ASME Fatigue

ANSYS Mechanical Application

DOCUMENTATION

Extension version 201.4

Release date 13-Aug-21
Compatible ANSYS version 2020R1-R2

www.edrmedeso.com
 ASME Fatigue - Documentation – v.201.4 -13-Aug-21

Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 3
2 PRODUCT RESTRICTIONS ........................................................................................... 3
3 GETTING STARTED ..................................................................................................... 4
3.1 INSTALLATION ................................................................................................................. 4
3.2 LOADING EXTENSION ........................................................................................................ 6
3.3 UNINSTALLING ................................................................................................................ 6
4 ASME FATIGUE APP ................................................................................................... 8
4.1.1 Background............................................................................................................. 8
4.1.2 Solution ................................................................................................................... 8
4.1.3 Usage ...................................................................................................................... 8
4.1.4 Issues and Limitations .......................................................................................... 11
5 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 12
APPENDIX A. EXAMPLE ................................................................................................... 13
APPENDIX B. IMPLEMENTATION ..................................................................................... 20
APPENDIX C. GENERAL ISSUES AND LIMITATIONS ............................................................ 21

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1 Introduction
This application has been created using ACT (ANSYS Customization Toolkit), which provides an
API (Application Programming Interface) to several ANSYS Workbench modules, including
ANSYS Mechanical, ANSYS DesignModeler and ANSYS DesignXplorer. With ACT, the GUI
(Graphical User Interface) of ANSYS Mechanical can be extended with new buttons. These
buttons have customizable behaviour, which allows the developer to create new features, or
re-use existing functionality that previously had to be included via APDL command objects. A
few of the advantages with ACT include:

• Consistent handling of unit systems

• Manage user inputs
• Access to the Mechanical database as well as the ANSYS database and results
• Use Mechanicals graphics library for on-screen representation
• Shield the user from APDL code
• Create installable binary files, protecting intellectual property

2 Product Restrictions
The ASME Fatigue app described in this document utilize functionality in ANSYS that may or
may not be available depending on the available ANSYS license level. The product restrictions
are summarized in Table 2-1.

Table 2-1: Required ANSYS license level for the ASME Fatigue app
ANSYS license level (current) Product code Compatibility [Y/N]
DesignSpace caewbpl3 Y
Mechanical Pro mech_1 Y
Mechanical Premium mech_2 Y
Mechanical Enterprise ansys Y
ANSYS license level (legacy)
Professional NLT prf Y
Professional NLS prfnls Y
Structural struct Y

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3 Getting Started

3.1 Installation
To install the extension, open ANSYS Workbench. On the project page, navigate to ACT Start
Page > Manage Extensions and press the ‘+’ icon to install a new extension (see Figure 3-1).

Figure 3-1: Navigating to the Manage Extensions page and installing a new extension

In the browsing window that appears, select the binary extension file (.wbex file) downloaded
from ANSYS app store (see Figure 3-2).

Verify that the correct extension appears in the list in the Extension Manager by going to
ACT Start Page > Manage Extensions... (see Figure 3-3).

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Figure 3-2: Select the .wbex file downloaded from ANSYS app store

Figure 3-3 The newly installed extension should appear in the Extension Manager page

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3.2 Loading Extension

To use the extension in a project, simply click on the extension on the Extension Manager
page. The extension will highlight in green when properly loaded. Mechanical needs to be
closed before the loading is effective, so close Mechanical if this is open.

Several extensions can be loaded into the same project. Once the project is saved with an
extension, it will load automatically with the project, so this procedure only needs to be done
once per project.

Figure 3-4: Properly loaded extension on the Extension Manager page

To unload the extension, open the Extension Manager page and click on the extension again.
The extension is unloaded when the green highlighting disappears.

3.3 Uninstalling
To uninstall the extension, use the Extension Manager as described in section 3.1 and 0. From
the drop-down menu on the bottom right of the extension, select Uninstall.

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Figure 3-5: Uninstalling an extension from the Extension Manager page

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4 ASME Fatigue app

4.1.1 Background

The fatigue calculation according to ASME 2017 Sec. VIII Div.2 Part 5. Chapter 5.5.3; Fatigue
assessment – elastic stress analysis and equivalent stress can be done by hand, extracting
stress results at nodes for each load case. However, in addition to be a time-consuming task
with risk of errors, the node location of the maximum damage cannot be known before the
actual fatigue damage calculation.

4.1.2 Solution

The Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object can be used as an efficient post-processing tool to
plot the number of cycles to failure, or accumulated damage according to (1) ASME 2017 Sec.
VIII Div.2 Part 5 Chapter 5.5.3, for a single, or a combination of, load cases.

