gaussian means that the peak and amplitude probability density function are
gaussian in nature or follow a bell shaped curve as shown here. If you draw tram lines
through a signal and count the number of times the signal passes through it and plot
that as a density function it is gaussian if it follows a bell shape. An example of a non-
gaussian signal is a pure sine wave. However adding multiple sine wave together
quickly becomes gaussian.
Gaussian
non-Gaussian
Hint: If you ever have the need to check the stationarity of a time signal, use
the MSTATS utility module. MSTATS will give you running statistics of a
signal and plot them for you. The increment of time history and overlaps
can be specified. This is a very useful mechanism to determine
stationarity.
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Job Control
Open the Job Control... form and set the Action to Full Analysis and press the Apply
button to submit the job. Change the Action to Monitor Job and press the Apply
button occasionally to monitor the job. This analysis will create the usual files: the job
parameter file, bs_fresp_v.fin, the fatigue input file, bs_fresp_v.fes, and the fatigue
results file, bs_fresp_v.fef. Also a message and status file are created
(bs_fresp_v.msg, bs_fresp_v.sta). Unlike a standard time domain solution there is no
intermediate rainflow count file, bs_fresp_v.fpp.
When the job is complete open the Results... form and with the Action set to Read
Results, press the Apply button. This will read the results into the database for later
viewing.
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Again, after each fatigue analysis is finished, read the results into the database under
the Results form in the main MSC.Fatigue form with the Action set to Read Results.
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Note that the contents of this file are the names of the input load PSD files on the
diagonal terms and the names of the cross PSD files on the off-diagonal terms. The first
line indicates that there are three input loads and therefore the matrix is to be 3x3.
This file can be loaded into PTIME by using the option Add an entry
| ASCII convert + load. Once in this option do the following:
1. ASCII Filename: cor789.pmx
2. Data Type: psd Matrix
3. PSD Matrix: cor789
Press the OK button to accept this screen and move to the
next.
4. Description 1: correlated loads
Press the OK button to accept this screen and load the file.
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5. Frequency Resp:
6.(5-30)-2.1-2-
Clicking on the first cell just
below this title will activate
a number of widgets on the
bottom of the screen. This is
where the Transfer
Functions from the FE
analysis are selected. This is
a multi-step operation.
6. Get/Filter Results...
Open this form to select the
Transfer Functions of
interest. This operation is
identical to what you did
for a single load input
except this time you need to
fill the listbox with all three
Transfer Functions. Select the BS_FRESP_V vertical Transfer Function
Result Case. Press the Filter button. This will display all subcases
(frequencies) associated with this transfer function in the lower listbox. Press
the Add button, the Result Case IDs will be transferred to the Loading Info...
form listbox. Do the same for BS_FRESP_H, and BS_FRESP_T Transfer
Function Result Cases pressing the Add button to add them to the listbox.
Press the Close button when you have successfully filled the listbox on the
Loading Info... form with BS_FRESP_V,6.(5:30)-, BS_FRESP_H,7.(31:56)-,
and BS_FRESP_T,8.(57:82)-.
7. Select a Results Load Cases: BS_FRESP_V,6.(5:30)-
Back on the Loading Info... form select this Result Case that you just filled in
using Get/Filter Results... mechanism. Once this is selected you will see the
tensor results associated with this transfer function in the adjacent listbox.
8. Select a Stress Tensor: 2.1-Stress Tensor,
Select the only available tensor from this listbox. The layer information will
update.
9. Select a layer: 2-At Z1,
This is displayed by default. Accept the default which is top layer of stress of
the shell elements.
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Results
Perhaps the most obvious thing to do first is to make contour plots of fatigue life from
the various jobs run so far. All of the fatigue analyses should have been run and the
results imported into the database, so open the Results application switch on the main
menu bar (remember not to confuse this with the Results... button on the main
MSC.Fatigue form).
When the Results application appears, make sure the Object is set to Quick Plot. You
will see many Result Cases in the top listbox. Scroll all the way down to the bottom
and select the Result Case that corresponds to the vibration fatigue analysis called
Vibration Analysis, bs_fresp_vfef. Select Log of Life (Seconds) and press the Apply
button to produce a plot. The plot is shown below.
vibration
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Design Optimization
Let us now investigate the design optimization
(sensitivity) capabilities of the vibration fatigue
analysis. This is analogous to those capabilities in the
S-N and strain-life analyzer FEFAT. The design
optimization feature can be invoked directly from
the Results... form with the Action set to Optimize or
from FEVIB started at the system prompt by typing
fevib and then entering the Design optimization
menu pick. Do this with any of the vibration fatigue
jobs completed thus far.
After specifying a jobname, if necessary, and
selecting a node of interest and supplying a design
life, the program will proceed to a summary report
screen reporting the same life as the global analysis.
When the summary report is closed you are placed
in the main menu of the design optimization mode.
The operation is identical to that of FEFAT’s design
optimization mode and is therefore left to you to investigate its many options.
The only unique option to FEVIB’s design optimization mode is its ability to calculate
life due to all the analysis methods (Dirlik, Narrow Band, etc.). This is done under
Sensitivity analysis | Analysis methods (all).
To see the statistical nature of the vibration analysis, you may want to plot the
rainflow cycle count histogram, which is really a probability density function of
rainflow ranges. In order to plot the histogram you will need to do the following from
the Design Optimization main menu:
1. Select Original Parameters:
This will reset everything to the original parameters in case you have
changed anything while investigating this tool.
2. Select Change Parameters:
Enter the Change Parameters screen and change the next two items below.
3. Mean Stress Correction: Goodman
4. Global Offset Stress: 0
Keep this set to zero. We must run a Dirlik plus mean stress correction in
order to obtain a histogram plot. Press the OK button to return to the main
menu.
5. Select Recalculate
6. Select results Display |plot Cycles histogram
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This will plot the histogram. Change the view to 2D viewed from the left so
you can see the stress ranges. This is done by selecting Plot-type | View Left.
Stationarity Checks
As a last exercise before we go on to the second
model of the bracket, let us look at another feature
of the vibration fatigue analysis module FEVIB.
Again invoke FEVIB from the system prompt and
this time select the Output power spectrum option.
Or on the Results... form set the Action to Extract
PSD and press Apply.
Supply a jobname if necessary. The job we want to
extract a PSD from is the multi-input correlated load
case, bs_fresp_vth_c at Node 72. Do the following
after supplying the proper jobname:
1. Generic Output Filename:
You can accept the default here. However,
be aware that all file names created from
this option will have the node number
appended to the output filename.
2. Nodes/Elements to Select: 72
3. Combination Method: Abs Max principal
4. Interpolation Method: Linear
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The third plot (angular deviation v Load Frequency) shows how the principal stress
axes change with respect to frequency for each load case - actually three different
plots.
vertical twist
horizontal
The angle vs. frequency plot for the vertical load case shows a total angular deviation
of the principal stress axes of only about two degrees according to the y-axis labels.
The horizontal load case is very small, almost zero, and the twist shows a total of about
20 degrees. These corresponds to the single yellow error bars on the angle vs. load
case plot for each load case. The yellow error bars on the angle vs. frequency plots
indicate how the stress axes change due to differential damping at each frequency. In
other words, it represents how the principal stress axes change subject to a sine wave
load input at that frequency.
All angle spreads reported on these plots are
relative to an arbitrarily selected angle. The angle
vs. load case plot shows the angles relative to each
other. You can see that there is about a 45 degree
difference between the vertical load case and the
horizontal and twist load cases, these two being
very similar. This is as expected also in that the
horizontal and twist loads are inducing a shear
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state at Node 72 whereas the vertical load case is not. This is confirmed by plotting the
principal stress at Node 72 using the Results application.
These angular spread plots are characteristics of the model. To see whether or not
there may be a problem with stationarity of the principal stress axes, you must look at
the regions of interest on the response PSD (between zero and 25 Hz) and the
corresponding frequency locations on the stationarity plots. For all three load cases,
there is little movement of the stress axes in this region.
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Note: The first result case shown is a single mode with frequency greater than
50 Hz, which confirms that the bracket model has no modes under 50 Hz.
Why this is important will become clear momentarily. If you plot the
displacement vector of this mode, you will see that it represents the first
bending mode of the bracket.
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Set the Object to Fringe. Besides the single mode shape, you will notice that there are
three static result cases and three kinds of frequency response result cases. The three
static results were obtained by applying a vertical unit force (_v), a horizontal unit
force (_h) and a unit twisting moment (_t) at the end of the slot. The three frequency
response results were obtained with the same unit forces and moment but applied
across the frequency range of zero to 50 Hz. These analyses were done in
MSC.Nastran. The frequency response analyses used a damping ratio of 5% of critical.
This is inconsequential however, since no dynamic modes will be excited. The
frequency response results are the transfer functions for the three load cases. In order
to obtain transfer functions from MSC.Nastran, the load magnitudes must be unity in
the analysis.
Because no modes exist in the frequency range of interest (0-50 Hz), the stress results
from the frequency response analyses should be very close to those of the static
analyses for the lower frequencies. This is easily confirmed by plotting the stresses
from these. For example do the following:
1. Select Result Case: BS_STATIC_V, Static Subcase
Select this result case. Press this icon to view all subcases
from every Result Case.
2. Select Fringe Result: Stress Tensor
3. Quantity: Max Principal
4. Target Entities:
Change the mode to select target entities.
5. Target Entity: Elements
Change the target entity to Elements. Place the cursor in the
databox called Select Elements and click the mouse to gain focus in the
databox. Then go to the graphics screen and box select all the elements below
the slot. See the pictures below.
6. Press Apply
7. Select Result Case: BS_FRESP_V, Freq.=0.
Go back to the Select Results mode of the form and select the
first subcase of the vertical frequency response analysis.
And press Apply again.
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You should see almost identical plots. The reason for only plotting the area around the
hole is for better comparison purposes due to spurious results around the loading
area. Repeat this for the horizontal and the twist load cases if you wish.
Vertical Load
If you plot higher frequencies you will begin to see a small divergence from the static
cases. This is due to the dynamic influences of the first mode shape. In fact if you make
an XY plot of the transfer function at the high stress area of interest (Node 72) you can
see this divergence.
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Horizontal Load
Twist Load
To make the XY plot of the transfer function at the high stress area of interest, set the
Action to Create and the Object to Graph. Select all the Result Cases for one of the
frequency responses (e.g., BS_FRESP_V, Freq=*) and make sure the Y axis is set to
Result, Quantity is set to Max Principal, the X axis is set to Global Variable, and set
Variable to Frequency.
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Two more steps are necessary. Under Target Entities, the Target Entity must be set to
Vertical Load
Plotted as a
Function of
Frequency for
Node 72
Path with Node 72 specified and under Plot Options, you must change the Complex
No. as: optionmenu to Magnitude. Then you can press the Apply button.
Note: If you have been running through this document sequentially, then you will
need to first select Add an entry... and then you can select the Load files
option.
These files represent a six second slice (44 sec. to 50 sec.) of very large measured
random input loadings. A six second slice was removed out of convenience for
making the jobs manageable in a tutorial guide. In order to compare against the
vibration fatigue results, give each time history set the Fatigue equivalent units to
Seconds, set the Number of fatigue equivalent units to 6, enter a description, set the
Load type to Force, and the Units to Newtons. Press OK. You need to do this for each
of the three files listed above.
Now we can set up the Pseudo-static jobs. The job set up is briefly described here in
order for you to recreate the results. No details are given since pseudo-static analysis
has been thoroughly covered in previous chapters. Open the main MSC.Fatigue form
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from the Analysis switch in Pre&Post or select MSC.Fatigue from the Tools pulldown
menu in MSC.Patran and fill out the form according to the table below for the four jobs
of interest. Accept all defaults if not otherwise specified. The Analysis type should be
set to S-N.
