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Low Cycle Fatigue Analysis of after Treatment Device Induced due to Thermal
Load by Using Finite Element Analysis

Conference Paper · July 2014

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.592-594.1104

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Swapnil Kumbhar Raju Tayade

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 Low Cycle fatigue analysis of after treatment device induced due to
thermal load by using finite element method

Swapnil Vitthal Kumbhar1, a*, Vilas Kulkarni2b, Prof. R. M. Tayade3c

1
VJTI College, Mumbai, India
2
CRTI, Pune, India
3
VJTI College, Mumbai, India
a
swapn.kumbhar@gmail.com, b vilas.kulkarni@cummins.com , c rmtayade@vjti.org.in

Key words: - Low cycle fatigue, transient thermal analysis, structural analysis, Brown-Miller
Criteria, Morrow mean stress correction factor.

Abstract: -
After-treatment (AT) devices used to control harmful byproducts from the exhaust of
engines. The working temperature of such component is very high (More than 600⁰C). This high
temperature causes thermal stresses in component and thermal fatigue failure is easy to happen on
such component. The goal of this paper is to characterize the thermal fatigue behavior of AT device
i.e. Exhaust Gas Processor (EGP) and prediction of crack initiation cycles. The failure can be
predicted from the accumulated plastic strain by using strain based approach i.e. Manson-Coffin-
Basquin equation for low cycle fatigue (LCF).
EGP worked under cyclic changing temperature condition and due to such cyclic thermal
loading, cyclic thermal stresses and plastic deformation induced in component which fails the
component by fatigue. As deformation is plastic, component requires less number of cycles (less
than 105) for failure called as low cycle fatigue.
Paper contains temperature mapping by transient thermal analysis. By taking temperature
distribution as input, thermal elasto-plastic structural analysis is done. Based on stress-strain data
and fatigue material property, thermal fatigue life or crack initiation cycles calculated by using Fe-
Safe tool. For low cycle fatigue calculation Brown-Miller Criteria with Morrow mean stress
correction factor[1] is used. The voin-mises stress and crack initiation cycles are investigated and S-
N curve and Ɛ-N curve compared with actual graphs.

Introduction:-
Exhaust gas processor (EGP) is part of after-treatment device which contains catalyst to carry
out reactions. Due to reaction with dosing material (aqueous urea), CO or NOx gets reduced into
CO2, N2 and H2O. Exhaust gas temperature depends on engines condition. At idle condition
temperature is low, and high load condition temperature is high. Due to change in temperature,
cyclic thermal stresses induced in component. If thermal stresses are more than yield stress then
plastic deformation induced in material. Due to plastic deformation fatigue occurs at low number of
loading cycles (<105) called as low cycle fatigue [2]. Coffin-Manson gives relation [2] for plastic
strain and failure cycles.

Fig. 1:-EGP Model

 Example includes exhaust gas processer which is part of after-treatment device. Exhaust gas
temperature changes from 110 to 600 C. A duty cycle of 1200 sec is considered and data of exhaust
gas temperature is collected. Transient thermal analysis is done and output of thermal analysis is
taken as input to elasto-plastic structural analysis. From output of structural analysis and fatigue
properties fatigue analysis is done by using Fe-safe tool. Fatigue analysis gives us number of cycles
required for crack initiation. Fig shows the basic components of EGP.

Transient Thermal analysis:-

Loading for thermal analysis is temperature data. Fig. shows temperature profile of different
components. To take effect of changing temperature, we did transient thermal analysis for 1200 sec.
Temperature dependent material properties are considered. Material property of SS304 is
considered.

Fig.2:- Temperature loading profile w.r.t time

Temp (⁰C) 22 200 300 400 600 Temp(⁰C) 22 150 300 500 600
Elastic Conductivit
14. 15. 17. 21. 23.
Modulus 205 203 190 168 150 y
8 1 8 8 9
(Mpa) (W/m⁰C)
0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3
Poisons Ratio
3 3 3 3 3
Table No.1:- Material Property of SS304

Temperature distribution over the model is due to thermal conductivity. Analysis gives us
temperature at each node. By analysis we can say that, components which are came in contact with
exhaust gases (like inlet pipe, outlet pipe, and catalyst) are hotter than other component.

Fig.3:- Temperature profile for low and high temperature condition.

Thermal conduction through surface is given by: -

d (T )
Q  q * A  K * A* …Eq.1
d ( x)
d (T )
K= thermal conductivity, A= Area of surface, = Temperature gradient.
d ( x)
But in finite element method this formula changed and it can be described in matrix form as
KA 1  1 T1  Q1
      [K] [T] = [F]. …Eq.2
L  1 1 T 2 Q 2

[K] =global stiffness matrix. This can be obtained by assembling stiffness matrix of each element.
[T]= Temperature of that node. [F]= Boundary condition.

Static structural analysis:-

Using output of thermal analysis i.e. temperature distribution, static structural analysis is done.
Instead of transient analysis, static analysis at each sub-steps of thermal analysis is done. This will
gives same effect as transient analysis. Elasto-plastic structural analysis is done by using Shell181
element type instead of shell61 element type. Temperature dependent Stress-strain curve [3] is
defined by using kinematic hardening module in Ansys 14.5.

