Basics required for performing fatigue analysis:

Fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to
cyclic loading. Continued cycling of high stress concentrations may eventually cause a crack which
propagates and results in leakages. This failure mechanism is called fatigue. Damage once done during
the fatigue process is cumulative and normally unrecoverable.
Fatigue can be grouped in two classes; High cycle fatigue and low cycle fatigue.
High cycle fatigue involves little or no plastic action. Therefore, it is stress-governed. Normally, a fatigue
curve (also called the SN curve) is generated for every material by experimental tests which correlates
applied stress with the number of cycles to cause failure. For high-cycle fatigue, the analysis is performed
to determine the endurance limit, which is actually a stress level that can be applied for an infinite number
of times without showing any failure. As a general rule no of cycles 10^5 is considered as demarcation
point for high and low cycle fatigue.
The loading cycles applied in piping design are normally very few in the order of a few thousands. This
type of fatigue is identified as low-cycle fatigue. For low-cycle fatigue, the applied stress normally exceeds
the yield strength of the material, which causes plastic instability in the specimen under test. But when
strain is used as the controlled variable, the results in low-cycle region are reliable as well as
reproducible.
Sources of Fatigue:
For Piping system, Cyclic loadings are primarily due to:

Thermal Expansion & Contraction

Vibration due to Occasional loading

Pressure variation within Piping system

Motion wave.

Due to Flow induced Vibration

The fatigue process is divided into three stages: crack initiation from the continued cycling of high stress
concentrations, crack propagation to critical size, and unstable rupture of the section.
Factors Affecting the Fatigue Behavior:
The factors which affect the fatigue behaviour are listed below:

Type and Nature of Loading.

Size of Component and stress or strain Distribution.

Surface finish and Directional Properties.

Stress or Strain Concentration.

Mean stress or Strain.

Environmental Effects.

Metallurgical Factors and Material Properties.

Strain Rate and Frequency Effects.

Characteristics of Low Cycle Fatigue:

Characterized by high loads and a small no. of cycles before failure.

Here failure occurs only with stress levels in the plastic range, i.e. significant plastic strain occurs
during each cycle.

The stresses which cause fatigue failure in the piping are the peak stresses.

In piping design, most of the loading cycles encountered would be of the low cycle type

Characteristics of High Cycle Fatigue:

Characterized by high no. of cycles (Preferable N>10^4) with relatively low stress levels and the
deformation is in elastic range.

This type of fatigue failure used in the design of rotating machinery.

This type of fatigue results from strain cycles in the elastic range.

A stress level, endurance limit, may be applied an infinite times without failure, is calculated.

Failure Criteria:
While preparing fatigue curves, the strains obtained in the tests are multiplied by one-half of the elastic
modulus to obtain pseudo stress amplitude. This pseudo stress is directly compared with the stresses
calculated on the assumption of elastic behavior of piping. During piping stress analysis, a stress called
the alternating stress (Salt) is used which is defined as one-half of the calculated peak stress. Fatigue
failure can be prevented by ensuring that the number of load cycles (N) associated with a specific
alternating stress is less than the number allowed in the SN curve or endurance curve. But in practical
service conditions a piping system is subjected to alternating stresses of different magnitudes. These
changes in magnitudes make the direct use of the fatigue curves inapplicable since the curves are based
on constant-stress amplitude.
Fatigue tests of metallic materials and structures have provided the following main clues to the basic
nature of fatigue:

Fatigue failure, or cracking under repeated stress much lower than the ultimate tensile strength, is
shown in most metals and alloys that exhibit some ductility in static tests. The magnitude of the
applied alternating stress range is the controlling fatigue life parameter.

Failure depends upon the number of repetitions of a given range of stress rather than the total
time under load. The speed of loading is a factor of secondary importance, except at elevated
temperatures.

Some metals, including ferrous alloys, have a safe range of stress. Below this stress, called the
endurance limit or fatigue limit, failure does not occur irrespective of the number of stress
cycles.

Notches, grooves, or other discontinuities of section greatly decrease the stress amplitude that
can be sustained for a given number of cycles.

The range of stress necessary to produce failure in a fixed number of cycles usually decrease as
the mean tension stress of the loading cycle is increased.