The fatigue curve data tables are implemented, and the fatigue curve is directly built using the
material properties of the selected bodies.

4.1.3 Usage

The Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object can be applied in any Static Structural or Transient
Structural analysis. The properties must be selected or entered regarding how to the results
should be calculated. All properties are defined in Table 4-1. The result can be scoped to any
type of geometry, but not to mesh entities (directly or through named selections).

The user can select to plot the Accumulated Damage, Cycles to Failure and log10 Cycles to
Failure, calculated as described in Appendix B. If the geometry contains shell elements, the
selected shell location will be used as a uniform contour through the thickness.

The fatigue curve can be the same for all bodies of the geometry selection or body dependent
by selecting No for Same Curve for All Bodies. In the case of body dependent fatigue curve,
the Fatigue Curve Table must be filled in. It is not possible to select No if the geometry
selection contains a single body.

The result can be calculated for a single, or a combination of, load cases by selecting Yes or No
for Load Case Combination. In case of a load case combination, the Load Case Table will have
to be filled in. See Appendix C if the table does not pop up. A load case is defined as a range
from one load step to another load step in the same analysis. Any analysis sharing the Model
cell in Workbench can be used as a load case, but only solved analyses are valid.

Start Step and End Step, specified by the user, defines one load cycle, or stress range. A stress
range is the two extremes of a cycle and the stress amplitude is one half of the stress range.
Thus, the simulation must include a full load cycle. Note that the time for a chosen step is the
end step time. Step 0 is used to define the initial time 0.

An example of property set and result is shown in Figure 4-1.

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The fatigue curves used for the calculations are saved in the solver files directory if Yes is
selected for Save Fatigue Curve, see Appendix B. It is recommended always to check if the
fatigue curve has been calculated as expected.

Figure 4-1: Details and graphic view of a Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object.

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Table 4-1: Summary of properties of the Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object (grey cells are
read-only properties).
Scope
Geometry Result geometry scope, can be edges, vertices, faces or bodies
Shell Specify whether Top, Bottom or Middle results are displayed for shell bodies.
This option should be ignored if only solid bodies are selected.
Definition
Result Specify whether Damage, Cycles To Failure or Logarithm Of Cycles To Failure
To Base 10 should be displayed
Load Case Combination Specify whether this is a single load case, or a combination of load cases.
Any analysis sharing the Model cell in Workbench can be used as a load case,
but only solved analyses are valid.
Temperature Temperature at which the Young’s Modulus is extracted or interpolated for
temperature dependent Young’s Modulus
Start Step Specify the start and end step defining one cycle. The stress component
range will be calculated as the stress at end step minus stress at start step.
End Step The end time of the step is used. Step 0 corresponds to time step 0
Number Of Cycles Number of cycles to calculate the damage
K_f, Fatigue Strength Specify ASME fatigue strength reduction factor, default factor is 1.0
Reduction Factor
K_e, Fatigue Penalty Specify ASME fatigue penalty factor, default factor is 1.0
Factor
Load Case Table Define load case combination. Temperature, Start Step, End Step, Number
of Cycles, fatigue factors and Temperature are to be defined per load case in
case of load case combination.
Fatigue Curve
Same Curve For All Specify whether the fatigue curve is the same for all selected bodies or not
Bodies
Fatigue Curve (App. 3-F) Specify the Appendix 3-F table from which the fatigue coefficients are found
Fatigue Curve Table Specify the Appendix 3-F table from which the fatigue coefficients are found
(App. 3-F) by body ID (see Appendix C for body ID description)
Save Fatigue Curves Specify whether the fatigue curve should be saved to the Solver Files
Directory or not
Integration Point Results
Display Option Specify whether the results at nodes are displayed as Averaged (default) or
Unaveraged result
Information
Young’s Modulus Table Young’s Modulus used for the calculation (see Appendix C for body ID
description)

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Cycles To Failure Minimum number of cycles to failure, displayed per load case in the Load
Case Table in case of load case combination.
Damage Maximum damage, displayed per load case in the Load Case Table in case of
load case combination.
Definition
By Not to be used
Display Time Not to be used
Result Set Not to be used

4.1.4 Issues and Limitations

The Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object is limited to 3D Static Structural and Transient
Structural analyses.

If a .csv file is opened or previewed while a result is being evaluated where this file will be
overwritten, the evaluation will fail. The file should be closed.

Results cannot be displayed by Maximum over Time, or Time of Maximum.

