15

MSC.Fatigue Tutorial

MSC.Fatigue Tutorial
16 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

Overview
In this tutorial, you will perform modal stress recovery and fatigue analysis using:
• MSC.Patran
• MD Adams
• MSC.Nastran
• MSC.Fatigue

This chapter will not discuss the entire functionality of these products, only those features that
specifically apply to this tutorial. For more detailed information, refer to your specific product
documentation.
The following sections are included:
• About the Model
• Part 1 - Mode-Shape Analysis
• Part 2 - System-Level Simulation
• Part 3 - Fatigue Life Calculation

This tutorial takes about one hour to complete.

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MSC.Fatigue Tutorial

About the Model

The model is an MD Adams system model of an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) mounted on a four-post test
rig (see Figure 1 below). The model that is distributed in the Adams/Durability installation is made up
of rigid bodies only. We also provide an MSC.Nastran model of the left lower control arm (LCA) for
building a flexible body's modal neutral file (MNF). You will generate the MNF using MSC.Nastran and
then replace the rigid part with a flexible one for the left LCA. After the MD Adams simulation, you will
perform a fatigue analysis using MSC.Fatigue and MSC.Patran with component loads from MD Adams.
These component loads are in the form of modal coordinates (responses), so the method of fatigue
analysis will be based on modal susperposition.

Figure 1 ATV Model

18 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

Part 1 - Mode-Shape Analysis

In this section, you will run MSC.Nastran to obtain the reduced flexible modes in MNF format and the
modal stresses in XDB (MSC.Nastran binary attachable) format.
You will perform the following steps:
• Running the MSC.Nastran Simulation
• Importing the Model in MSC.Patran
• Attaching Results in MSC.Patran
• Viewing Results in MSC.Patran

Running the MSC.Nastran Simulation

Note: On Windows, you may need to set the permissions to Full Control to edit the tutorial files.

To run the MSC.Nastran simulation:

1. Copy the file left_lca.dat from the install_dir//durabilityexamples/ATV directory to your
working directory.

Note: install_dir is the directory where MD Adams is installed.

2. Run MSC.Nastran using left_lca.dat as the input file.

Depending on your computer resources it could take 5-10 minutes to run the job. You can move
on to the next step in the tutorial while the analysis is running. When the job has completed
successfully, you will find two files that were created in the run directory: left_lca_0.mnf
and left_lca.xdb. These files are important in completing the rest of the tutorial.
The MSC.Nastran input file we provided for this tutorial is set up for MNF generation using the
ADAMSMNF statement:
ADAMSMNF FLEXBODY=YES,FLEXONLY=YES,MINVAR=PARTIAL,PSETID=2
,OUTGSTRS=YES,OUTGSTRN=NO
The output of grid point stresses are requested with the OUTGSTRS option. No output of grid-
point strains are requested with the OUTGSTRN option.
The geometry and stress data that will be stored in the resulting MNF is optimized with the
PSETID option for the surface (skin) only. A partial mass invariant calculation is requested with
the MINVAR option.
MSC.Nastran supports the output of ortho-normal modal stress or strain resulting from MNF
generation in XDB format. This data can be efficiently combined with the modal coordinate
results from MD Adams for subsequent fatigue evaluations in MSC.Patran and MSC.Fatigue. To
take advantage of this feature, the following statement has been added to the MSC.Nastran input
file:
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MSC.Fatigue Tutorial

PARAM POST 0

Importing the Model in MSC.Patran

To import the model into MSC.Patran:
1. Start MSC.Patran and open a new database (from the File menu, select New).
2. From the Look in pull-down menu, select your working directory.
3. In the Filename text box, enter tutorial.
4. Select OK to close the New Database dialog box.
5. From the File menu, select Import, and then specify the following:
• Set Object to Model.
• Set Source to MSC.Nastran Input.
• Set File name to *.dat.
• Browse to left_lca.dat, select it, and then select Apply to import the model.
• The Nastran Input File Import Summary dialog box displays as shown in Figure 2.
• Select OK to close the dialog box.

Figure 2 Nastran Input File Import Summary Dialog Box

The following operation automatically separates shells from solids. This will be handy during the
fatigue analysis process in Part 3 - Fatigue Life Calculation.
6. From the Group menu, select Create.
20 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

7. Set Method to Property Type.

8. Set Create to Multiple Groups.
9. Select Apply.
MSC.Patran creates two new groups named Membrane and Solid. You will reference the
Membrane group later in this tutorial.
Fatigue is a phenomena that normally originates on the surface. It is, therefore, a common practice
to skin any solid model with a thin shell membrane. This allows you to obtain a true two-
dimensional stress tensor (which should always be the case on free surfaces) and also avoids
uninteresting computation on internal nodes.

