FATIGUE SIMULATION OF POWER TRAIN COMPONENTS DURING THE DESIGN PROCESS

The lifetime of power train components can be improved dramatically by finding crack initiation points with suitable software tools and optimization of the critical areas. With increasing capacities of computers the prediction of the lifetime for components by numerical methods gets more and more important. This paper discusses some applications of the outstanding fatigue simulation program FEMFAT supporting the assessment of uniaxially and multiaxially loaded components (as well as welding seams and spot joints). The theory applied in FEMFAT differs in some aspects from classical approaches like the nominal stress concept or the local one and can be characterized by the term "influence parameter method". The specimen S/N-curve is locally modified by different influence parameters as stress-gradient to take into account notch effects, mean-stress influence which is quantified by means of a Haigh-diagram, surface roughness and treatments, temperature, technological size, etc. It is possible to consider plastic deformations resulting in mean-stress rearrangements. The dynamic loading of power train components is very often multiaxial, e.g. the stress state at each time is not proportional to one single stress state. Hence, the directions of the principal axes vary with time. We will present the way how such complex load situations can be handled with FEMFAT by the examples of a crank case and a gear box.