If the result object is inserted under an unsolved analysis and the analysis is included to define
a load case in a Load Case Table, the Load Case Table will be invalid. Thus, it will not be possible
to solve the analysis. The result object will have to be either supressed or deleted before the
analysis can be solved.

If the scoping method is set to All Bodies, but the geometry contains only one body, Same
Curve for All Bodies, will not be set to Yes as read-only at initialisation, but only if the user tries
to change it.

Error/Warning Messages:

- If a solved fatigue result uses an analysis which has be cleared or resolved, the
result object will become suppressed or invalid when the user selects it.
- If the geometry selection has a plastic behaviour assigned, a warning message will
be displayed

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5 References
1. ASME. Section VIII, Division 2. 2017.

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This example shows, step by step, how to use the Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object, as
well as verification of the results.

A Static Structural analysis is created and a material with elastic behavior is used. The material
properties are summarized in Table 5-1.

Table 5-1: Material Properties of the Duplex Stainless Steel material.

Material Property Value
Elastic Modulus [GPa] 185.7
Poisson’s ratio [-] 0.31

The geometry used in this example is a Blind Tee, modeled as a solid multibody part. The
previously defined material is assigned to all bodies.

The model is subjected to an internal pressure with its corresponding cap force. Further, the
outlet surface is fixed in the axial and tangential direction with respect to a local coordinate
system as shown in Figure 5-1. For simplicity, symmetry is utilized such that only half of the
geometry model is used.

Figure 5-1: Loads and boundary conditions for the example model

The solved analysis defined the first Load Case and is renamed as Fatigue LC1_BlindT.

The Setup cell of Fatigue LC1_BlindT is duplicated on the Project page (RMB in the Setup cell,
duplicate), thus sharing the Engineering Data, Geometry and Model cells, as shown in Figure
5-2. This is done in order for the two analyses to share the same mesh, which is a requirement

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to evaluate the cumulated damage from the two analysis. The second analysis is renamed
Fatigue LC2_BlindT.

Figure 5-2: Duplicating analysis by duplicating the Setup cell (left) duplicated analysis after
renaming (right)

For the Fatigue LC2_BlindT analysis, a Remote Force of 10 000 N is added as shown in Figure
5-3.

Figure 5-3: Loads and boundary conditions for the Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) example model.

To evaluate the accumulated damage in the Blind tee, a Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object
is added from the toolbar and scoped to the body. This object is found in the Results drop-
down menu of the extension, as seen in Figure 5-4.

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Figure 5-4: Inserting a Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) object and Details of Fatigue (ASME VIII
Div.2) result object.

Load Case Combination is set to Yes. Start Step, End Step and Number Of Cycles fields
disappear. Instead, a new field Load Case Table appears as shown in Figure 5-5. By clicking on
Tabular Data in the Load Case Table field, a table pops up with properties as shown in Figure
5-6. Refer to 0 if the table does not pop up.

Figure 5-5: Details of Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object after setting Load Case
Combination to Yes.

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Figure 5-6: Load Case Table after clicking on Tabular Data.

Two lines are added to the table by clicking twice on . Then, the table is filled in as shown
in Figure 5-7: The analysis without Remote Force (here renamed LC1) is selected with 5 500
cycles, and the analysis with Remote Force (here renamed LC2) with 5 000 number of cycles.

Figure 5-7: Load Case Table after inserting two lines, and filling with the values. Note that
only solved analyses are valid.

By clicking “Apply” in the Material Table Data field, the property becomes valid as shown in
Figure 5-8. Note that, exiting by any other way will not save the table.

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Figure 5-8: Details of Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object after clicking Apply.
The Fatigue Curve (App. 3-F) is then specified to 3-F.3. When all properties are filled in, the
result object status changes to valid, as shown in Figure 5-9.

Figure 5-9: Details of Fatigue (ASME VIII Div.2) result object after selecting the Fatigue Curve.

The result object is evaluated. The result plot is shown in Figure 5-11. Cycles to Failure and
Damage Contribution are displayed in the Load Case Table per load case.

Note that in this case, both LC1 and LC2 could have been set as 2 steps in the same analysis.
Then, the same result can be obtained by selecting the relevant start and end steps, as shown
in Figure 5-10.

Figure 5-10: Load Case Table for one analysis with two steps, the same damage result is
obtained.