Examination of fatigue fracture shows evidence of microscopic deformation, ever in the

apparently brittle region of origin and propagates of the crack. The plastic deformation that
accompanies a spreading fatigue crack is usually limited in extent to regions very near the crack.

Therefore, to make fatigue curves applicable for piping, some alternate approach is necessary.
One hypothesis asserts that the damage fraction of any stress level S, is linearly proportional to the Ratio
of the number of cycles of operation at the stress level to the total number of cycles that would
produce failure at that stress level. This means that failure is predicted to occur if
U1.0 where U= Usage factor = (ni/Ni) for all stress levels
Where, ni= number of cycles operating at stress level i
Ni= number of cycles to failure at stress level i as per material fatigue curve.
Analysis Requirement:
If there are two or more types of stress cycles which produce significant stresses, their cumulative effect
shall be evaluated as stipulated in Steps 1 through 6 below:
1. Designate the specified number of times each type of stress cycle of types 1,2,3,,n, will be
Repeated during the life of the component as n1, n2, n3,., nn, respectively. In determining
n1, n2, n3,., nn, consideration shall be given to the superposition of cycles of various origins
which produce the greatest total alternating stress range. For example , if one type of stress
cycle produce 1000 cycles of a stress variation from zero to +60,000 psi and another type of
stress cycle produces 10,000 cycles of a stress variation from zero to -50,000 psi, the two cycles
to be considered are shown below:

cycle type 1: n1=1000 and Salt1= (60000+50000)/2

cycle type 2: n2=9000 and Salt2= (0+50000)/2

For each type of stress cycle, determine the alternating stress intensity Salt, which for our
application is one half of the range between the expansion stress cycles (as shown above).
These alternating stress intensities are designated as Salt1, Salt2, Saltn.

On the applicable design fatigue curve find the permissible number of cycles for each Salt
computed. These are designated as N1, N2, .Nn.

For each stress cycle calculate the usage factor U1, U2, .Un where U1= n1/N1, U2= n2/N2,
..Un=nn/Nn.

Calculate the cumulative usage factor U as U=U1+U2+.+Un.

The cumulative usage factor shall not exceed 1.0

Step by step methodology of actual analysis

In my last article on Fatigue Analysis I had explained the basics required for performing fatigue analysis of
piping systems. This article will explain the step by step methodology of actual analysis steps which need
to be followed during fatigue analysis using Caesar II. Before I start the analysis steps, a short description
of typical fatigue curves are required from where we have to take the allowable limit for fatigue analysis.
Fatigue Curve:
Plot of Cyclic Stress capacity of a material is called fatigue curve, also known as S-N curve. ASME
Section VIII Div 2 Provide fatigue curve for various material.

Fatigue design curves are generated from test data by applying large safety margins to the average
property curve.
While considering material fatigue in design, an additional safety margin is often applied against the
cycles-to-failure at a given stress amplitude. As an example, if a component is cycled continuously over
the same stress range (Any constant stress range), a design limit on allowable (permitted) cycles may
correspond to the cycle life multiplied by a factor (safety margin) such as 0.8. This is the common safety
margin employed in vessel and piping design.
For every material, a fatigue curve is normally generated by experimental analysis which correlates peak
stress range with the number of cycles to failure.

The alternating stress Sa is defined as one-half of the calculated peak stress.

As already mentioned in my last article that fatigue failure may be prevented by ensuring that the number
of load cycles N that the system experiences are fewer (lower) than the number permitted for the
alternating stress developed.
The cumulative effect shall be evaluated in case if there are two or more types of stress cycles which
produce significant stresses. The material fatigue resistance at a given applied stress or strain range is a
function of a number of factors, including material strength and ductility.
When
to
perform
Fatigue
Analysis:
Normally the fatigue analysis is performed for existing plants to evaluate actual cause for any failure. For
new plants the analysis can be performed only if the project specification permits to do so. Refer project
guidelines on the application requirement for fatigue analysis. Before starting the analysis be ready with
following data which will be required during analysis:

Fatigue Curve of the piping material

Enough process data for finding the total number of cycles throughout the design life of the piping
system.