Note: The Load Case IDs correspond to the various load cases (vertical, horizontal,
and twist). The actual Load Case IDs are dependent on the order in which
they were read into the database. If you read them in the order in which they
have been listed in this exercise then they should be as indicated. In any case
you must select the indicated result for the proper IDs to be selected
regardless of what is listed in the above table.
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Once a job is set up, go to the Job Control... form and do a Full Analysis. After the
analysis is completed, go to the Results... form and set the Action to Read Results.
Repeat these steps for each job. The results of these analyses will be investigated later.
For now go on to set up the vibration fatigue runs.
Results
Open the Results application switch on the main menu bar. When the application
appears, set the Object to Quick Plot. Scroll down to the bottom and select the Result
Case corresponding to the first pseudo-static job we ran called Total Life,
bs_static_vfef for the vertical load case. Select Log of Life (Seconds) and press the
Apply button to produce the contours. Make a note of this plot.
Now compare this plot with the one we looked at in the previous section. Select the
Result Case Vibration Analysis, bs_fresp_vfef. Next select Log of Life (Seconds) and
press Apply to produce the plot. The two plots are shown below. Notice the
disparaging difference between them.
.
Fatigue Life due to Vertical Load
pseudo- vibration
static
This difference is due to the endurance limit imposed on the material MANTEN that
we used in the analysis. With an S-N analysis, any locations with stress ranges below
this endurance limit will be reported as infinite life. The vibration analysis, because of
its statistical nature, has many more stress range bins, tending to spread the life
contours out and appear not to be as sensitive to the endurance limit. The plots are, in
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actuality, very similar. This can be seen by removing the endurance limit for
MANTEN and rerunning the pseudo-static analyses. If you feel so inclined you may
do this. The corresponding plots then look much more similar as shown below.
Hint: To remove the endurance limit run PFMAT and Load the material
MANTEN into data set 1. Turn off the Material checking under
Preferences and then Edit data set 1 which contains MANTEN. Do not
supply a password to modify the central database. Simply press the
return key and a local copy of the database will be created. Proceed to the
screen with E-N Data and change the Cut-off to 2E12. This will remove
any fatigue limit from the S-N curve. (Do not be confused that strain-life
data is being used here. Only the S-N (elastic) portion of the strain-life
curve is used.)
The rest of the plots are shown below comparing horizontal, twist and combined
loading pseudo-static versus vibration fatigue analyses. These plots are left for you to
create at your leisure. Note that all the pseudo-static plots were created after removing
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the endurance limit. Also note that the area at the end of the slot contains spurious
results due to the singularities caused by the loading and should be ignored. We are
really only interested in the critical location around the circular hole (Node 72).
pseudo- vibration
static
pseudo- vibration
static
pseudo- vibration
static
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PFPOST Listings
The table below shows the results from all the jobs run
thus far (calculated using the smallest bin size of 32) at
Node 72. You can view a listing of damage and fatigue life
by running PFPOST. You can either invoke this utility
from the system prompt by typing pfpost or set the Action
to List Results in the Results... form on the main
MSC.Fatigue setup form. Once PFPOST has appeared do
the following:
1. Jobname: bs_static_v
Start with the vertical pseudo-static analysis.
Press the OK button twice to proceed until the
form appears as to the right.
2. User specified nodes: 72
Select the option User Specified nodes. Enter 72 as the node of interest to
view and press OK. Press OK to close the table after you have viewed the
results.
Hint: To view the results at Node 72 for the other analyses press the Cancel
button when you return to the form at the right. This will allow you to
enter another jobname and repeat the steps above.
The results are with the endurance limit removed as explained earlier. As you can see
the results are fairly good with a couple of the cases being out by a factor of ten or so
on life. The shorter the life, the more discrepancy there can be because of sensitivity
due to the logarithmic nature of the problem. Small differences in stress can mean
large differences in life. Note also that the uncorrelated run is much less damaging as
we expected.
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There are many factors that can influence this accuracy some of which may be:
1. The coarseness of the FE model and accuracy of the stresses.
2. Some possible cancelling effects due to the combined loading which would
be evident in the pseudo-static case because of only partial correlation of the
input loads.
3. Shortness of the signal; perhaps not long enough to fully characterize as fully
stationary and gaussian.
4. Influence of the first mode shape as evident in the earlier plot of the Transfer
Function at Node 72.
5. Frequency resolution of the Transfer Function to fully capture the influence
of the input PSD.
Frequency Resolution
To illustrate the importance of the last
point above, do the following:
1. Run PTIME again and convert
the original time signal
7d_44_50.dac to a PSD again.
Select Add an entry... | creaTe
psd from time option. Give the
new output the name test.psd.
This time however, use an FFT
Buffer Size of 2048 : 0.4883 Hz
width. This will essentially
create twice as many points in
the resulting PSD.
2. Plot the PSD to see that it looks
much more jagged than when the buffer size was set to 1024. Zoom in from
zero to 25 Hz for a good view.
3. Give it a description, set the Number of fatigue equivalent units to 1, set the
Fatigue equivalent units to Repeats, and press the OK button.
4. Re-run the vibration fatigue analysis (bs_fresp_v) of a single load input
using the new PSD.
5. List the results at Node 72. Note how different they are than the original
analysis as reported in the table above (1.8E6 vs. 2.1E6 Seconds).
Even though the total areas under each input PSD curve is identical between the two
(the difference being that one has twice as many points), the underlying dominant
factor is the frequency resolution of the Transfer Function in the important areas of the
input PSD. Because our Transfer Function has evenly incremented frequency steps of
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two Hz, we may skip over certain peaks or valleys in the input PSD. Interpolation only
occurs within the input PSD at frequency points found in the Transfer Function and
not those found in the input PSD. This is illustrated below for two different cases:
Input
PSD
Transfer
Function
Response
PSD
So for our case, with more and more points defining the input PSD and no greater
resolution of the Transfer Function, the damage calculated becomes greater because
the analysis is calculating more area under the curve than there really is. The opposite
could also be true if a large spike occurred between two frequencies in the Transfer
Function, and was missed entirely.
Also do the same thing in FEFAT with the time domain solution for the same load case
and node location (although you will not need to change the mean stress correction).
Below are histogram plots (viewed in 2D mode) from the pseudo-static and vibration
fatigue analyses for the vertical load case. Note how the time domain solution has
discrete finite sequence whereas the frequency domain solution has values in all bins
based on the probability of cycles occurring at that stress range. It is a statistical
representation of an infinitely long sequence.
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Hint: The load step information for the transient FE analyses was captured, for
practical purposes of this exercise, from the XY contents of these time
history files which were dumped to ASCII files using the MSC.Fatigue
utility module MCOE (channel editor) and then converted into TABLED1
cards for MSC.Nastran. Before doing this however, the signals were filter
to remove any frequency content above 50 Hz (using MBFL) and then
decimated to reduce the number of points in the signal from 6001 to 601
(using PTIME, Sample Rate Adjust).
Frequency response analyses were also performed for the three load cases and the
fully correlated combined loading case. If you wish to reproduce the results of this
exercise you will need the following results files (bd_ = bracket dynamic model):
bd_modal.op2, bd_fresp_v.op2, bd_fresp_h.op2, bd_fresp_t.op2,
bd_trans_v.op2, bd_trans_h.op2, bd_trans_t.op2, bd_trans_vth.op2
Close the old database and open a new database and call it bracket_d.db. Read in the
Output2 files in the order listed above. Make sure that you read Both model data and
results from the first file and Result Entities only from the rest.
It is suggested that you do the following:
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Mode 6, 46.45 Hz
Mode 3, 20.32 Hz
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Note: In order to be able to compare these results with the Transient Analysis, you
must create a group called hole with only the elements (one layer deep)
around the hole AND their nodes (Node 65:72 129:135 202:214 221 222 237
263 and Element 29:34 108:117). Then you must select this group as the
Region of interest on the Material Info... form.
Rerun all four vibration jobs with new job names (bd_fresp_v, bd_fresp_h,
bd_fresp_t, and bd_fresp_vth_c) and the appropriate Transfer Function Result Case
IDs. Make sure you change the material to RQC100 from MANTEN.
Note: The frequency resolution of the Transfer Functions is much higher (26
frequencies vs. 41 frequencies) to better capture the dynamic effects around
each natural frequency.
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Vertical Load
Shown here are the
fringe plots of the log of
fatigue life comparing
the transient (Total Life,
bd_trans*) and the
vibration fatigue
Horizontal Load
analyses as was done for
the pseudo-static
(Vibration Analysis,
bd_freq*) comparisons
earlier. Only the region
around the hole is
shown since only fatigue
life was calculated in the
this region due to the
Twist Load
enormity of the transient
analysis FE results.
The table below shows
the results from all the
jobs run from this
second model
Combined Loading
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1. In Pre&Post or
MSC.Patran, use the
Results application to
make the plot shown here.
This is the Transfer
Function of Max. Principal
stress for Node 72 and is
created by setting the
Object to Graph, selecting
all the frequencies
associated with the
BD_FRESP_V Result Case
for Node 72 (Target
Entities) and plotting the
Magnitude of the complex
number (Plot Options).
2. Run FEVIB and use the option Output power spectrum to create the
response PSD at Node 72. Give it the output name: resp_psd.psd. The final
name will be resp_psd.psd72, as it appends the node number.
3. Create an ASCII dump file of the response PSD (resp_psd.psd72) using the
utility module MDTA (Convert Binary .dac to ASCII). It can be invoked from
the Tools + | File Conversion Utilities pulldown in Pre&Post or from the
system prompt by typing mdta. This module is straight forward to use. Do
not write any header information or any multi-channels. A file called
resp_psd72.asc will be created containing the xy data points.
4. Read the ASCII file into PTIME using Add an entry | ASCII convert + load.
Set Data y type to Power spectrum; set the Frequency Rate (sample rate) to
1.024; select X-y pairs as the Equally Spaced Data and set Take All Numbers
to Yes. Call the new Power Spectrum, resp_psd. Enter a description when
asked. Do not worry about the Load Type or Units. They will be wrong. Just
remember that the units are MPa2/Hz. This will create the response PSD
with the exact same sample rate as the input PSD.
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Select them both from the file browser at the same time by clicking on
input_psd.psd and then holding down the Control key and selecting
resp_psd.psd. The Output filename should be something like trans_func.frf.
The Divide by Zero Value should be zero (0) and the Special case of 0/0
should be Zero.
7. The last thing that must be done is to take the square root to convert to
stresses. Use the utility module called MART (Arithmetic Manipulation)
which has an option to Raise to a power. The power to raise the entire
function to should be 0.5 (square root). Change the YLabel + Units to Max.
Principal and MPa. Overwrite the existing file.
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Transient Analysis
Principal vs. Angle
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apparent. Note that the plot of Maximum Abs. Principal vs. Angle from the transient
analysis shows about an 85 degree spread and the vibration analysis shows around
108 degrees total, which compares favorably.
Hint: The biaxiality plot from the time domain analysis was produced in
FEFAT under the Assess multiaxiality option.
As further explanation, the error bars are showing the degree of angular spread due
to class II principal stress variation (due to differential damping at each frequency)
while the solid red line is showing the maximum angular variation due to class III
stress variation (how the stress tensor changes with frequency). It is quite possible that
the vector having the maximum departure from an arbitrary base vector (class III) is
different from the one exhibiting maximum spread through class II. The plots are
essentially saying then, that load case one and three, in particular, are giving us a class
II and class III non-stationarity. Compare this plot with load case 2, here we see a
stationary tensor. For a more in-depth discussion on multiaxiality and biaxial
indicators, see the MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide on Vibration Fatigue analysis.