Attaching Results in MSC.Patran

You will now attach the modal results from MSC.Nastran in MSC.Patran.

To attached results in MSC.Patran:

1. Select Analysis, and then specify the following:
• Action: Access Results
• Object: Attach XDB
• Method: Result Entities
2. Select Select Results File.
3. In the Select File dialog box, browse to the left_lca.xdb file, and then select OK.
4. Select Apply.

Viewing Results in MSC.Patran

To view the results in MSC.Patran:
1. Select Results.
A list of 40 mode cases in the result selection window appears. These represent the
orthonormalized modes that were computed by MSC.Nastran and imported into MD Adams using
the MNF.
2. Perform some simple plotting as follows:
• Set Action to Create.
• Set Object to Quick Plot.
• Highlight one mode case with a frequency higher than zero (that is, a nonrigid body mode).
For example, highlight mode 7.
• Select Stress Tensor as the Fringe Result.
3. Select Apply, and then view the results.
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MSC.Fatigue Tutorial

The stresses you are viewing are not actual stress values sustained by the component, but modal
stress shapes. Later in this tutorial, these stress shapes will be combined with results from MD
Adams to obtain actual stress values. This process is called modal stress recovery (MSR).
4. Close the MSC.Patran session by closing the MSC.Patran window or by selecting File and then
Quit.
By default, MSC.Patran saves all databases.
22 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

Part 2 - System-Level Simulation

In this section, you will run a dynamic simulation of the vehicle to produce loads (modal coordinates) for
the flexible lower control arm (LCA) in the left-front suspension. The modal coordinates will be exported
to MSC.Fatigue and used for stress calculation.
In this session you will perform the following steps:
• Importing the Model into Adams/View
• Building the Flexible Suspension Arm
• Animating Modes of the Flexible LCA
• Modifying the Damping of the Flexible LCA
• Running the MD Adams Dynamic Simulation
• Viewing MD Adams Results
• Exporting Results to MSC.Fatigue

Importing the Model into Adams/View

To import the model into Adams/View:
1. Start Adams/View.
2. In the Welcome dialog box, select Import a file.
3. Select OK.
4. In the File to Read text box, enter ATV_4poster.
There is no need to browse for this file. By typing in the name, Adams/View locates the file in the
MD Adams installation directory (in durability/examples/ATV).
5. Select OK.
This model contains the all-terrain vehicle standing on a four-poster rig. All parts are rigid.

Building the Flexible Suspension Arm

Next you will replace the rigid LCA with a flexible one.

To build the flexible suspension arm:

1. Zoom in on the left LCA in the front suspension as shown in the figure below.

Figure 3 Left LCA

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MSC.Fatigue Tutorial

• To rotate the view: Press r on the keyboard, and then rotate while pressing left mouse button.
• To translate: Press t.
• To zoom: Press w.

2. To replace the rigid LCA with a flexible LCA, from the Build menu, point to Flexible Bodies,
and then select Rigid To Flex.
3. In the Alignment tab, select the rigid part you want to replace and the MNF as follows:
• Current Part: RB2_left_lca_59
• MNF File: left_lca_0.mnf
• To select the rigid body to be replaced, right-click the Current Part text box, point to Part,
and then select Pick. Using your mouse, click on the lower left suspension arm.
To browse for the MNF, right-click the MNF File text box, and then select Browse.
The flexible body defined in the .mnf is already correctly positioned so this is all you need to do
in the Alignment tab.
4. Select the Connections tab.
The table displayed compares the connection points on the flexible body with the connection
points on the rigid body. In the Distance column, you will notice that there is a small offset for
the four bushing connection points.
You want to keep the bushings at the point where they where originally defined in the rigid model.
5. Click on the first table row, and then select Preserve location.
6. Repeat the previous step for rows 2 through 4 of the table.
24 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

The table should now look as shown in the figure below.

Figure 4 Connections Table

7. Select OK.
The rigid part is now replaced by the flexible body as defined in the .mnf. The flexible body is
connected to the frame, knuckle, and damper in the same way as the rigid body.

