SIMULIA Resource Center

This 2 Day course provides background information and hands on experience for calculating fatigue of elastomers using Abaqus and fe safe/Rubber.

Course Catalog

Durability is a requirement for product creation in many industries, because cycling loads can cause damage much sooner than a static load. This course introduces fatigue life calculations in fe safe and gives you an understanding of how to configure a fatigue analysis based on FEA solutions. These life results can be used to iterate on a design and improve the overall durability of the design. The course is divided into lectures and workshops. The course's workshops are integral to the training. They are designed to reinforce concepts presented during the lectures. They are intended to provide users with the experience of running and trouble shooting actual fatigue analyses.

Course Catalog

This course covers simulating the number of cycles till fatigue failures at welds in welded structures. The methods are based on predicting a crack through a certain thickness, in welded structures at the welds (toe, root, throat, etc.; failure mechanisms in welds can be included). Both classification methods (such as BS5400 and BS7608) and structural stress methods (such as the Verity TMmodule in fe safe) are included. Examples are provided using FEA output models run in Abaqus, Ansys or Nastran. Not included is temperature dependent weld fatigue, or weld processes such as friction stir welding or similar. Non structural joining such as solder is not covered, nor is nonmetallic joining such as adhesive bonding.

Course Catalog

In the hyper-competitive environment of the automotive industry, engineers are constantly looking for ways to improve the quality, durability and performances of their engines. Traditional shape optimization is a great solution for design improvements in later product development stages by minimizing stress or strain. Indeed, stress reduction often leads to a significant increase in durability, but stress peaks, as identified by static analysis, may differ largely from areas of maximum damage. Therefore, fatigue life simulation should always be included in the optimization loop, if the location of maximum damage and maximum stress are not matching.

Customer Papers

Composites occupy a noticeable place in the materials industry. Their characterization during the forming process as well as during their life cycle in different industrial fields impose an advanced knowledge of their mechanical and thermal behavior. A presentation of material parameters calibration using Isight coupled with Abaqus illustrates how the two tools can be joined together to solve the classical identification problems associated with new materials or non-linear constative laws. Tosca structure Bead optimization capabilities are shown through the optimization based on natural frequencies. Fatigue analysis has been performed using Fe-safe and shows the fatigue life contours.

Customer Papers

This document describes the use of Abaqus/CAE, Abaqus/Standard, True-Load, and Verity weld analysis in fe-safe software to evaluate the durability of a front-end loader linkage. Dynamic field loading for FEA of construction equipment is not always easily replicated by traditional linear static loading methods. Wolf Star Technologies True-Load software along with unit load FEA in Abaqus was used to determine time history loads for a field operation with dynamic loading that resulted in fatigue failures of the linkage. The time history loading was then used in fe-safe to compare the durability of design alternatives and determine a design that met the simulation criteria. The methodology greatly improved the confidence of the design developed through simulation because the field loading was accurately reproduced.

Customer Papers

Pumping equipment is used in oil refining plants to pump oil distillation products. This equipment has to withstand heavy combined hydrodynamic and thermal loads, and recently been reported to fail due to fatigue damage. The main problem appears to be crack growth on peripheral wheel parts. The wheel sustains fatigue damage in an accumulation period which is shorter than the maintenance period recommended by the manufacturer. A study of the wheel fatigue life has been conducted. A material investigation was also carried out to verify that the damage had indeed been caused by fatigue. An analytical solution developed is viable for crack growth study only, and cannot predict fatigue life.

Customer Papers

The backerpad on the Abrams tank track system is an elastomeric cushion that protects the track and has direct contact with the tank’s wheels. The backerpad’s service life is limited by harsh operating conditions, and system designers are challenged to extend that limit. Accordingly, an analysis is demonstrated here of an experimental backerpad’s fatigue performance under the action of a tank roadwheel repeatedly rolling over the pad. First, the elastomer is characterized via tests that define its fatigue behavior. Next, the multiaxial, variable amplitude duty cycle of the pad through a representative rollover event is computed in ABAQUS/Explicit. Finally, the material characterization and duty cycle are analyzed via the fe-safe/Rubber fatigue life solver to estimate damage accumulation in each finite element of the model.

Customer Papers

Sign up to our mailing list for the latest SIMULIA product updates—including Abaqus, CST, fe-safe, Isight, Tosca, Simpack, Wave6, XFlow and PowerFLOW

Newsletters

Ariens engineers used Abaqus/CAE and fe-safe from Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA, along with Wolfstar Technologies’ True-Load, to locate and accurately model strain gauges in all areas of the lawn mower, enabling weld elimination, part-count reduction, fatigue life improvement and other design enhancements.

Customer Story