Fatigue sensor

The Fatigue sensor  can be added by right-clicking on the desired element and toggle the sensor on, as shown in the picture below:



The Fatigue sensor  provides the following fields:

Field Unit Description
Normal stress pt x MPa The stress of the element, see below for point description
Peaks and Vallies pt x MPa The list of peaks and vallies (i.e. extrema) for the stress point x time series
Ranges pt x MPa The ranges of the peaks and vallies list
Damage (w/o uncounted) pt x The damage at point x if uncounted half cycles are not onsidered
Fatigue life (w/o uncounted) pt x year The fatigue life at point x if uncounted half cycles are not considered
Damage pt x The damage at point x
Fatigue life pt x year The fatigue life at point x
Uncounted half cycles count pt x The number of half cycles that have not yet been counted in the Rainflow counting algorithm

The position of the point is given in degrees from the 1st principal axis of the element and with a positive angle being towards the 2nd principal axis (see section 3. Element coordinate system  of the  Coordinate systems  document).


Note:  you can specify the number of points within a cross section where stresses will be computed in two ways:
  • in the Fatigue  section of the  Preferences . Points will always be evenly distributed accross the cross section, with one point at 0 degrees.
  • in the  Support section files  defining the support section 


Note:  the Peaks and Vallies  and Ranges  fields are not time series. They produce a list of extreme that can be viewed when exporting the sensor.


1 Modifying the S-N curve for a fatigue sensor

When adding a fatigue sensor, the S-N curve used to compute the fatigue characteristics will be the default one, specified in the Fatigue  tab of the  Preferences .

It is also possible to modify the S-N curve of a sensor once the sensors has been added: you can either double-click  the name of the sensor, or right-click  the name of the sensor and select options , as illustrated in the figure below:



This will open the Customize sensor window where you can change the name of the Sensor and select the S-N curve that will be used to compute the fatigue characteristics. This window is shown in the figure below.




Note : the fatigue options shown in the Customize sensor  window do not necessarily correspond to the options that have been applied to the sensor. The goal of this window is to select an S-N curve, rather that provide information about the current S-N curve