To verify that the flexible LCA is correctly connected to the rest of the model:
1. From the Tools menu, select Database Navigator.
2. Select Topology By Parts.
3. Select the flexible LCA, .ATV_4poster.RB2_left_lca_59_flex.
It should be connected to the frame using two bushings, and to the damper (shock) and knuckle
with one bushing each.
4. Close the Database Navigator.
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Animating Modes of the Flexible LCA

To animate the modes of the flexible LCA:
1. Right-click the flexible LCA, and then select Modify.
2. Animate the modes by selecting a Mode Number (that is, 7) and then selecting the Animation
tool .
You can animate each of the 40 modes calculated by MSC.Nastran and imported from the .mnf.
In the dynamic simulation results, expect to see 40 modal coordinates, one coordinate for each
mode.
The first mode of interest is mode number 7. Modes 1 through 6 are rigid-body modes and are
automatically disabled.
The first few modes are very similar to the free-free modes of the component. The high-frequency
modes are usually unusual looking, but useful for describing local deformations around the
attachment points.

Modifying the Damping of the Flexible LCA

The high-frequency modes are normally not very active in a dynamic simulation. There are two
strategies to avoid them:
• Disable the modes. This may cause simulation difficulties if any of the disabled modes are
necessary to describe, for example, a static position with local deformation around an
attachment point.
• Modify damping so high-frequency modes are critically damped. The modes are enabled, but
don’t participate in the dynamics because of the high damping applied to them.
Here, you will use the method of setting critical damping on the very high frequency modes. A STEP
function will define the damping. The higher the frequency, the higher the damping.

To modify the damping of the flexible LCA:

1. If the Flexible Body Modify dialog box is not already displayed, right-click the flexible LCA, and
then select Modify.
2. Clear the selection of default next to Damping Ratio.
3. Enter the following function for the Damping Ratio:
STEP(FXFREQ,1000,0.005,10000,1)
This means:
• Modes with a frequency below 1,000 Hz will have damping ratio of 0.5%.
• Modes with a frequency above 10,000 Hz will have damping ratio of 100%.
• Modes in the range of 1,000 - 10,000 Hz will be increasing with respect to their frequency
based on the STEP function.
26 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

Note that default damping is usually not useful, especially not in this case. If you used default
damping here, you would get a 10% damping ratio for mode 7, which is too much considering the
component is made of steel.
4. Select OK to save all modification and close the Flexible Body Modify dialog box.

Running the MD Adams Dynamic Simulation

To run the MD Adams dynamic simulation:
1. Change your Adams/Solver settings:
• From the Settings menu, point to Solver, and then select Executable.
• Set Choice to C++.
2. Modify Adams/Solver dynamics parameters:
• Set Category to Dynamics.
• Set Formulation to SI2 and Error to 0.01.
The Stabilized Index-2 formulation enables the integrator to monitor the integration error of
velocity variables and, therefore, renders highly accurate simulations. A positive side effect of the
SI2 formulation is that the Jacobian matrix remains stable at small step sizes, which increases the
stability and robustness of the corrector at small step sizes. We use the SI2 formulation here
because high accuracy of the inputs to the fatigue analysis is crucial.
3. Close the Solver Settings dialog box.
4. From the Simulate menu, select Interactive Controls.
5. Perform the following:
• Set End time to 10 seconds
• Change list2+ to Step Size
• Set Step size to 0.01 seconds
• Select Start at equilibrium position. If you do not start from equilibrium, your results will
contain initial transient vibrations, which is not preferred.
• To avoid the screen being updated at every output time step taken by the solver (therefore
speeding up the solve time), clear the selection of Update graphics display.
6. Select the Play tool to start the simulation.
Each post that the vehicle is standing on will move in the vertical direction to simulate the vehicle
running in rough terrain. This could also have been done by defining tire forces and a road profile.
The simulation will take a few minutes.
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MSC.Fatigue Tutorial

Viewing MD Adams Results

To view the MD Adams results:
1. From the Review menu, select Postprocessing.
2. In the upper left corner of Adams/PostProcessor, use the pull-down menu to select Plotting.
3. In the dashboard (the lower section of the postprocessing window) select, for example, the
following:
• Source: Objects
• Filter: force
• Object: BUSHING_9. This is the bushing connecting the LCA with the spring/damper
• Characteristic: Element_Force
• Component: Mag
4. Select Add Curves
The plot displays as shown next. This is the time history of force magnitude in the bushing
between the flexible CLA and the shock.

Figure 5 MD Adams Results

Next, you will use Adams/Durability to view the stress data.

