Fatigue is the study of a particular failure mechanism when structures if subjected to sufficient and repeated applications of load (load cycling), cause cracks to initiate, then grow until, if not detected, eventually leading to complete failure. This failure mechanism, while complex to analyse, is very important in engineering analysis as it is the cause of the majority of engineering failures, with over 80% of all failures attributed to some form of fatigue failure.
Aecentus have an in-depth knowledge of fatigue analysis, having spent a large proportion of the last 15 years evaluating, measuring, analysing and preventing fatigue failures. We have considerable expertise in all forms of fatigue, both in non-welded and weld components and assemblies.
In fatigue analysis it is frequently necessary to undertake data acquisition and measurements in order to measure the structures’ actual load-cycle behaviour, before any reliable fatigue and service life prediction can be determined.
Vehicles, commercial transport and construction machinery all experience complex load cycle behaviour from normal everyday operations, which can have an extremely damaging effect on the service life of the vehicle. Typically, such fatigue damage is measured using data acquisition hardware and software then using other commercial software the fatigue damage effects are determined thus allowing overall service lives to be evaluated.
Since the risk of fatigue failures is so high in structures across a most engineering sectors, fatigue analysis makes up a considerable proportion of our work at Aecentus Ltd.
