Life Estimations and Fatigue

Mechanical systems that fail while in operation cause serious problems for all parties involved. Manufacturers are faced with high warranty costs and liabilities, but more importantly, the safety of persons operating faulty cars, trucks, aircraft, or machinery may be at risk. To reduce the risk that their products will fatigue prematurely or unexpectedly, manufacturers may: Over-design parts using much higher than necessary margins of safety, which adds weight & cost.

Rely heavily on physical fatigue tests to accurately predict failure conditions and life expectancy, which increases costs and time-to-market, and limits the number of conditions and operating scenarios that can be tested.

As a key component in your Virtual Product Development (VPD) process, MSC.Fatigue enables you to quickly and accurately predict how long your products will last under any combinations of time-dependent or frequency-dependent loading conditions, and to optimize your products for weight and shape.

MSC.Fatigue is developed in close cooperation with nCode, MSC's fatigue and durability partner. nCode International, Ltd., Sheffield, England, is the world's leader in fatigue and durability services and software.  Click here for more information on nCode

Benefits

• Innovate by identifying much "leaner" parts and modules that will still perform to specification over time
• Increase your confidence in your final product design by virtually testing it under all conceivable loading conditions
• Get new designs to market faster by avoiding lengthy physical build-and-break cycles that must be performed over weeks or months to adequately represent normal lifetime duty cycles
• Minimize time spent on manual data transfers by using a product well-integrated with MSC.Software's other best-in-class simulation tools and save money by minimizing the over-design of your parts
• Leverage your investment in simulation technology by using this product as part of MSC.Software's MSC.MasterKey licensing system

Applications

• Aircraft structures under low cycle or random vibration loads
• Automotive suspensions and brakes
• Off-highway vehicles subjected to relatively harsh operating environments
• Engine noise, electronics, wind turbines, and off-shore drilling platforms affected by random vibration

Fatigue Products

MSC.Fatigue Spot Weld
Fatigue assessment for spot welds or continuously welded, thin-sheet structures
 
MSC.Fatigue Basic
Crack initiation and total life analysis, including virtual strain measurement
 
MSC.Fatigue Vibration
Vibration-induced fatigue assessment
 
MSC.Fatigue Wheels
Fatigue assessment for rotating structures