5. Load the Adams/Durability plugin using Tools
Plugin Manager.
6. Load the animation, by right-clicking in the window, and then selecting Load Animation.
7. Before you start the animation:
• In the Contour Plots tab, set Contour Plot Type to Max Prin. Stress.
28 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

• In the Camera tab, set Follow Object to RB1_frame_57 (the frame). Lock the rotations.
• Zoom in on the flexible LCA and orient the display so that you are looking at the bottom
surface of the LCA.
8. Animate by pressing the Play button.
9. Reset the animation.
10. To create a table that lists the three most critical areas of the LCA, from the Durability menu,
select Hot Spots Table, and then specify the following:
• Body: RB2_left_lca_59_flex (right-click in text box, point to body, and then select Pick or
Browse)
• Analysis: Last_Run (right-click in the text box, point to Analysis, point to Guesses, and then
select Last_Run)
• Type: Maximum Principal Stress
• Radius: 30.0
• Count: 3
11. Select Report.
When the calculation is complete, Adams/Durability displays the Hot Spots table as shown in the
following figure. The hottest spot is located around node 2990, which is located on the bottom
surface of the LCA, close to the cross-beam connection.
12. Close the Hot Spots Information dialog box.

Figure 6 Hot Spots Table

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MSC.Fatigue Tutorial

Exporting Results to MSC.Fatigue

When you export the results to MSC.Fatigue, it is actually not the stresses as calculated in MD Adams
that we export, it is only the modal coordinates that are exported. The stress shapes are already calculated
(Part 1 - Mode-Shape Analysis) and stored in the XDB file. The stress shapes in the XDB file will be
combined with the modal coordinates from MD Adams in MSC.Fatigue.

To export results to MSC.Fatigue:

1. From the Durability menu, point to MSC.Fatigue, and then select Export. Specify the
parameters as follows:
• Flexible Body: RB2_left_lca_59_flex
• Job Name: ATV_4poster
• Modal Coordinates (make sure this box is checked)
• Analysis: Last_Run
2. Clear the selection of Run MSC.Fatigue.
3. Select OK.
Modal coordinates for the flexible LCA are now exported in DAC format (40 files with prefix
ATV_4poster) suitable for import to MSC.Fatigue. One file is produced for each modal
coordinate.
30 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

Part 3 - Fatigue Life Calculation

For this portion of the tutorial, you will use MSC.Fatigue as a plugin to MSC.Patran. There is also a
stand-alone version of MSC.Fatigue that is offered with a limited version of MSC.Patran.
In this section, you will predict fatigue life to failure and life factor of safety based on modal
superposition and a standard S-N analysis (also known as Stress Life or Total Life).
You will perform the following steps:
• Setting up Stress-Life Analysis in MSC.Fatigue
• Importing and Combining Modal Coordinates in MSC.Fatigue
• Running S-N Fatigue and Factor of Safety (FOS) Analysis
• Importing and Reviewing Results in MSC.Patran
• Importing and Reviewing Results in MD Adams (Optional)

Setting up Stress-Life Analysis in MSC.Fatigue

To set up stress-life analysis in MSC.Fatigue:
1. Start MSC.Patran, and from the File menu, select Open to open the tutorial.db file that was
created in Part 1 - Mode-Shape Analysis of this tutorial.
2. From the Tools menu, select MSC.Fatigue.
3. Select Main interface.
4. Complete the dialog box as shown next, being sure to set Analysis to S-N
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MSC.Fatigue Tutorial

5. Enter fat_left_lca for the jobname for the fatigue jobs in MSC.Patran. All fatigue-related files
will have this prefix.
The bottom section of the MSC.Fatigue dialog box contains the five steps to complete your
fatigue job:
• Three inputs - Solution Parameters, Material, and Loading
• Job control - Used to submit and monitor fatigue jobs
• Results - Used to postprocess fatigue results
6. Select Solution Params and complete the dialog box as shown next
32 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

The Certainty of survival is set to 99%, indicating the highest conservatism in material properties
scatter.
The design life is the number of repetitions this part is expected to withstand without failure.
MSC.Fatigue will perform an additional analysis to assess the load scaling factor to reach a given
target life. A design life of 60000 is derived from a simple assumption that under the given loading
condition, the target life is around 10,000 km and that the 10-second repetition was performed at
an average speed of 60 km/h.
7. Select OK to close the Solution Parameters dialog box.
8. Select Material Info.
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MSC.Fatigue offers a built-in library with more than 200 predefined materials. You can select
multiple materials for the same run and access advanced material options, such as temperature
dependency.
9. Click in the first cell of the spreadsheet (Material) and scroll through the available material list
below it. Select MANTEN_SN (carbon wrought steel).
10. Select No Finish and No Treatment.
11. Set Region to Membrane.
The region is the part of your model that will be analyzed. As mentioned previously, you are only
interested in the surface element and you will use the previously created Membrane group as the
target region.
12. Keep the defaults for all remaining fields, and then select OK.