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The set up on this form is identical. Use RQC100 with a polished finish and
no treatment. However, use the previous group, hole, as the region since
response PSD results exist in the database for only the elements and nodes
around the hole.
4. Loading Info... form:
Change the Results Type to Power Spectrum. Select all the frequencies from
the new Result Case, RandomResponse. Select the Stresses, Components at
SECTION_POINT_1. Note that you do not have to associate and input
loading PSD to your Result Case as with the Transfer Function approach.
This is analogous to the pseudo-static versus transient approaches where the
transient does not need any external load variations defined because the
transient analysis already defines them. Thus, similarly we are using a
response PSD directly from the analysis code, ABAQUS, in this case.
5. Job Control: Full Analysis
Results are shown below (with the transient analysis) for the Y-component
direction at Node 72.
Transient
PSD Approach
Approach
Y-component Vertical ~300 Seconds ~2150 Seconds
Load
The FE response PSD from the Results application for the Y-component is
shown next to that extracted from FEVIBs Output a power spectrum option
at Node 72.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Temperature Corrected Fatigue
15 Analysis
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Note: Temperature corrected fatigue analysis may only be performed with S-N
and E-N analysis only. Optimization and Fast Analysis options are not
available.
Objective
• To introduce temperature corrected fatigue analysis.
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/plate_thermal.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/plate_structural.op2
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Press the Import toggle switch in Pre&Post (Analysis in MSC.Patran) on the main
form. When the form appears, set the Action to Access Results, the Object to Read
Output 2, and the Method to Both (model and results); then press the Select Results
File button, select the file plate_thermal.op2, and press the Apply button. View the
temperature results from the results menu. A fringe plot of the temperature profile is
shown below:
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Click on Preferences and set the Analysis Code to MSC.Nastran and the Analysis
Type to Structural. Import the results for the mechanical case by setting the Action to
Access Results, the Object to Read Output2, and the Method to Results Entities.
Select the plate_structural.op2 file and press the Apply button.
View the results from the results menu. A fringe plot of the Von Mises stress is shown
below.
Note: The stress units are in Pascals since the model dimensions are in meters and
the applied force is in Newtons
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Solution Parameters
Accept all the defaults on this form.
Material Information
Temperature assignments to the analysis entities are made on this form. There are 4
methods, Global, Region, Temp. Case, or ASCII Temp to assign temperatures to the
analysis group(s) from the Temp Type pull down menu. Global assigns the same
temperature to all the analysis groups, Region allows the user to specify temperatures
on the analysis groups on the material form (an extra cell has been added to the
material form to specify temperatures), Temp. Case extracts the temperatures from a
Thermal analysis case from the Patran database, and ASCII Temp requests that the
user assign a default global temperature and then specify the name of the TDS file to
use in overwriting the temperature for certain nodes. For Global, Region, Temp. Case,
or ASCII Temp, an ASCII materials database is used (nmats.htd) that is copied form
the installation directory to the users run directory to facilitate editing and addition of
material data. Click on the Materials Database Manger button to view the .htd file with
a text editor. Just like other analysis types, the list of available materials will be
displayed in the list box on the material form. The regular Material database is
displayed via PFMAT if the default Temp. Type of None is selected.
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In this exercise, we will set the Temp. Type to Temp. Case. As suggested at the end of
this Chapter, users may want to exercise this form by using the Global, Region, and
ASCII Temp definitions.
From the Temp. Type optionmenu, select Temp. Case. A button called “Get
Temperature Case” appears on the Materials Information form. Click on the Get
Temperature Case button and select the temperature case as shown below:
Click on the Fill Databox button and press the OK button to accept the temperature
case. Temperatures from this case will be assigned to the analysis group selected on
the material form.
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Loading Information
There is no change to the loading form. Set the Load Case ID to the only available
value. Set the Time History to SINE01. Accept all other default values and click OK to
accept the inputs. The completed from is shown with all the inputs.
Note: If SINE01 does not exist in your list of available Time Histories, then use the
Time History Manager button to “Copy from Centeral” the needed DAC file.
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The log of damage result is shown below. As expected, the highest damage is at the
fixed end where the maximum stresses and temperatures occur.
Verification: Run the same example with a global temperature of 20°C. Damage at the
same location should be approximately three times lower.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart GuideLK
CHAPTER
Aerospace Spectrum File Support
16
■ Aerospace Spectrum File Support
■ File Definitions
■ Example Problem
■ Conclusion
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Objective
• To illustrate the concept of generating a stress spectrum using the Spectrum and
Load Control files to create a fully reversed stress cycle.
• To show the results obtained here are identical to those obtained in the first exercise
in Chapter 2 of the Quick Start Guide.
Aerospace spectra are not supported for the following analysis types:
• Strain data in FES file
• Seam weld
• Spot weld
• Vibration fatigue
• Multi-analysis (duty cycle analysis)
• Fast Analysis
• Critical Plane & Multiaxial Analysis
File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/simpleSN.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/example.spe
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/example.lcs
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The header "Spectrum File V2" must be the first line in the .spe file. Scatter factor
accounts for scatter in materials and loads data. The calculated life will be divided by
this factor.
The Number of Cycles and Stress Factor parameters have not been implemented.
Therefore, these values should be set to 1.
The "#" character is used to denote comments. All text appearing after the "#" are
ignored.
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The number of FE cases has to be greater than or equal to 2. Blank lines after the 5
header lines are ignored, as is anything after the # character. The ID must be a positive
integer. The divisor values are the loads applied to the model for each of the FE cases
and must not be zero.
In the example files above, the spectrum file is made up of 2 flights that references one
or more of the 10 load cases. Each load case is comprised of 5 static FE Cases that are
factored to compute the stress for the given load case.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params form and verify that the Mean Stress Correction is set to None and
that the Stress Combination is set to Max. Abs. Principal. Press OK to accept the inputs.
Material Information
Open the Material Info form and set Material to MANTEN_MSN, set Finish to No Finish, set
Treatment to No Treatment, and set Region to default_group. Press OK to accept the inputs.
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Loading Information
The Aerospace Loading capability is invoked by setting the Job Setup for widget to
Load Spectrum. Note the absence of the reference to the load time history database as
this is not required for handling aerospace spectrum files. Instead there are two
navigation bars pointing to the location of the Spectrum and Load Case files. See the
form below:
Users can browse to the directories containing these files and edit the files to create
their own Spectrum and Load Control files. The example Load Control and Spectrum
files are shown below. Stresses for the 2 FE- Cases are read from the Patran database.
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Note that in the given example, the same FE case is selected twice. This is because at
least two FE cases must be used for the Aerospace Loading capability. Since the stress
due to a fully reversed load is to be modeled, the FE case is scaled first by +1.0, and
then by -1.0.
QSG Sample Load File
N
3
2
1.0,1.0
0,Load 0, 0.0,0.0
1,load +1, 1.0, 0.0
2,load -1, 0.0, -1.0
SPECTRUM FILE V2
QSG Sample Spectrum File
1
1
1
1
Flight, 1,1,1
Block1,1, 0,1,2,0
Exercise: Change the number of repeats for the flight in the spectrum file to 2 and
compare the results with the above. Damage at Node 1 should double. The individual
event (Block 1) may also be repeated to obtain the same result.
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16.4 Conclusion
Spectrum and Load Control files may be constructed to produce realistic loading
spectra for aerospace applications. Although the example used for demonstration
purposes is simple, the versatility of the tool is evident as complex spectra can be
constructed by utilizing the two input files and the FE Cases.
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CHAPTER
Multiple Fatigue Analysis
17 (Duty Cycle Analyzer)
■ Introduction
■ Example Problem
■ Conclusion
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17.1 Introduction
This is a powerful feature that allows the analyst to access damage from multiple
sequences and events, through an intuitive interface that allows the analyst to set up
realistic usage sequences. A typical usage sequence may be a car running at a certain
gross weight and subjected to various events such as turning, braking, and traveling
over potholes. It is very useful for the analyst to identify which events contribute
significant damage in a usage sequence or which usage sequence (e.g., different
weight configurations) cause significant damage. In either case, the Duty Cycle
capability in MSC.Fatigue allows the user to simulate usage profiles (sequences)
consisting of multiple events, as illustrated in the following example.
Table 17-1 Definitions
Term Description
Sequence One or more events that make up a given usage scenario; e.g.,
the events driving over a rough surface and then a smooth
surface at a particular weight configuration may be one
sequence.
Event An event consists of loading conditions used to define the
event. It may take any number of conditions to completely
define an event. For example, a taxi event for an aircraft may
require 1 loading condition at the nose gear and 2 load
conditions at the main landing gears. In this particular case,
the event will be defined with 3 loading conditions.
Condition A particular combination of a unit FEM results case and an
associated time history file; this may also be referred to as a
loading condition.
Channel Point on the structure where a load or acceleration data is
measured; a channel is normally associated with only one
coordinate direction. This is also the location where FEM loads
are applied for an FE analysis.
CFG A configuration file for specifying which conditions and
events are to be used in constructing the Usage profile.
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Solution Parameters
Open the Solution Params... form. Nothing needs to be changed here. Simply press
OK to accept all the defaults.
Material Information
Open the Material Info… form and set Material to MANTEN_MSN, set Finish to No
Finish, set Treatment to No Treatment, and set Region to default_group. Press OK to
accept the inputs.
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Loading Information
Open the Loading Info… form and set Job Setup to Duty Cycle. This will cause the
Loading Information form to be updated. So that it looks like the form shown below:
Now press the Get Duty Cycle Information button to open the Duty Cycle Setup
form.
Data for the Duty Cycle form may be filled out sequentially (i.e. complete definition
of a sequence followed by the next sequence) or added randomly. However, in the
latter case the user has to exercise caution to ensure that the data being entered is for
a particular sequence and event; e.g. if the user has 3 sequences, and the user wishes
to enter data for Sequence 3, one of the cells in the Sequence Information spreadsheet
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for Sequence 3 must be active. The same logic applies to entering Time History data
for a particular event. In the example below, we shall use the random method and
point out the focus requirement as necessary.
Import Duty Cycle Setup Data: Imports a previously saved Duty Cycle Setup file
named <jobname>.cfg. The first sequence and event information from this file is
loaded to the form.
Sequence Information
Number of Sequences: This is either entered or displayed from the imported setup file.
This number also sets the number of rows to display in the spreadsheet for entering
the sequence information. The maximum number of sequences allowed is 10. For this
exercise, we will have 2 sequences. Enter 2 in the number of sequences and enter the
sequence definitions as defined below.
Sequence Fill Down OFF: Selecting this toggle will set Sequence Fill Down to ON. The
values that are entered for each cell in the Sequence spreadsheet is repeated for all
rows. In the case of the Sequence Name, an underscore followed by an incremented
number will be appended to the name the user entered (i.e., test becomes test_1, test_2,
etc.).
Sequence Name Cell: Enter or display the names of the sequence in the imported file.
Enter sequence names wt1 and wt2 by clicking in the respective sequence name cells
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Number of Repeats Cell: Enter or display the number of repeats of the current
sequence in the imported file (Default =1). Enter 1 for sequence wt1 and 2 for sequence
wt2.
Number of Events Cell: Enter or display the number of events for the sequence in the
imported file. This number also sets the number of rows to display in the Event
Information spreadsheet. The maximum number of events per sequence is 100 and the
default is 1. Enter 3 for sequence wt1 and 4 for sequence wt2. This signifies that the
first sequence wt1 shall have 3 events and the second have 4 events.
