Blog

When conducting a strain based fatigue analysis (https://fea-solutions.co.uk/strain-based-fatigue-analysis/), the E-N curves of the materials used are required, where E stands for ε (epsilon), the symbol for strain, and N for the number of loading cycles with the graph showing the mean stress over the number...

When conducting a stress based fatigue analysis (https://fea-solutions.co.uk/stress-based-fatigue-analysis/), the S-N curves of the materials used are required, where S stands for σ (sigma), the symbol for stress, and N for the number of loading cycles with the graph showing the mean stress over the number...

Static Test vs Fatigue Test To obtain mechanical properties for a material, physical specimen tests are performed depending on the types of material properties that are desired. Two examples of these tests are: - Static specimen test - Fatigue specimen test. Static tests are used to obtain the mechanical...

A fatigue analysis is performed to calculate whether a structure will fail after a certain number of repeated loading and unloading, so-called load cycles, rather than after one load cycle as simulated in a static analysis. The fatigue failure is due to initiation and propagation...

Since the beginning of mechanical engineering, static (https://fea-solutions.co.uk/static-vs-dynamic-analysis/) tests have been used to determine the strength of designs. This was suitable for structures such as houses, towers and bridges, subjected to static loads due to self weight (https://fea-solutions.co.uk/mass-and-weight/). With the Industrial Revolution, machines were introduced...

When performing a FEA stress analysis, a linear-elastic (https://fea-solutions.co.uk/elasticity-and-plasticity/) material model is usually selected. In case the resulting peak stresses are found to be above the yield strength of the material, the underlying assumption that the material would behave in a linear-elastic manner has been...

When a welded component is simulated in FEA, there are two ways to represent the welds: - Treating the welded components as a single part. - Modelling the weld seam in detail. As in most cases the weld geometry is small compared to the overall size of the...

The most common construction materials in mechanical engineering are metals and plastics. In the normal range of use, their mechanical behaviour can be mathematically described as linear-elastic https://fea-solutions.co.uk/elasticity-and-plasticity/. Soft rubbers and foams are elastic as well, but their stress-strain curves (https://fea-solutions.co.uk/stress-strain-curves/) are highly non-linear. This is...

The interaction between parts in a structure can be modelled as contacts in FEA. These contacts can be either linear or non-linear. For more information on non-linear contact, please read (https://fea-solutions.co.uk/non-linear-contact/). When modelling these part interactions as linear contacts, there are two ways in which this...

Remote loads and constraints are used to apply boundary conditions to faces of an FEA model (the scoped geometry) from a remote point in space. Remote loads and constraints are applied in two steps: 1. Adding a nodal load or constraint to a point in space, which...