Hi everyone,
I am trying to do a fatigue analysis on a bicycle handlebar and stem to predict points of failure. The handlebar is loaded on either end with a 270N 5 Hz (assume sinusoidal input) in-phase load for 100k cycles, followed by 100k cycles out-of-phase loading.
I've previously done something similar using the "fatigue tool" for a static structural analysis in Ansys Mechanical, but I no longer have access to the Uni licences, unfortunately. I'm still very much a novice Dyna/PrePost user and slowly but surely getting to grips with it.
I've read in the user manual that there are several *Fatigue keywords available. How would you go about setting up the simulation for cyclic loading and using for example the Goodman or Soderberg mean stress correction methods? For now I just want to do 100k cycles in-phase loading.
I currently have the model set up with bolts modelled with beam elements and pre-load to 6 kN using *INITIAL_AXIAL_FORCE_BEAM. Applied loads are defined using the *LOAD_NODE_SET keyword. The load is by *DEFINE_CURVE keyword.
Are there any reference material or YouTube tutorials that you could recommend?
Cheers,
Jaco
Look up Mat_add_Fatigue_(option) in the Dyna vol 2 manual.
Thanks Dennis, that's always a good place to start.
For any others interested in this type of analysis, I reached out to the guys at Dynamore to ask for advice. Attached is a very nice workflow summary of how to use the relevant fatigue keywords.
In short, you will build two input decks. Deck 1 is a regular implicit analysis for one cycle of loading. Important to output ELOUT data or use *DATABASE_HISTORY_SOLID/SHELL data for the elements of interest.
Thereafter, copy Deck 1, remove the element history keywords and add the fatigue keywords. You only need to add one *Fatigue keyword to "invoke" the fatigue analysis. They recommend using *FATIGUE_ELOUT with RESTART=1 and the binout file as input file. Remember to add the material S-N data via the *MAT_ADD_FATIGUE keyword and *DATABASE_D3FTG to be able to plot the fatigue results in post.
First run Deck 1 and save all the binout files to a separate folder. Reference this file path in Deck 2 *FATIGUE_ELOUT keyword.
Then run Deck 2 with the relevant fatigue keywords. Open the D3FTG file in post to see the result.