Unique Random-Vibration Technology Highlights New Version of MSC/FATIGUE
30 September 1998
Unique Random-Vibration Technology Highlights New Version of MSC/FATIGUE; New Technology Brings Benefits of Fatigue Calculation to a Broadly Increased Audience
LOS ANGELES--Sept. 30, 1998--The MacNeal- Schwendler Corp. Wednesday announced the release and shipment of MSC/FATIGUE, Version 8.
MSC/FATIGUE is a post-finite element analysis (FEA) application to predict the expected life of a structure or component. This latest release offers, for the first time, a completely new "random vibration" fatigue technology. This methodology brings the many benefits of fatigue calculation to a much broader audience than ever before available.
Until now, engineers had been mainly limited to calculating fatigue life within the time domain. Now, for the first time, they can calculate fatigue life using frequency response and random vibration FEA techniques, which expands fatigue-life predictions into the frequency domain.
Fatigue analysis can now be employed for general use in widely expanded applications, such as electronic components, offshore platforms, wind turbines, and engine-noise problems, or wherever random vibration occurs.
"Our customer base covers a wide variety of industries, such as electronic- and medical-component design, marine engineering, optics, wind-turbine design, and general manufacturing," said Alan Caserio, MSC/FATIGUE product manager. "Version 8 is a powerful and unique capability that is going to make a significant impact on these customers."
By accurately predicting the expected life of a product, MSC/FATIGUE helps greatly reduce costs by predicting and eliminating costly redesigns and product recalls. Savings can be enormous by prolonging the life of a component or structure by reducing costs before physical prototyping and manufacturing.
Multiple random-load cases can be applied to a structural model. These load cases can be correlated, noncorrelated, or partially correlated. The analysis results can be transformed into principal systems, permitting the user to assess stress tensor rotations in nonstationary stress states. This is a unique and very powerful capability.
Version 8 is the first program that can calculate fatigued life from principal stresses rather than from individual components by resolving them into principal axes from a frequency-response analysis. This is common practice in the time domain, but until now, a difficult and laborious task in the frequency domain, which most FE solvers can not even do.
The resulting power spectral density (PSD) outputs of stress can then be used in a variety of vibration-fatigue solvers to obtain fatigue-life results. This is of great value to designers of structures or components where dynamic response is important.
In addition, Version 8 can perform analysis of car bodies by literally analyzing spot welds for fatigue life in order to optimize their size and placement before physical prototyping.
Typically, each spot weld on a production line may cost as much as $30,000. If a problem surfaces, it can cost three times that amount to relocate it. With MSC/FATIGUE, the placement of spot welds can be computer analyzed and placed in the best location, well before moving to the production line.
A software strain-gauge capability in Version 8 lets a user simulate a strain gauge on a finite element model, and extract stress or strain results from the model in the same direction and location as a hardware strain gauge in a test lab. From a subsequent rosette analysis, this allows a direct comparison between test and analysis and the ability to correlate fatigue life.
All new utility modules in Version 8 give MSC/FATIGUE users, at their fingertips, everything they need to increase productivity. The modules include advanced graphic display, file transfer and translation, and single-shot fatigue analysis from non-FEA data such as stress and strain measurements, including multi-axial time-domain fatigue calculations.
The MacNeal-Schwendler Corp. is the world's leading supplier of mechanical computer-aided engineering (MCAE) solutions. MSC provides software, services, and strategies by partnering with customers to increase the performance of their structural designs.
MSC's solutions have played a key role in the design of virtually every major automobile, aircraft, and space vehicle developed in the past decade. MSC solutions are provided by offices throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. For more information, visit the MSC Web site at: www.macsch.com.
NOTE: NASTRAN is a registered trademark of NASA. MSC, MSC/, MSC/DYTRAN, PATRAN, MSC/PATRAN, MSC/MVISION and ARIES are registered trademarks of The MacNeal-Schwendler Corp. MSC/NASTRAN, MSC/FATIGUE, and MSC/FEA are trademarks of The MacNeal-Schwendler Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their registered owners.