Further development of the AD-S2-postprocessing-tool for design against fatigue of pressure vessel components

Present code based design against fatigue of welded and non-welded pressure vessel components requires local stress and strain parameters. Appropriate stress analysis has to be carried out mostly based on numerical methods an d the design algorithm has to be applied. Considerations of this kind have led to the continuous development of a specific software tool "AD-Merkblatt S2" within the ANSYS-Postprocessing in the framework of a cooperation betw een CADFEM GmbH and Dortmund University. This tool covers all aspects of co de based fatigue design, offers a direct interface (node picking) to the FE -analysis and sums up input and output variables in HTML format as an integ ral part of the documentation. Furthermore, similar tools for sophisticated fatigue analysis including high quality weld seams under low cycle operati ng conditions and damage accumulation effects are planned for the nearer fu ture (local. strain approach). Latest scientific trends can be integrated a nd numerical analyses of typical pressure vessel components can run in the background as a module of fatigue lifetime analysis.