Fig.4: - Temperature Dependent Material property of SS 304

Thermal stresses can be induced in EGP model due to thermal expansion. If material expands
freely, then there is no stress developed. But if there is an obstacle to expansion then compressive
stress developed on component. [2]
Expansion in material is given by

   x  ( y   z )  T  …Eq.3

In thermal analysis if expansion in any direction is constrained then thermal strain developed.
Means Ɛi=0 gives us

 T  T  …Eq.4

Likewise thermal stress in solid material can be given as.


E
(1  )1  2  3   E T
(1   )(1  2 ) (1  2 )
…Eq.5
E
  T ..... i  0
(1  2 )

…Where α=thermal expansion and ΔT= temperature difference, v=poisons ratio.

Structural analysis result:-
Structural analysis shows that stresses are arise at areas where there is obstacle to expansion such
as joints, weld section, fillets. Such areas doesn’t expands freely, neighboring component creates
obstacle to expansion so thermal stresses arises. As temp range is high then material goes to plastic
region. Strain increment graph shows that elastic strain induced at low temperature and as
temperature increases plastic strain induced in component.

Fig.5: -Stress profile at low and high temperature

Fatigue Analysis:-
For fatigue analysis strain based approach is used i.e. coffin-Manson approach. Total strain
relation is given by [2]

 t  f b

  2 N f     f 2 N f 
c
 …Eq.7
2 E 

As material is ductile, it fails in shear so brown-miller approach with morrow mean stress
correction is used for fatigue analysis. This relation is given as [1]

max  n (    m )
  1.65 * f 2 N f b  1.75 *  f 2N f c …Eq.8
2 2 E

…Where λmax= shear strain, σm=Mean stress; and other data is as shown in table.
Parameters 20°C 450°C 600°C
b fatigue strength exponent -0.179 -0.247 -0.156
c fatigue ductility exponent -0.389 -0.481 -0.499
σf‘ (Mpa) fatigue strength coefficient 1470 2528 1009
Ɛf‘ fatigue ductility coefficient 0.161 0.325 0.268
Table No.2:- Fatigue Property of SS304

As loading to Fe-safe tool, output of structural analysis i.e. stress-strain data at each node is
given. By using this data and fatigue material properties crack initiation cycles (2Nf) is calculated
from brown-miller approach. Following results shows fatigue life (log10 life). An area which goes
in to plastic region, they have less life. Cracks may arise at such area.

Fig.6: -Low cycle fatigue region (a), (b), (c)

 Minimum fatigue life is at joint between bolt and fixture plate (a), at contact between fixture
base plate and outer shell of EGP (b) and at contact between catalyst and flanges(c). This area
shows high thermal stresses value in structural analysis.
If we compare results of fatigue life with actual stress-life and strain life then we can get close
match with experimental results. Following graph shows comparison between actual stress-life [4]
and strain-life curve [4] and analytical values of FEA analysis.

Fig.7: - Graphical comparison of strain-life and stress-life

Conclusion:-
From analysis of EGP model following conclusions generated:-
1) The major contribution to fatigue is temperature variation during thermal analysis.
2) As temperature increases material goes into plastic region. Due to this reason we need to do
elasto-plastic structural analysis when temperature is high.
3) A thermal stress arises at such areas which has obstacle to thermal expansion. Such as
welds, fillets, joints this area don’t expand freely induce thermal stress.
4) Cracks may produce at stress concentration areas like fillets, welds, joints. As this area have
thermal stresses higher than yield. Plastic deformation occurs at such area.
5) Low cycle fatigue may occur at less number of loading cycles (< 105) and stress required for
this will be higher(> yield stress)
Acknowledgment:-
The author is thankful to Cummins Research Technology India (CRTI), Pune, who gives
opportunity to work on their product and permit to publish project work in conference. Due to
confidentiality law’s author is not permitted to show result values.

References:-
[1] Fe-safe User Guide.
[2] Mechanical metallurgy by Dieter.
[3] Atlas of stress-strain curve, ASM book.
[4] Atlas of fatigue curve, ASM book.
[5] Y. Murakami, K.J. Miller: “A view point from the observation of low cycle fatigue process”,
International Journal of Fatigue 27 (2005) 991–1005.
[6] R. Zcuchowski: “Analysis of the thermal fatigue process”, Journal of Materials Processing
Technology 106 (2000) 167-172.
[7] Iikka Virkkunen: “Thermal Fatigue of Austenitic and Duplex Stainless Steels”, Helsinki
University of Technology (Espoo, Finland) – Nov- 2001.
[8] Samir Chandra Roy, Sunil Goyal, R. Sandhya, S.K. Ray: “Low cycle fatigue life prediction of
316 L (N) stainless steel based on cyclic elasto-plastic response” Nuclear Engineering and Design
253 (2012) 219– 225.
[9] Ansys 14.5 Help.

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