Delete Sequence: Deletes the sequence and associated information (event, time
histories, etc.) associated with the sequence. The delete function allows single or
multiple deletes. Sequences may be added by incrementing the number of remaining
sequences. We shall proceed to defining the events specified for each sequence.
Event Information
The event information for each sequence is added by clicking on the sequence name
cell or anywhere in the row for the sequence and defining the event information for
the selected sequence in the event information spreadsheet. Since we defined 3 events
for the first sequence, 3 rows will be displayed for sequence wt1 and 4 for the second
sequence.
Event Fill Down OFF: Selecting this toggle will set Event Fill Down to ON. The values
that are entered for each cell in the Event spreadsheet is repeated for all rows. In the
case of the Event Name, an underscore followed by an incremented number will be
appended to the name the user entered.
Event Name Cell: Enter or display the names of the event in the imported file for a
selected sequence. With the focus on the first sequence, enter Push_back for event 1,
Taxi for event 2 and flight for event 3. For the second sequence, re-establish the focus
and click on the Sequence Name wt2 and add the same information as for sequence
wt1. However, since we defined an extra event for wt2, enter Land as the name for the
fourth event.
Number of Repeats Cell: Enter or display the number of repeats of the current event
in the imported file (Default = 1). We shall assign 1 repeat for every event except the
flight event in both sequences, where we will define 2 repeats. With the focus set
appropriately for each sequence, enter 2 for the number of repeats for Sequence wt1,
event flight and Sequence wt2, event flight.
Number of Time Histories Cell: Enter or display the number of Time Histories or other
load types from the imported file. (Note: This cell is only available for the Static Duty
Cycle case.) This number also sets the number of rows in the load association
spreadsheet. In this exercise, we will use a single time history for each event (see table
17-2 and 17-3 below).
Delete Event: Deletes a selected event and associated information with the event. The
delete function allows single or multiple deletes.
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Add Event: Clears the widgets and allows information to be added for a new event
after the selected event. If no selection is made, the event is added at the top.
Fill Down OFF: Checking this will set Fill Down to ON, where a user can
take advantage of filling the spreadsheet if time histories and load cases have
been named in a logical fashion. This function will enable users to retain
some of the functionality of the previous Multiple Analysis Tool.
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Time History Cell: Selecting this cell will display a listbox containing the list
of DAC files found in the current directory. The user can change the current
directory by pushing the browse button. This will cause a browser dialog box
to be displayed. Pick the DAC files from any directory. Selecting a DAC file
from the directory will load up the first cell and a list box shall display all the
DAC files in that directory for subsequent picking (see image below).
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Results Case Cell: Selecting this cell will display a list box and the load and
results types in the Patran database. Selecting the load and results type will
load the root results case identifier (i.e. the load case and results type) into
the cell. Notice the absence of a layer selection – this has been automated and
the correct layer information will be extracted based on the results type.
Normalizing Load, Scale Factor and Offset Cells: The default values are 1.0,
1.0 and 0.0 respectively. The max/min value in the entered time history will
be displayed to allow the user to normalize the time history. For this
example, the following normalizing values shall be applied to every
occurrence of the time histories in the table above.
Table 17-3 Normalizing Load Data
Saetrn.dac 999.
Saebrkt.dac 738.
This version is displayed when the Result Type is set to Power Spectrum
instead.
Frequency Response Cell: Selecting this cell will display a Result Load Case
listbox and a Stress Tensor listbox, just like it does for the non-duty cycle
case. The only difference is that there is no layer information associated with
the cell. This has been automated and the current layer information is written
to the CFG file.
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Input PSD Cell: Selecting this cell displays a listbox containing a list of all the
PSD files in the current directory. The user can use the Browse button to go
and select a PSD from a different directory. A Create PSD from DAC button
has been put on the form to allow users to create a new PSD file from an
existing DAC file. The resulting file will be placed in the current working
directory unless otherwise specified.
3. Result Case Data:
This version of the load data section of the Duty Cycle form will be displayed
when the Result Type is set to Transient for most of the analysis types.
Result Case Cell: Selecting this cell will display a Result Time Steps listbox
and a Stress/Strain listbox just like it does for the non-duty cycle case. The
only difference is that there is no layer information associated and the correct
layer information is written to the CFG file.
Scale Factor Cell: The default value for this cell is 1.0.
Save As: Saves the current information that has been either loaded from an
existing load setup file or that has been entered to the directory and filename
choosen by the user. This gives the user the capability to store the file
anywhere and not just in the current working directory under the defined
jobname.
Defaults: Restores the form to the default state.
Cancel: Discard all inputs and exit out of the form.
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Job Control
From the Job Control form submit a Full analysis (notice the absence of the method
button in the image below) and a Duty Cycle analysis will be submitted automatically.
Review Results
Monitor the progress of the job and at completion, read the results from the analysis
using Read results from the Main form. Notice again the absence of the Job Type
button as in the previous versions of MSC.Fatigue. A Duty Cycle job is automatically
detected in the run directory and results are read accordingly. With the Setup
described above, the results form should display the results for the 2 sequences, wt1
and wt2 as shown below:
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The result shown above is the Duty Cycle result at the bottom surface for sequence
wt1. In the example used, results for the top and bottom surface are identical and for
illustration and comparison purposes, only the results for the bottom surface are
shown below.
Your results, depending on the platform you are running on, should produce
approximately the same results as above. If there are gross differences , please
compare your <jobname.cfg> and <jobname.fin> files with duty_cycle* files in
p3_home/mscfatigue_files/examples folder or import them to setup your job.
Note: The damage results for event Flight in both sequences take into account the
number of repeats (2) applied to this event. The Duty Cycle results are, as
expected, the sum of the damage in each sequence – note that the Duty cycle
result for sequence wt2,takes into account the repeat factor specified for this
sequence.
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17.3 Conclusion
The implementation of Duty Cycle analysis provides a powerful and flexible tool for
setting up and analyzing complex sequences or conditions (as they were referred to in
the prior development). The user has complete flexibility in setting up sequences,
events consisting of uneven time histories in each event and the ability to navigate to
the source of time history data.
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Main Index
MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Fatigue Utilities
18
■ Problem Description
■ Fatigue Preprocessing
■ Material Management
■ Advanced Loading Utilities
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File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/1pk.asc
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/2pk.asc
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/3pk.asc
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Note: This extraction performed by this Utility does not take into account the
phasing from Superpositioning of the results for multiple channel loading.
FASTAN should be used in this case as proper account of the phasing is
taken into account to extract high damage areas.
This Low Damage Removal utility can be accessed by selecting the option from the
Fatigue Preprocessing pulldown menu under Tools | MSC.Fatigue (for Patran) or
under Tools | Fatigue Utilities (for Pre&Post).
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1. Invoke MART by typing mart from the system prompt or by selecting the
Arithmetic Manipulation option from the Advanced Loading Utilities
pulldown menu under Tools | MSC.Fatigue (for Patran) or under Tools |
Fatigue Utilities (for Pre&Post).
2. Select the Raise to a power option.
3. Select saetrn.dac as the Input Filename and press OK.
4. Set the Output Filename to saetrn2.dac.
5. Change the Raise to Power databox to 1.1.
6. Change the From databox to 1000 and press OK. This will raise all Y values
to the power 1.1 starting at 1000 seconds to the end of the signal.
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2. Select Edit as the mode of operation. You will be presented with a screen to
select files. The operation of selecting files is identical whether you are
browsing, editing, or creating. When creating you simply enter a file name
and press OK for each column of data.
3. Using the List button select the two
files from the previous exercise,
saetrn.dac and saetrn2.dac. Use the
Shift key to select both files. Press
the OK button two times. A
spreadsheet with four columns will
appear. The first two columns are
fixed data corresponding to the
point number and the time. Only
the right two columns of data are
editable.
4. Edit any cell in these two right columns by selecting it with the cursor or
using the arrow keys and typing the new value.
There are a number commands at the top of the spreadsheet that are useful for editing
and viewing data. These are:
File: This has only two options, Back or OK. Both will end the editing session and quit
from MCOE. Only OK will actually save any changes.
View: These commands under this pulldown are simple. They allow you to scroll up
or down, right or left, or to the beginning or end of the spreadsheet.
Goto: This allows you to specify which row to go to based on the X value (time).
finD: This will find the next row in the current column with the value specified based
on the criteria of greater than, less than, between, or closest to.
Opts: This is perhaps the most useful of the commands for editing the tabular data.
These options are discussed below.
Pref: This sets preferences such as how you would like to select cells, or view number
formats in the columns. You can even scale the X-axis (time) and define the format of
exported files.
Next: This finds the next number based on the previously set finD command.
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Gap: This command appends the specified duration of time onto the end of a signal.
You type a number into the automatically selected cell and a linear interpolation
occurs filling the cells in-between. The next time duration gap is determined from you
entering another data value in the selected cell with interpolation occurring again.
This cycle continues until you select another cell or invoke some other command.
Delete: This deletes all cells within the specified time duration. Cells below the
deleted cells move up closing the gap.
Copy: Copies the data values in the specified time duration.
paSte: Pastes values that have been copied into the specified time duration
overwriting any existing values.
cYcle: Appends a saw tooth type signal to the end of a column by specifying the
maximum/minimum, range, number of cycles and mean.
Insert: Inserts the number of points or the time duration specified at the current row
for the specified columns. A start and end data value are requested and intermediate
values are linearly interpolated.
Append: Appends to the end of the signal the length of time or the number of points
specified. It also requests a beginning and ending value and all other values in-
between are linearly interpolated.
Join: This command asks for a start time and an end time and changes all values in-
between based on a linear interpolation for the specified data columns.
Export: Creates a file with default extension .txt of the columns of data in the
spreadsheet.
Plot: Plots the specified columns using the MMFD multi-file display program.
Rescale and offset: Specifies a start time and an end time, the column(s) to apply the
scaling and offset, and the scale factor and the offset values.
Format columns: This allows you to hide or unhide columns from the spreadsheet, fix
(or unfix) them to protect columns from data entry if desired, and to group columns
for multiple column operations in other options.
eXit: This is the same as OK from the File pulldown to save and exit.
Quit: This is the same as Back from the File pulldown exit without saving.
Note: A back up file of each file specified is created with extension .bak. So you can
always retrieve the original data if you make a mistake.
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comparing and assessing various time signals. The results are presented in the form
of a range-mean or a max-min matrix which can be displayed or used as input to
mCLF or MSLF. In addition, a file containing a description of each cycle can be
generated. If the time of each cycle can be stored, this file may also be used in crack
growth analysis.
For example, use PTIME to Copy from central the time history, SAETRN.
1. Invoke MCYC by typing mcyc from the system prompt or select the
Rainflow Cycle Counter option from the Advanced Loading Utilities
pulldown menu under Tools | MSC.Fatigue (for Patran) or under Tools |
Fatigue Utilities (for Pre&Post).
2. Select input file. By default, mCYC expects the input data to be a standard
.dac file but files with the correct internal format but different file extensions
must have their names entered in full e.g. filename.pvx
3. Select Output Type - Histogram, Cycles Files, or Both. The layout of the
lower part of the above screen and next screen (shown here) will depend on
the selection made here. If Histogram or Both is selected the Gate, Histogram
Filename, Range Parameters and Mean Parameters are prompted for in the
screen as shown on page 416.
4. Enter Gate to filter cycles (e.g. 75 which is approximately 10% of the max
indicated value 747). The value entered here must be in physical units
(usually microstrain) and greater than zero. If the gate value is more than
half the size of the largest cycle in the input file, an error message will be
issued. All cycles bigger than the gate will be counted.