Importing and Combining Modal Coordinates in MSC.Fatigue

The Loading Information dialog box is the spreadsheet that displays the association between modal
stresses (MSC.Nastran output) and modal coordinates (from MD Adams). This is the key in recreating
the stress history at each node that will be used for rainflow cycle counting (central to fatigue analysis
algorithm).

Figure 7 Loading Information Dialog Box

34 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

To import and combine the modal coordinates:

1. Select Loading Info.
To access the modal variables, MSC.Fatigue needs to load the relative *.dac files (the output
from MD Adams created in Part 2 - System-Level Simulation) into the local time database
(ptime.tdb).
2. Select Time History Manager to open the local time database. Then, perform the following:
• Select Load files.
• Select OK.
3. In the PTIME – Load Time History dialog box, enter the following:
• Source and target Filename: ATV_4poster*
• Description 1: modal coordinates
• Load Type: Scalar
• Units: none
• Select OK.
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• The 40 files start loading. Select More enough times to make sure all load channels are
loaded.
4. Select End.
The PTIME dialog box shows that you have 40 .dac files.
5. Select exit, and then select OK to close the PTIME-Database Options dialog box.
6. In the Loading Information dialog box, perform the following:
• Set Number of Static Load Cases to 40. Be sure to select Enter on your keyborard after
setting this value. Doing so will update the number of rows in the spreadsheet from 1 to 40.
• Select Fill Down OFF and the option changes to Fill Down ON.
• Select the first cell in the Load Case ID column.
• Select Get/Filter Results to open the Results Filter dialog box.
• To access all available results in the database in the Results Filter dialog box, select Select All
Results Cases, and then select Apply.
7. Select the first available results loadcase (… Mode 1…) in the Select a Results Load Case list.
8. From the Select a Stress/Strain Tensor list, select 1.1 – Stress tensor.
9. Select Fill Cell to populate the Load Case ID column.
10. Make sure the first cell in the Time History column is selected to populate column 2.
11. Select ATV_4POSTER_01.DAC from the Select a Time History list.
Your spreadsheet should look similar to the image shown below.
12. Leave the remaining default values, and then select OK.

Figure 8 Spreadsheet for ATV_4POSTER_01.DAC:

Running S-N Fatigue and Factor of Safety (FOS) Analysis

To run the analysis:
1. From the MSC.Fatigue menu, select Job Control.
2. To start the analysis, select Apply.
Wait a minute or two until the fat_left_lca fatigue job has been submitted.
36 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability

You can check the status by accessing Job Control
Action
Monitor Job, and then
periodically selecting Apply.
When completed, the status window displays the following message:
Safety factor analysis completed successfully.
If you receive the message ERROR: cannot communicate with Queue Manager,
MSC.Patran is trying to run MSC.Fatigue through the Analysis Manager without a defined
environment. A workaround is to deactivate the Analysis Manager using the MSC.Patran
command analysis_manager.disable(), and then resubmit the job.

Importing and Reviewing Results in MSC.Patran

To import and review the results in MSC.Patran:
1. Select the MSC.Fatigue tab near the bottom right corner of the MSC.Patran window.
2. Select Results.
3. Select Apply to read in the results.
MSC.Fatigue automatically accesses the results based on the current job name.
The results are now stored in the MSC.Patran database as the Total Life and Factor of Safety
subcases for postprocessing.
4. To view a quick plot of the factor of safety in MSC.Patran, select Results on the main MSC.Patran
form (not in MSC.Fatigue).
5. In the results window, scroll through the list of Result Cases, and then select Factor of Safety,
fat_left….
6. Select Safety Factor as the fringe result, and then select Apply.
The smallest factor of safety is 2.70. You can create a damage plot to improve the visualization
of the critical areas.

To see a damage plot:

1. Select Total Life from the Result Cases list.
2. Select Damage from the Fringe Result list.
3. Select Apply.
Note that the highest damage occurs at three critical regions of the LCA.

Importing and Reviewing Results in MD Adams (Optional)

To import and review the results in MD Adams:
1. From the Durability menu, point to MSC.Fatigue, and then select Import.
2. Browse to the fatigue results file (*.fef), for example, ...\fat_left_lca.fef.
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3. Select RB2_left_lca_59_flx as the flex body, and then select OK.

4. Select the Contour Plots tab.
5. Set Contour Plot Type to Life (Log Repeats).
The results are displayed in Adams/PostProcessor, as shown below.
Because the results represent the total results for the simulation, you do not need to animate the
results.

Figure 9 RB2_left_lca_59_flx Contour Plot

38 Getting Started Using Adams/Durability