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Figure 5-11: Plot displayed and Load Case Table after evaluation of the result object.
(Maximum damage for LC2 alone is not found at the same location as the maximum
cumulated damage for both load cases)

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Verification of the result at the Maximum Accumulated Damage node:

To verify the result, the equivalent stresses are extracted at the node of maximum
accumulated damage for both analysis, see Figure 5-12. The local thermal stress is not
included in the stress amplitude calculations, thus, the stress amplitude 𝑆a can be calculated
by Eq. 5.36 and Eq. 5.29 in (1) (𝐾𝑓 = 1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐾𝑒,𝑘 = 1):

536.79 MPa 622.26 MPa

𝑆𝑎,LC1 = = 268.4 MPa ; 𝑆𝑎,LC2 = = 311.1 MPa
2 2
The numbers of cycles are then calculated using the Annex 3-F in (1):

𝑁LC1 = 25 259 cycles ; 𝑁LC2 = 14 709 cycles

The accumulated damage is then calculated using equation 5.38 in (1):

5000 5500
𝐷= + = 0.198 + 0.376 = 0.572
25 260 14 644
The ratio obtained by hand calculation is equal to the one obtained with the extension result
object Figure 5-11 as per conservative discretization of the fatigue curve in the extension.
Results are verified.

Figure 5-12: ANSYS Equivalent Stress at the node of maximum utilization for LC1 and LC2.

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1- The fatigue curves are built for the bodies of the geometry selection 1. The fatigue
curves are built as specified by the Annex 3-F for a stress range 𝑆𝑎 varying in the range
defined for each table in (1) with a step of 0.2 MPa. Note that:
- The Young’s modulus is retrieved from Engineering Data and used as the modulus
of elasticity of the material 𝐸𝑇 in Eq. 3-F.3 in (1). If 𝐸𝑇 is temperature dependent,
it will be interpolated at the user defined temperature.2
- The stress amplitude, 𝑆𝑎 , is calculated by Eq. 5.36 and Eq. 5.29 in (1). The local
thermal stress ∆SLT,k in (1) is not included in the stress amplitude calculations.
- 𝐾𝑓 is strength reduction factor accounting for local notch or effect of the weld. This
factor is set to 1 by default
- 𝐾𝑒,𝑘 is the fatigue penalty factor. This factor is set to 1 by default.

2- For each load case and each element nodes, the equivalent (von-Mises) stress range is
calculated for the specified start and end time. The closest superior stress range from
the built corresponding fatigue curved is determined which gives the number of cycles.

3- In the case of load combination, the number of cycles to failure for a set of load cases
is calculated by Equation 5-1 and the accumulated damage is calculated Eq. 5.38 in (1)

𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑠 −1
1
𝑁𝑡𝑜𝑡 = ( ∑ ) Equation 5-1
𝑁𝑖
𝑖=1

The specified results are calculated at element nodes. For unaveraged display, results are
plotted at element nodes. For averaged results, element nodes result are averaged and plot
at nodes, results are averaged across bodies. The result value at midside nodes is the
average of the two neighbour corner nodes results.

1
If a body used a fatigue curve previously built, this step is skipped and, thus, the file is not written to the solver
files directory.

2
If the specified temperature is outside of the range for which the Young’s Modulus has been defined, the
Young’s Modulus will not be interpolated, instead, the closest value (minimum or maximum) will be selected.

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One issue regarding using results from another analysis system in load case definition tables:
When this is used, and that other analysis system is invalidated/rerun, the result object is not
immediately invalidated. Only when the result item is clicked once, the result item is
invalidated.

Stopping the results evaluation by clicking “Stop Solution” at the ANSYS Workbench Solution
Status pop-up window is not possible.

The Display Time is not working correctly in the case that the time specified does not have
results stored. To ensure expected results, only select points in time where results are stored.
In additions, for some result items the Display Time should not be used at all. This is specified
in the Usage chapter for the affected result items.

Faces and edges that have been created as Virtual Topology are not selectable as geometry
input.

Duplicating an evaluated result item results in an un-evaluated result item. The duplicate
result item needs to be re-evaluated.

Three issues are related to pop-up tables. In the case that Mechanical is open in a display other
than the main display, the table may not pop up. In the case that Mechanical is open in the
main display, but the Mechanical window is scaled too small, the table may not be visible. The
only way to close the table is to click on “Cancel” or “Apply”, clicking on the top-right red cross
will not close the table.

When inserting an item under the Setup level (Initial Conditions, Loads or Supports), and then
un-loading the extension, the item is not possible to delete afterwards. The extension needs
to be reloaded before the item can be deleted.

For result items, the availability to select geometry as mesh elements or nodes is limited.

Some load and result objects refer to Body ID. The Body ID can be found by using Selection
Information in the main toolbar, as shown in Figure 5-13. ID (beta) displayed under
definition in the detail view of a body, is not the Body ID.

Figure 5-13: Selection information table.

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