5. Enter Window Type - Time or Points. Selecting one or the other changes the
next input to time or points
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6. Specify Start Time and End Time or Start Points and End Points. (e.g. start+6
-start 6 seconds or points from start and end-100 - end 100 seconds or points
from end). Default is start and end
7. Specify histogram filename if the Output Type selected is Histogram or Both.
8. Store Cycle Time and Cycles Filename are only activated if Cycles File or
Both are selected above. If yes is selected, a time based cycles file (.tcy) is
generated that can be used in crack growth analysis. If no is selected, a .cyc
file is generated that stores the ranges and means from the largest cycle
onwards.
9. Specify Cycles Filename if the Output Type selected is Cycles File or Both.
The .tcy file can be re-ordered if desired using the Sort Cycles. If no is
selected the cycles are sorted in order of size. Note that if sorting is not
carried out, it is possible that a crack growth analysis will be wrong since the
order of the cycles is important in crack growth analysis. If yes is selected the
cycles are sorted in order of time. Slow selects an old method for sorting
which requires less disk space than the current faster method. If disk space
is not a concern, do not use this option.
10. The WSR component field is for the exponent on which to base the weighted
stress range (range 2-10). The value of 2 would give a rms of stress ranges,
the default of 3 gives a root mean cube used typically with welded joint S-N
curves. For crack growth, the Paris Law exponent, m, should be used.
11. Pressing OK takes you to the next screen or if only Cycles files was selected
a results summary is displayed as shown below.
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Histogram Limits
The following form is displayed if both or Histogram is selected above.
The fields that are activated depend upon whether the environment keyword
HISTFORM is set to MINMAX (use the full range from minimum to maximum values)
or BINSIZ (specify on the minimum and the bin width).
1. Min (Range) - For the purposes of scaling the histogram, the range of the
smallest cycle to be represented in the histogram must be entered in physical
units. If there are any cycles smaller than the minimum range specified, then
those cycles will be excluded from the histogram.
2. Max (Range) - For the purposes of scaling the histogram, the range of the
largest cycle to be represented in the histogram must be entered in physical
units. If there are any cycles larger than the maximum range specified, then
those cycles will be excluded from the histogram.
3. No. of Bins - To scale the histogram, specify the number of bins into which to
classify the cycle ranges. Any integer up to a maximum of 128 may be
entered.
4. Min (mean) - For the purposes of scaling the histogram, the smallest mean
value to be represented must be entered in physical units. If there are any
cycles whose mean values are smaller than the value specified, then those
cycles will be excluded from the histogram.
5. Max (mean) - For the purposes of scaling the histogram, the largest mean
value to be represented must be entered in physical units. If there are any
cycles whose mean values are greater than the value specified, then those
cycles will be excluded from the histogram.
6. No. of Bins - To scale the histogram, specify the number of bins into which to
classify the cycle means. Any integer up to a maximum of 128 may be
entered.
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As a quick example, define a file called example.frm using any text editor with the
following content:
; --- Define all the files ---
%QYFIL /FILE=F1 /PROMPT="Enter filename" /TYPE=INPUT
%DFFIL /FILE=F2 /NAME=positive /TYPE=OUTPUT /OV=y
%DFFIL /FILE=F3 /NAME=negative /TYPE=OUTPUT /OV=y
%DFFIL /FILE=F4 /NAME=positive2 /TYPE=OUTPUT /OV=y
%DFFIL /FILE=F5 /NAME=negative2 /TYPE=OUTPUT /OV=y
;
; --- Carry out the calculations ---
;
%BEGIN
;
%IF(F1 > 0)
F2=F1
%ELSE
F2=0
%ENDIF
%IF(F1 < 0)
F3=F1
%ELSE
F3=0
%ENDIF
F4=MAX(F1,0)
F5=MIN(F1,0)
;
%END
Next invoke MFRM from the system prompt or by selecting the Formula Processor
option from the Advanced Loading Utilities pulldown menu under Tools |
MSC.Fatigue (for Patran) or under Tools | Fatigue Utilities (for Pre&Post).
1. Select Run the formula template.
2. Enter example.frm as the template file that you just created. Press OK.
3. You will be prompted for an input file. This can be any .dac formatted type
of time series file. Select saetrn.dac as the input file from the previous
exercises in this section.
The processing will begin once this input file has been selected. If you look carefully
at the template file you can see what operations are being executed. The first line
prompts for the input file to process. Internally the input file will be known as a
variable called F1. The next four lines define output files that will be internally knows
as variables F2, F3, F4, and F5 respectively. They are given the names positive,
negative, positive2, and negative2. The default file extension is .dac.
The next section of the template file contains the operations to be performed. These
operations take F1 and break it up into its positive component and its negative
component. This can be accomplished in two ways. The first way is done in the first
IF-ELSE-ENDIF command by setting any points greater than zero in file F1 to file F2
and anything less than zero to zero. The second IF-ELSE-ENDIF command then does
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the negative side. The final two lines accomplish the exact same task by using the
intrinsic math function MAX and MIN by taking the maximum or minimum of each
point in the signal by comparing to zero.
4. Plot the results by selecting Plot
results files. A plot of the resulting F2,
F3, F4, and F5 files is shown to the
right.
MFRM has the ability to perform very complex
operations using IF statements, LOOPs,
arithmetic, logarithmic and trigonometric
functions as well as addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, and raising to a power.
See the MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide for a full
description of the MFRM commands and
language syntax.
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The first 1898 seconds of each signal is extracted and new files called saetrn.mod,
saesus.mod, and saebrakt.mod are created. The before and after displays using
MMFD are shown below.
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Note: In
Input .dac files exist as families of files with a common generic name but with
different numbers appended to the name which denotes the channel number (i.e.,
test01.dac, test02.dac, etc., where test is the generic name).
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3. The next form is the Filename Input form which allows the names of the
input and output files to be specified. For an input file type of RPC the RPC
Filename field appears and for an input file type of DAC the Generic
Filename field appears. Select the RPC Filename or the Generic Filename,
the Channels, the Output Filename, and whether or not to recalculate the
statistics. Press OK. See the MSC.Fatigue User’s Guide for file naming
conventions and other information.
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4. The final form for MSIMMAX is the Analysis Definition form. This form allows you
to choose between Sort Channel analysis and All Channels analysis. It is here that
the limits are set and the event type is selected. This information along with other
relative data is entered on the form that is shown below. See the MSC.Fatigue User’s
Guide for more information.
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A display of the resulting PSDF is shown above. Note that only one predominate
frequency is present in the signal at around 1/2 Hz plus a DC component at zero Hz.
This PSDF could be used as input to a vibration fatigue analysis.
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Note: The diagonal terms in the PSD matrix of PSD and cross term files could also
be created using MASD directly.
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6. Press the OK button and the analysis will take place again except this time
all three time signals (which are being treated as stress time histories) will be
processed and the fatigue lives reported for each. Answer Yes to any
overwrite permission questions.
Exit from MSLF when you are finished.
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Note: MCLF can accept either measured or purely elastic signals such as those
from FE. If purely elastic signals are fed to MCLF, it will perform elastic-
plastic correction. Measured data is assumed to be the true strains and
therefore undergoes no correction. You must specify this on the Service
Loading Environment form.
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Note: MCDA can be spawned directly from MCLF (and MSLF) from the Display
results | damage Analysis menu pick if you request a Cycles file as output.
Note: You can spawn MCYL from both MCLF and MSLF to list cycle files and
matrices directly from the Display Results | List cycles menu pick if you
request a Cycles file as output.
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Note: This example is for illustration purposes only. The signal used in this
example is not actually an appropriate signal to use in that it is not truly
random or gaussian as required by a random vibration fatigue analysis.
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1. Invoke MMLF from the system prompt by typing mmlf or choose the Multi-
Axial Life Analysis option from the Advanced Fatigue Utilities pulldown
menu under Tools | MSC.Fatigue (for Patran) or under Tools | Fatigue
Utilities (for Pre&Post).
2. Enter a new job name such as “mlf_example.” It is new, so answer Yes to the
ensuing question.
3. Accept all defaults for all setup screens except for these: Gauge 1: saetrn.dac;
Gauge 2: saesus.dac; Gauge3:saebrakt.dac;Material Name: MANTEN
The analysis will proceed, the results will be presented and eventually you
will be placed in the Post Processing Options. Answer Yes to any overwrite
permission questions.
4. Go to Display results | Stress and Strain. Plot this result and any of the
others you wish in this menu selection.
Exit from MMLF when you are finished.
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Graphical Editing-mGED
This module is the multi-channel interactive graphical editor for time series data
allowing online manipulation of a signal. Tasks such as cleaning up bad data, creating
data, extending a signal, spike removal, etc., are all easy and quick to carry out. This
module can also operate in batch. For multi-channel edits it creates it’s own NCL
macro so that operations defined for one channel can be applied to all others, without
the need to do them interactively (on DOS platforms a BTP module is created). The
assumption is that the other signals are from the same test or at least exhibit the same
sample rate, etc.
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Overlaid plots are where all of the files are plotted using common axes. Cross-plots
are where one file nominally forms the X-values against which the other files are
plotted on common axes.
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When the modifications are done a new printer definition file will be left in
the local working directory. As long as this file is in this directory, any
printing using MQPLOT will see this definition file (cpost.de1).
5. This then puts you in the Modify
Settings menu where you can
change any necessary items.
Under Size Settings change the
Units of Size to Inches and press
OK.
6. Under Output Settings change
the Output Destination to File.
7. Change the Filename Method to
Plot Filename. This will tack on
the .spl extension for a color postscript file.
8. Now invoke MQPLOT and open one or more or the .plt file that you have
created from any of the MSC.Fatigue graphical modules.
9. You have two Output choices after selecting the files: Device or Screen. If
you select Device and the Device name, CPOST, the color postscript will
automatically be created in your directory and the program will end. If you
select Screen, they will be graphically displayed and you will then have to
use the Print command to create the postscript files.
10. Once the files have been created you can send them to the printer. For
example if your printer name is qmc_1081 and you have the UNIX lpr
command set up properly you should be able to issue the following:
lpr -Pqmc_1081 filename.spl
Next let us set up a printer/plotter name that automatically does the print submission
for us. Follow the previous steps up to the point where you modify the Output
Settings:
11. Under Output Settings change the Output Destination to Queue.
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12. Change the Queue Text String to Precede Filename to lpr -Pqmc_1081.
Include a space after the printer name.
This essentially defines the command line to use when sending the file to the
printer. The file name will be appended to the command line. You can also
define any other string that needs to be appended after the file name also.
13. Now invoke MQPLOT and open any .plt file. If the Output choice is Device
or if a Print command is chosen, the file will be directly sent to the printer.
The other Output device not mentioned yet is an actual Output Device Name such as
when you have a printer directly connected to your UNIX computer. Since these vary
dramatically from computer to computer it is not convenient to describe this setup
here.
Note: A variety of different printers and plotters are available when you create a
new printer/plotter definition from scratch such as HPGL, Calcomp, Canon,
DEC, Graphtec, Epson, HP, OKI, etc.
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color environment is used, or some other custom color file is selected which remains
in effect until you change it. The best way to learn this program is to experiment and
see what it does.
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As a final exercise you might want to run the new signal through MSLF and then
compare the new rainflow cycle count matrix to the old. They should look almost
identical in nature. Use MP3D to plot each .cyo file.
Note: The life estimate may not be the same because the scale factor is not applied
to the cycles file. Scale the time history (using MART or PTIME) in order to
use a scale factor of 1.0 to create the cycles file in MSLF. Then run this
through MREGEN.
