Fatigue analysis of materials and redesign of cracked components

What was the challenge or problem to solve?

Fatigue in materials is a fairly common phenomenon, and in particular, there are some components that after being installed in public transport, after a few months of use, appeared with cracks and had a high risk of breaking.

To avoid this, the customer requested a failure mode analysis to find out why the component was failing, and thus subsequently find potential solutions and even redesign of the component.

Fatigue analysis of materials and redesign of cracked components
Fatigue analysis of materials and redesign of cracked components

How was it addressed or what was the solution?

The forensic engineering team conducted a crack distribution study and a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) fractographic analysis was performed to identify the type of fracture, where it originated and how it propagated.

With the information extracted from the fractographic study, the prototyping team analyzed the 3D design to propose design improvements to prevent crack formation.

Challenge

  • Identify why certain components crack after use
  • Propose improvements to avoid it

Solution

  • Fatigue analysis of materials and study of cracks by fractography
  • Analyze 3D design of parts and propose design improvements