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For each of the three environment settings the user can do the following:
1. List environment to screen - this option lists all the defined keyword/value
pairs to the screen.
2. Output environment to file - this option outputs all the defined
keyword/value pairs to an ASCII file. It allows the file to be overwritten or
to have the pairs appended to it. The character separating the keyword and
value may be specified, along with a filter to allow a subset of keywords to
be written.
3. Add or alter keyword - this option allows the addition of new
keyword/value pairs to the selected environment, and also allows existing
keyword values to be modified. If altering a keyword, the keyword may be
selected from a list using the F3 key or ‘List’ button.
4. Remove keywords - this option allows keywords to be deleted from the
environment. A single keyword may be typed in, or a ‘wildcard’ may be
used to define a set of keywords to be deleted. Keywords may be selected
from a list using the F3 key or ‘List’ button.
5. Clear environment - this option allows the environment to be deleted. All
keywords will be destroyed. If the environment file is to be deleted, answer
YES.
Environment Copy – Allows the user to specify the source and target environments to
use in the copy process. Individual entries, selected entries or all entries may be copied
from the source environment to the target.
An example of an environment variable that the user might want to create is
PFCONAMP. This environment variable is used for constant amplitude zero mean
time histories. It allows life to be calculated directly from the true max-min cycle,
which is stored along with the matrix. In order to make use of this environment
variable the user would need to invoke MENM and set the environment keyword
PFCONAMP to ON.
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
CHAPTER
Miscellaneous Features
19
■ Problem Description
■ Element Centroidal Calculations
■ Group Averaging
■ Extracting Time Histories
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File
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/
patran_els.fin
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/
key_tran.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/
key_stat.op2
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/
transient.fin
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/
static.fin
P3_HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/
key_tran.asc
P3HOME/mscfatigue_files/examples/
simpleSN.op2
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as number in magenta (small font). These stresses are an 5.325 5.3 5.4 5.8 6.3 6.25
5.4 5.8
indication of model quality. If they are all identical the
element quality is perfect. This is rarely the case however. 4.53 3.7
When Global averaging is set, all element contributions 4.475 4.3 4.5 3.2 3.3 3.6
4.3 3.6
are considered in the averaging. Thus the stress values 4.5 4.6
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Note: You do not have to supply a node or element number; but if you do not, you will
have to supply one within FEFAT before a successful operation. When a node or
element is supplied, a file called pfatigue.ent is created from which FEFAT extracts
the ID. This file will be empty if you do not supply a number, in which case, you
have to manually supply the ID in FEFAT.
When FEFAT begins you will be presented with a simple setup screen which contains a few
items that can be modified if so desired. Press the OK button to extract the time history. For
multiple load cases, this will create the actual combined stress or strain time history before (and
used for) rainflow cycle extraction. Simple statistic of the signal are also given, such as
maximum, minimum and mean values.
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Hint: A Fast Analysis (on the Job Control... form) does exactly this. It converts the
load history to a rainflow matrix and then simply scales the histogram according
to the stress or strain instead of doing a rainflow cycle count for each location for
a single load case analysis.
2. Import an ASCII definition of a matrix.
This is also done under Add an entry | rainflow Matrix, in a very similar fashion
as reading an ASCII time history. The format of the ASCII file takes on a specific
form however. It is possible to define the matrices in two forms:
• Range Bin - Mean Bin - Number of Cycles
• Range Value - Mean Value - Number of Cycles
As an example let us say we want to define a load to have the following spectrum:
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Note: The maximum and minimum values of the range and mean axes will determine the
accuracy of the matrix. Each entry in the ASCII file must be able to fall into a unique
bin or an error will occur on import.
Run PTIME and select Add an entry | rainflow Matrix. Then specify to input the matrix via
an ASCII file and select the file that you created. Give the matrix the name “range” and import
the file as Force in Newtons. Be sure to give it a description also. Then plot the entry.
If you know what bins to place cycles in you can define the ASCII file in terms of
#V6.0
# Example using bin_data
BINS=32
MEAN_MIN=-1.1
MEAN_MAX=1.1
RANGE_MIN=0
RANGE_MAX=2.1
BIN_DATA:
31 15 5
16 9 10
16 23 10
8 2 20
8 32 20
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MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
APPENDIX
Glossary of Terms
A
■ Glossary Terms
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Note: The terms and definitions in this appendix may have multiple meanings to
different people. The definitions give here are as used in the context of this
guide.
Amplitude
Amplitude is half of the range of a cycle. It is the maximum less the minimum divided
by two.
σ
σa
σm ∆σ
σ ma x – σ m i n
σ a = -------------------------------
2
August Woehler
This German gentleman is probably the most famous
of all fatigue researchers being the “Father of Fatigue”
as many know him. He is responsible for the
invention of the “stress-life” or “S-N” method of
fatigue life prediction. See Stress-Life (S-N) (p. 453).
β-Solution
See Compliance Function (p. 437).
Broad Band
See Wide Band (p. 454).
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APPENDIX A 437
Glossary of Terms
Compliance Function
For crack growth analysis, a compliance function needs to be defined. This is also
known as a β-function or a K-solution. It is defined based on the crack geometry and
the dimension of the specimen. In physical terms it is simply a measure of how the
compliance (stiffness or flexibility) of the structure changes as the crack propagates.
These functions take on the form of look up tables in the software and can be defined
in terms of a polynomial equation or selected from a standard library set. They are
then used in the crack growth rate (Paris) equation to determine the stress intensity for
any given stress cycle and, in turn, used to determine a incremental crack size.
da m
------- = C ( ∆K ) Paris Equation
dN
∆K = Yσ πa Stress Intensity
Compliance Function
Component S-N
This is an S-N curve which is tied to a specific component geometry and relates
nominal stress (S) to life. The stress that is looked up on the S-N curve is not the actual
stress at the failure location (in general) but the stress as measured in a location away
from the failure. This is usually because of the impracticality of placing a strain gauge
at the failure location. The S-N curve can only be used for components with the same
geometry (and material) as that used to create the S-N curve. The components
themselves are used as test specimens to create the S-N curves (such as a weld class).
These types of S-N curves are not used to identify the location of a possible fatigue
failure since this location is already identified by the nature of the S-N curve. Instead
they are used to evaluate resistance to variation of the loading. These S-N curves are
generally used when the failure mechanism is not well modeled with material S-N
curves or other methods. They represent a more macro way of characterizing the
failure mechanism by building into the curve all influences on the fatigue life, i.e.,
plasticity, geometry, residual stress, etc. The challenge when using these S-N curves
with FE analysis is to know where the measured or reference location is, which is the
stress that should be used to look up damage using these S-N curves.
Crack Initiation
See Strain-Life (e-N) (p. 452).
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Cyclic Properties
Cyclic material properties are those that are obtained from a material test similar to a
monotonic test with one big difference. The loading is reversed and cycled at various
load levels. From these tests are derived the cyclic stress-strain curve and the strain-
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APPENDIX A 439
Glossary of Terms
life curve used in crack initiation analysis. At each load level the stabilized hysteresis
loop is extracted, its maximum stress/strain value extracted and plotted onto a single
plot to create the cyclic stress-strain curve.
σ3
σ2 σ3
σ1 σ2
ε1 ε2 ε3 σ1
Cyclic Hardening
This is a behavior Cyclic Hardening
σ
exhibited by σ
materials that, ε
when subject to
cyclic loading,
actually strengthen
with time. This is Constant Amplitude Stress Response Stress-Strain
illustrated by the Strain Signal Mapping
σ
hysteresis loops
becoming taller and skinnier on stress-strain space. The yield strength become greater.
Cyclic Softening
This is a behavior Constant Softening
exhibited by σ
σ
materials that, ε
when subject to
cyclic loading,
weaken with time.
This is illustrated
Constant Amplitude Stress Response Stress-Strain
by the hysteresis Strain Signal Mapping
loops becoming
shorter and fatter on stress-strain space. The yield strength lessens.
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da/dN Curve
This is the crack growth rate (da/dN). It is a
material characteristic and as such, is treated
as a material data set and is obtained by Region 3
Damage Summation
This is the mechanism of summing Stress
the damage from the various stress ∆D1 = N1 / Nf1
cycles. All cycles are identified using
∆D2 = N2 / Nf2
rainflow cycle counting. Damage
due to each is determined from the
appropriate damage curve such as Total Damage = Σ Ni / Nfi
an S-N or strain-Life curve. Damage
is then summed using the linear
damage summation law as defined
Cycles to Failure
by Palmgen and Miner which
simply states that each cycle causes a
damage which is equal to
1/(number of cycles to failure at that load level). When you apply a series of cycles,
damage is added up linearly until the total is unity (1) when failure is predicted.
Fatigue damage is a non-linear process, but we find that if we have a fairly random
repeated sequence it works satisfactorily.
Damage Tolerant
This is a fatigue life design philosophy which adopts the crack growth method and is
used in conjunction with the fail safe philosophy. A crack or flaw is assumed to exist
and its growth rate determined to set up specific inspection periods to ensure that the
flaw will not grow to any critical size between these inspections.
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APPENDIX A 441
Glossary of Terms
Deterministic
This is a loading event which can be
determined at any point in time,
such as a constant amplitude sine
Response
wave. Repeatable loading falls into
this category. This is in opposition Time
to a random load where no events
can be determined at any given
point in time or more specifically,
where the next sequence of events
cannot be determined from any previous events.
Durability
Durability is the conglomeration of all aspects that effect the life of a product and
usually concerns itself with much more than just fatigue and fracture, but also loading
conditions, environmental concerns, material characterizations, and testing
simulations to name a few. A true product durability program in an organization that
takes all of these aspects and more into consideration.
Elastic
Elastic behavior refers to a component or material, which when subject to loading
conditions that cause structural deformation, if removed, returns to its original state.
No permanent state of deformation is left when the loads are removed. Linear elastic
analysis denotes that as the loads vary, the responses vary in a linear and elastic
manner relative to the loads. For instance if you double or triple the load, the
responses will double or triple respectively. Whether the stresses exceed the yield or
even the ultimate stress is not taken into account.
Elastic-plastic Correction
See Neuber’s Rule (p. 447).
Endurance Limit
This is similar to the fatigue limit and is an imposed limit of reversals on strain-Life
curves above which the component is said to have infinite life. This limit, referred to
as the material cut-off, is set to 2e8 reversals but can be changed by the user.
Failure Criterion
The criterion that defines failure such as catastrophic failure into two or more pieces,
until an engineering crack of 2mm appears, or until a crack reaches a critical size to be
deemed unsafe. Understanding the failure criterion in a fatigue analysis is very
important. The material properties used in any fatigue analysis, be it an S-N curve,
strain-Life curve, or crack propagation da/dN curves, define the failure criterion.
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Fail Safe
This is a fatigue life design philosophy which adopts the total life (S-N) method
generally where failure cannot be tolerated. Therefore built in redundancy is generally
used such that if a failure were to occur, the structure would fall into a state that it
would survive until repair can be accommodated.
Fatigue
This is a failure under a repeated or otherwise varying load which never reaches a
level sufficient to cause failure in a single application. The initiation and growth of a
crack, or growth from a pre-existing defect, until it reaches a critical size, such as
separation into two or more parts
Kf = ( 1 + ( Kt – 1 ) ) ⁄ ( 1 + p' ⁄ r )
where p’ is a material constant dependent on grain size and strength and r is the notch
root radius.
Fourier Analysis b2
1
Fatigue
In simplistic terms, Fourier analysis is the Limit
Fracture
A fracture is the growth or propagation of a crack once it has been initiated. Fracture
also denotes sudden breakage of a component or structure in two. However for the
purposes of this manual it refers to the life prediction method of crack growth as
implemented using LEFM. See LEFM (p. 445).
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APPENDIX A 443
Glossary of Terms
FFT Force
variable changes with Force
time. Time signals can
also be represented in the
time frequency
frequency domain which
relates the variable to frequency, describing how that variable changes with or is
affected by frequency. The time and frequency domains present the same information
in different ways, helping the engineer understand the effect a signal or response may
have on a structure. Consider, for example, a random signal which when converted to
the frequency domain shows only content at 10 Hz. This signal when applied to a
structure with natural frequencies well above 10 Hz may not be damaging at
sufficiently low enough levels. However if the structure has natural frequencies in the
10 Hz range, the signal would be far more damaging. Being able to view a signal in the
frequency domain can alert an engineer to this potential danger.
Gaussian
For a random signal and for
most engineering purposes
the amplitude Probability
Density Function (PDF)
will be approximately
Gaussian. This means that
the density distribution will take on a bell like curve as shown here where the highest
levels of the signal are the least probable of occurring. See also Power Spectral
Density (PSD) (p. 448).
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Strain
high cycle regime and are not valid in the low
cycle regime. The technical definition of high
cycle versus low cycle fatigue is where the
low cycle
elastic and plastic strain-Life curves cross each
other on the strain-Life plot. This is known as
the transition life above which is high cycle
Reversals (2N)
fatigue and below which is low cycle fatigue. It
is clear that above the transition life elastic
events dominate and below it, plastic events dominate. S-N analysis does not
compensate for plastic events in an adequate way as the strain-life method does and
for this reason is not a good choice for low cycle fatigue problems. The strain-life
method can handle both high and low cycle fatigue problems. The transition life is
generally around 104 or 105 cycles and is material dependent.
Hysteresis
This is a material behavior that is illustrated by loading a
material beyond its yield point and then unloading it and σ
perhaps reversing the load until it yields in compression
and cycling. When the stress and strain are cross plotted,
they create plots such as the one shown here. Each loop is
a hysteresis loop. This phenomenon is know as the
Baushinger effect after the German engineer that first ε
documented this behavior of most metallic materials.
Main Index
APPENDIX A 445
Glossary of Terms
Irregularity Factor
Time History
This is a parameter for describing or
characterizing a process such as a time
Stress (MPa)
signal or a power spectral density function.
For a time signal, it is defined as the ratio of
the number of times a signal passes time
upward in a positive manner through the
mean of a signal divided by the number of 1 second
peaks. In the frequency domain, the
irregularity factor is determined from its
moments. The irregularity factor takes on = upward zero crossing
values between zero and one, one = peak
describing a narrow band process and non-
zero values describing wide or broad band processes. A value of unity describes a
process whose peaks and adjacent valleys are roughly the same order of magnitude
but of opposite sign whereas a value of near zero represents a signal that has an
infinite number of peaks versus upward mean crossings, e.g., a dominate sine wave
with noise superimposed on top of it.
K-Solution
See Compliance Function (p. 437).
LEFM
Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics. This is the art of crack growth prediction as
determined from linear elastic stresses. It assumes only a localized plastic zone around
the crack tip and uses the stress intensity or driving force of the crack to determine
crack growth rates according to the Paris equation.
Local Strain
See Strain-Life (e-N) (p. 452).
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446
Material Cut-off
See Endurance Limit (p. 441).
Material S-N
This is an S-N curve that relates local stress (σ) to life. These types of curves are
generally obtained through material tests of highly polished test coupons where the
monitored stress is the stress experienced at the failure location. These type of S-N
curves are geometry independent; that is, the S-N curves are valid for any geometry
and are only dependent on the actual material that they represent. All plasticity
modeling is built into the curve.
Mean
Mean is the average value of a cycle or signal. It is the maximum plus the minimum
divided by two for a simple constant amplitude oscillating signal as shown here. Note
that the two small cycles in the stress-strain plot have the same strain range but have
different mean stress.
σ ma x + σ m in
σ m = --------------------------------
2
σa
σm ∆σ
Miner’s Constant
Miner’s constant is the damage summation constant that defines failure, usually set to
unity (1). See Damage Summation (p. 440).
Main Index
APPENDIX A 447
Glossary of Terms
Monotonic Properties
Monotonic material properties are those that are σ−ε Curve
obtained from a material test. Test coupons are σ Elastic Line
placed in servo-hydraulic machines and loaded in a
single application of steady load increase through
Ultimate
the yield point of the material and to ultimate
Stress
Tensile
Strength
fracture of material. From these tests come various
Yield
material parameters such as Young’s Modulus (E),
the yield strength (σy), and the ultimate tensile
ε
(UTS). The load is not reversed, nor is it cycled to Strain
obtain these properties.
Multiaxial
Multiaxial means that the stress state is not uniaxial. More than one principal stress
exists. The biaxiality ratio, ae, defined as the minimum in-plane stress divided by the
maximum in-plane stress (for surface stresses), is non-zero. There are two different
degrees of multiaxial stress states: proportional and non-proportional. Proportional
multi-axial or proportional loading refers to the principal stresses always being in
proportion to one another in magnitude and are stationary. Stationary means that the
principal stress axes do not rotate significantly with time or in other words, the
maximum and minimum principal stresses are always in the same direction. Non-
proportional loading is the opposite of this where the two principal in-plane stresses
are not proportional to each other at any given time, nor is the principal stress axis
always in the same direction.
Narrow Band
Narrow Band
This is a signal which contains frequency
content predominantly at or around one
frequency which when converted to the
PSD
frequency domain appears as single peak
spanning only a portion of the frequencies. Time History frequency Hz
Neuber’s Rule
This is one of a few mechanisms to correct
∆σ 1/n’
for plasticity given only elastic stresses
Ε∆εe
∆ε = σ +
2 2E
[ ∆σ
2K’
]
and strains. The Neuber method enables ∆σ∆ε = E∆ε
∆εe2
us to predict elastic-plastic stress and σ, ε
strain by providing a way of estimating
the amount of stress and strain ∆εe
∆ε
redistribution. You should remember that
Main Index
448
this is an approximation! Basically the elastic strain excursion is calculated from the
FE model, and the stress is assumed to be ε*E. Then the elastic-plastic stress and strain
excursions is estimated by drawing a rectangular hyperbola through this point and
seeing where it intersects the hysteresis curve.
Non-proportional Loading
See Multiaxial (p. 447).
Notch Correction
This is a term that is adopted in the FE-fatigue world to signify the correction from
purely elastic stresses and strains to elastic-plastic stresses and strains. See Elastic-
plastic Correction (p. 441). Historically the term comes from determination of stress
at a notch while taking measurements away from the notch and using a stress
concentration factor, Kt, knowing that the material has yielded in the notch area and
an additional correction needs to be made to determine the true stress (and/or strain).
Paris Equation
This is the main equation that governs the LEFM (crack
da m
growth) method and relates the crack growth rate (da/dN) ------- = C ( ∆K )
dN
to stress intensity (∆K). C and m are material constants.
Plasticity
Fatigue does not generally involve major changes to the properties of the bulk of the
material in a component. In most components that have failed by fatigue, the
processes that lead to the fatigue failure are confined to the region around the crack
tip. Fatigue is always caused by plastic deformation. Plasticity is an irreversible
process of deforming the material beyond its yield point. Some who have experienced
fatigue failures may say “there is no plastic deformation in my component,” or “the
FEA results showed that all stresses were below yield.” If there is a fatigue failure,
then there must be plastic deformation, even if it is confined to only a few grains, or
to a very small region around the tip of a crack or a notch.
Main Index
APPENDIX A 449
Glossary of Terms
can be plotted as a function of frequency. The slope of this curve describes the density
of the mean square with respect to frequency and is called a “spectrum.” The term
“spectral density” comes from the fact that it is a property with respect to frequency
such as a rainbow which is the variations of frequency in the colors of visible light. The
term “power” dates back to the electrical engineers who used power as the key
parameter. Dynamicists have simply adopted the term. In simple summary, a PSD is
nothing other than an equivalent representation of a random time signal in a different
domain, which has certain advantages over the time domain. In terms of Fourier
analysis, the area under any infinitesimal strips of the PSD represents the mean square
of the sine wave at that frequency where a time signal is made up of a number of sine
waves summed together.
Probability Density
Function (PDF)
Two important Probability
Density Functions (PDF)
can be computed from a
stress or strain time history.
These are the amplitude
and peak PDFs as shown. The best way to visualize these parameters is to draw tram
lines horizontally through the time history and then count either the number of times
the signal crosses the tram lines or the number of times a peak occurs in-between the
tram lines. The complete PDFs are obtained by repeating this process for all horizontal
levels in the signal. For most engineering purposes the amplitude PDF will be
approximately Gaussian. Furthermore, for a narrow band process the peak PDF will
be approximately equivalent to the Rayleigh PDF. A PDF, therefore, is the probability
of a certain stress or strain level occurring and is represented as a density distribution.
Proportional Loading
See Multiaxial (p. 447).
R-Ratio
This is a measure of the mean stress or the mean of constant amplitude signal or the
mean of a stress cycle. R = -1 is a fully reversed signal or a cycle with zero mean. R =
0 is a signal which goes from zero to a maximum value and returns to zero. R = infinity
is the reverse where the signal goes from zero to a negative maximum value and back
to zero.
Main Index
450
Random Vibration
This is excitation due to loading which is random
in nature. That is to say that at any particular point
Response
in time it is impossible to determine anything
specific about the loading. It can only be described
by its statistics such a mean level, rms, standard
Time
deviation, etc. This is in opposition to a loading
event which can be determined at any point in
time, such as a constant amplitude sine wave.
Random vibration is usually dealt with in the
frequency domain by converting signals to power spectral density functions (PSDs).
Range
Range is the total absolute magnitude between the
maximum and minimum values of a cycle. Note that ∆σ = σ m ax – σ mi n
the two small cycles in the stress-strain plot have the
same stress and strain range but have different mean stress.
σ
σa
σm ∆σ
Reference Location
When dealing with component S-N curves, this is the location on the test specimens
used to create the S-N curve. The nominal stress axis of the S-N curve relates stress
levels at this location to failure. When using a component S-N curve in conjunction
with finite element models you must know the equivalent location (reference location)
as only stress from this location relates to the S-N curve.
Regression Analysis
Regression analysis is the art of taking measured data such as that for an S-N curve
and determining an equation to describe the curve from the raw data, also called curve
fitting.
Residual Stress
This is a permanent stress that is left behind in a component or structure after
unloading. Residual stress can be caused or induced in a number of ways such as shot
peening, overloads, and manufacturing processes to name a few. Residual stresses can
be tensile (positive) or compressive (negative) in nature and can be beneficial to
bettering fatigue life (compressive) or detrimental (tensile).
Main Index
APPENDIX A 451
Glossary of Terms
Safe Life
This is a fatigue design philosophy which adopts the crack initiation method. In
general it is applied to relatively inexpensive components which can easily be thrown
away and replaced. In addition it is applied to structures or parts where the initiation
of a crack takes up the majority of the life relative to the growth of the crack or where
it is intolerable to have a crack in the structure. This philosophy generally produces
fairly optimized structures and is used heavily in the ground vehicle industry. A
failure of a component designed with this philosophy should not have catastrophic
consequences.
Sample Rate
When measuring a signal, the sample rate is the number of times you take a sample in
a given period of time, usually one second. It is the frequency of samples in
number/second. Sampling too slowly can cause important loading events to be
missed.
Spectral Moments
Spectral moments are used to obtain other statistical properties of the PSD. The n-th
spectral moment m n of a PSD is defined by
∞
n
mn ( S ) = ∫ S ( f ) ⋅ f df
–∞
Main Index
452
directly on the highest stressed area. Therefore some factor had to be established to
convert measured response to actual responses at critical locations. In FE fatigue
based analysis, Kt is generally taken as unity (1), since in this case we do know the
stress at the critical area. In fact we know the local stress at all locations.
Stress Intensity
K Controls the
In simplistic terms, this is the stress around the tip
driving force that causes a crack to
propagate forward. It controls the
stress around a crack tip and is Fracture
know as K (not to be confused with Zone
Strain Hardening
See Cyclic Hardening (p. 439).
Strain-Life (ε-N)
This is a fatigue life prediction method commonly
Strain (log units)
Strain Softening
See Cyclic Softening (p. 439).
Main Index
APPENDIX A 453
Glossary of Terms
Stress-Life (S-N)
Total Life
See Stress-Life (S-N) (p. 453).
Main Index
454
Transfer Function
A Transfer Function is a way of relating one
PSD in p u t × TF = PSD r es po n se
quantity to another. In the frequency domain
the structure is modeled by a linear Transfer
Function relating input loads to output responses. The output from the model is
expressed as a PSD. In frequency response analysis these Transfer Functions are
determined by subjecting the model at the input load point to a series of sine waves
with unit amplitude over the frequency range of interest. Multiplying the input PSD
of load by the Transfer Function then gives the response PSD.
Uniaxial
This is the stress state of a component or location in a component where only one
principal stress exists, all others being zero. The biaxiality ratio, ae, defined as the
minimum in-plane stress divided by the maximum in-plane stress (for surface
stresses), is zero in this case. The principal stress is also stationary; that is, the principal
stress is always in the same direction and not rotating such as a rod in tension.
White Noise
White noise is a signal which contains frequency
White Noise
content from all frequencies and when converted
to the frequency domain, is a constant line. A sharp PSD
sudden impact is also a form of signal which
contains content at all frequencies.
Time History frequency Hz
Wide Band
Wide band is a signal which contains frequency
Wide Band
content at more than one frequency which when
converted to the frequency domain can appear as
multiple spikes or as a broad curve spanning PSD
multiple frequencies.
Time History frequency Hz
Main Index
MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
APPENDIX
Material Listing
B
■ Material Types
■ Material Listing
■ Alternative Names
Main Index
456
Number Description
0 Type undefined
1 Flake cast iron (FCI)
2 Ferritic cast iron with compacted graphite (FCICG)
3 Pearlitic cast iron with compacted graphite (PCICG)
4 Bainitic cast iron with compacted graphite (BCICG)
5 Ferritic cast iron with spheroidal graphite (FCISG)
6 Ferrite/pearlite cast iron with spheroidal graphite (FPCISG)
7 Pearlitic cast iron with spheroidal graphite (PCISG)
8 Bainitic cast iron with spheroidal graphite (BCISG)
9 Cast steel with less than 0.2% carbon (CSL2C)
10 Normalized cast steel with 0.2-0.4% carbon (NCS24C)
11 Quenched & tempered cast steel with 0.2-0.4% carbon (QTCS24)
12 Normalized cast steel with 0.4-0.7% carbon (NCS47)
13 Plain carbon wrought steel with < 0.2% carbon (PCWS)
14 Hot rolled/normalized plain carbon wrought steel, 0.2-0.4%
carbon (HNPCWS24)
15 Quenched & tempered cast steel with 0.4-0.7% carbon (QTCS47)
16 Quenched & tempered plain carbon wrought steel, 0.2-0.4%
carbon (QTPCWS24)
17 Hot rolled/normalized plain carbon wrought steel, 0.4-0.7%
carbon (HNPCWS47)
18 Quenched & tempered plain carbon wrought steel, 0.4-0.7%
carbon (QTPCWS47)
19 Normalized low alloy wrought steel (NLAWS)
20 Quenched & tempered low alloy wrought steel (QTHSLAWS)
21 Normalized Ni/Cr/Mo wrought steel (NNCMWS)
Main Index
APPENDIX B 457
Material Listing
Number Description
22 Quenched & tempered Ni/Cr/Mo wrought steel (QTNCMWS)
23 Austenitic stainless steel (ASS)
24 Ferritic stainless steel (FSS)
25 Martensitic stainless steel (MSS)
26 Annealed plain carbon wrought steel, 0.2-0.4% carbon (APCWS24)
27 Annealed plain carbon wrought steel, 0.4-0.7% carbon (APCWS47)
28 Normalized carbon/manganese steel (MCMS)
29 Quenched and tempered carbon/manganese steel (QTCMS)
30 Hardened chromium steel (HCS)
31 Quenched and tempered chromium steel (QTCS)
99 Steel of unknown heat treatment (STEEL)
100 Wrought aluminium (WA)
101 Wrought aluminium-copper alloy (WACA)
102 Wrought aluminium-manganese alloy (WAMNA)
103 Wrought aluminium-magnesium alloy (WAMGA)
104 Wrought aluminium-magnesium-silicon alloy (WAMGSA)
105 Wrought aluminium-zinc alloy (WAZA)
106 Cast aluminium alloy (CAA)
107 Wrought complex special purpose aluminum alloys (WCSPAA)
200 Wrought copper (WCU)
201 Wrought brass (WBR)
202 Wrought aluminium bronze (WABR)
203 Cupronickel (CUPNI)
204 Nickel silver (NIAG)
205 Wrought phosphor bronze (WPHBR)
206 Wrought copper beryllium (WCUBE)
207 Cast copper alloys (CCUA)
Main Index
458
Number Description
300 Titanium alloy (TA)
400 Wrought magnesium alloys (WMGA)
401 Cast magnesium alloys (CMGA)
500 Fusible alloys, solders (FUSSOL)
600 Cast zinc alloys (CZINCA)
700 Wrought nickel alloys (WNIA)
701 Cast nickel alloys (CNIA)
800 Precious metals (PRECMET)
900 Clad materials (CLADMAT)
1000 Thermoplastics (THERPLAS)
1001 Thermosetting plastics (TSETPLAS)
Main Index
APPENDIX B 459
Material Listing
Main Index
460
Main Index
APPENDIX B 461
Material Listing
Main Index
462
Main Index
APPENDIX B 463
Material Listing
Main Index
464
Main Index
APPENDIX B 465
Material Listing
Main Index
466
Main Index
APPENDIX B 467
Material Listing
Main Index
468
Main Index
APPENDIX B 469
Material Listing
Main Index
470
Main Index
APPENDIX B 471
Material Listing
Main Index
472
Main Index
MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
APPENDIX
Support
C
■ Where to Get Help
■ Technical Support Centers
■ MSC Offices
Main Index
474
Main Index
APPENDIX C 475
Support
Madrid, Spain
Phone: +34 -915 -560919
FAX: +34 -915 -567280
Email:
mscfatigue.support@mscsoftware.com
In addition to our technical support centers, MSC has developed a broad network of
local offices, staffed by a knowledgeable team, who can provide product assistance of
any kind. For the location of the office nearest you, call (800) 732-7284 or refer to the
MSC Offices.
Main Index
476
If all engineers are busy, you will have the option of waiting on hold for the next
available engineer, or you may leave a message for a callback from an engineer. We
recommend that you wait on hold whenever possible.
Main Index
APPENDIX C 477
Support
Asia Pacific
MSC.Software Japan Ltd.
Shinjuku First West 8F
23-7 Nishi Shinjuku
1-Chome, Shinjuku-Ku
Tokyo 160-0023, JAPAN
Telephone: (81) (3)-6911-1200
Fax: (81) (3)-6911-1201
Worldwide Web
www.mscsoftware.com
Main Index
478
Main Index
MSC.Fatigue Quick Start Guide
I N D E X
MSC.Fatigue QuickStart Guide
I N D E X
MSC.Fatigue
QuickStart
A C
Guide, ABAQUS results file import, 11 calculate normals, 187
add load signals, 394 changing colors, 418
addition, 384 colors, 418
advanced fatigue analysis and display, 403 compliance, 22, 129, 178, 436, 437
advanced loading manipulation, 384 compliance function library, 130
alternative material names, 467 component S-N, 70
amplitude, 436 component S-N curve, 74, 437
amplitude distribution analysis, 397 correlated loading, 314
analysis modules, 22 correlation techniques, 283
Analysis Using Transient Results, 296 CPU times, 194
angle distribution, 203 crack growth, 8, 437
angle spread, 201, 321 crack growth analysis, 128, 159, 177
ANSYS results file import, 12 crack growth data analysis, 410
arithmetic manipulation, 384 crack growth rate, 136, 440
ASCII to binary conversion, 420 crack initiation, 3, 8, 437
assumptions, 2, 312 crack initiation analysis, 90, 112, 157, 182, 404
August Woehler, 436 crack lengths, 134
auto spectral density, 398 crack propagation rectangle, 141
averaging, 428 critical location analysis, 404
critical location identification, 430
critical plane analysis, 208, 438
B cross correlation terms, 400
band pass filter, 400 cross platform file conversion, 422
batch entry, 77 cross plots, 201
batch operations, 88 cross-correlation terms, 314
Baushinger effect, 444 customer support, 474
beta-solution, 129, 436 cut and paste signals, 393
biaxiality analysis, 189, 198 cycle by cycle growth, 140
biaxiality indicators, 200 cycle counting, 39, 54, 101, 104, 438
biaxiality plots, 202 cycles and damage analysis, 405
biaxiality ratio, 199, 200, 436 cycles file lister, 406
broad band, 436 cyclic hardening, 96, 439
Butterworth filtration, 400 cyclic material properties, 4, 438
cyclic softening, 96, 439
cyclic stress-strain curve, 95
Main Index
480 INDEX
F H
factor-of-safety analysis, 154 header/footer manipulation, 402
fail safe, 6, 442 help, 474
failure criterion, 90, 441 high cycle fatigue, 99, 121, 444
fast analysis, 61, 194 high pass filter, 400
fast Fourier filtering, 398 histogram import, 431
fast fourier transform, 302 histogram matrix, 62
fatigue, 3, 442 histogram plots, 175
fatigue concentration factor, 442 Hoffman-Seeger, 205
fatigue equivalent units, 80, 124, 445 hotline, 476
fatigue limit, 442 hysteresis, 444
file conversion, 24
file import, 31
file translation utilities, 420 I
files, 147 I-DEAS Master Series universal file import,
Main Index
INDEX 481
M N
MARC results file import, 12 narrow band signal, 447
Neuber’s rule, 105, 447
marker plots, 212, 223
Masing’s hypothesis, 105 nitriding, 123
non-linear static FE analysis, 113
material cut-off, 156, 446
material information, 4 non-proportional loading, 199, 205
notch correction, 7, 105, 108, 448
material listing, 459
material names, 467 notches, 134
Main Index
482 INDEX
S
safe life, 6, 451
Main Index
INDEX 483
T
tabular result listing, 224
technical support, 475
time correlated damage analysis, 407
total life, 3, 8, 453
total life analysis, 30, 54, 70, 152, 168
transfer function, 341, 454
transient FE analysis, 336
U
uncorrelated loading, 314
uniaxial fatigue analyzer, 288
uniaxial loading, 199
uniaxial stress, 454
units, 191
universal file import, 19
using strains, 108
utilities, 24, 380
V
vibration fatigue analysis, 324, 336, 408
W
waterfall plots, 422
welds, 152
what if analysis, 44
white noise, 454
wide band, 454
X
XDB file import, 10
Y
Young’s modulus, 108
Main Index
484 INDEX
Main Index