Steps for Fatigue Analysis using Caesar II:

Assigning the fatigue curve data to the Piping Material in use: This is done on the Allowable
auxiliary screen. Fatigue data may be entered directly, or can be read from a text file by clicking

the Fatigue Curves Button. Seven commonly used curves are available in \Caesar\System\*.Fat.
(For Caesar version 2012, 2013 &2014 you may not find it in few computers, But these are
available in earlier versions) Fatigue curves provide series of S-N data which define the allowable
stress with given anticipated cycle and vise versa.

Defining the fatigue load cases: For this purposes, a new stress type, FAT, has been already
defined in Caesar II database. For every fatigue case, the number of cycles anticipated must also
be entered in appropriate space.

Calculation of the fatigue stresses: Caesar II automatically does this calculation for us. The
fatigue stresses, unless explicitly defined by the applicable code are same as Caesar II calculated
stress intensity (Max Stress Intensity), in order to conform to the requirement of ASME section
VIII, Division 2 Appendix 5.

Determination of the Fatigue stress allowable: The allowable stresses for fatigue analysis are
required to be interpolated logarithmically from the fatigue curve based upon the number of
cycles (throughout its life) designated in the fatigue load cases. The calculated stress is assumed
to be a peak-to-peak cycle value (i.e., thermal expansion, settlement, pressure, etc) for static load
cases, so the allowable stress can be extracted directly from fatigue curve. On the other hand for
harmonic and dynamic load cases, the calculated stress is assumed to be a zeroto-peak cycle
value (i.e., vibration, earthquake, etc), so the extracted allowable need to be divided by 2 prior to
use in the comparison.

Determination of the allowable number of cycles: The flip side of calculating the allowable
fatigue stress for the designated number of cycles is the calculation of the allowable number of
cycles for the calculated stress level. This is done be logarithmically interpolating the Cycles
axis of the fatigue curve based upon the calculated stress value. Since static stresses are
assumed to be peak-to-peak cycle values, the allowable number of cycles is interpolated directly
from the fatigue curve. Since harmonic and dynamic stresses are assumed to be zero-to-peak
cyclic values, the allowable number of cycles is interpolated using twice the calculated stress
value.

Reporting the analysis results: Caesar II provides two reports for viewing the results of load
cases of stress type FAT; standard stress report and cumulative usage report. The first of these is
the standard stress report for displaying the calculated fatigue stress and the fatigue allowable at
each node. Stress reports could be generated individually for each load case and show whether
any of the individual load cases in isolation would fail the system or not.

However, in situations where there is more than one cyclic load case potentially contributing to fatigue
failure, the cumulative usage report is more appropriate. In order to generate this report, the user should
select all of the FAT load cases which contributes to the overall system degradation (possible failure). The
cumulative usage report lists for each node point the usage ratio (actual cycles divided by allowable
cycles), and then sums (combines) these up for total cumulative Usage. A total value greater than 1.0
indicates a potential fatigue failure.

Case study of fatigue analysis on Caesar II

I have taken up this topic to explain the fatigue analysis methodology using caesar II with an example
problem of a typical piping system. To perform fatigue analysis we need to calculate the thermal and
pressure fluctuations the piping system will undergo in its design life. We have to calculate the worst
possible cycles from preliminary data provided by process/operation department. Lets assume we
received the following data from process for a typical piping system.

Operating cycle from ambient (40C) to 425C (400,000 cycles anticipated)

Shutdown external temperature variation from ambient (40C) to -20C (300,000 cycles
anticipated)

Pressurization to 5.5 Bars (400,000 cycles anticipated)

Pressure fluctuations of plus/minus 1.5 Bars from the 5.5 Bars (1,000,000 cycles anticipated)

Now, in order to do a proper fatigue analysis, these should be grouped in sets of load pairs which
represent the worst-case combination of stress ranges between extreme states which we can do in the
following way (Refer Attached Figure, Fig.1 for proper understanding):

Fig. 1: Explanation of worst case cycle combination for fatigue analysis

From -20C, 0 Bars to 425C, 7 Bars. 300,000 Cycles

From 40C, 0 Bars to 425C, 7 Bars.: 100,000 Cycles

From 425C, 4 Bars to 425C, 7 Bars: 600,000 Cycles

From 425C, 4 Bars to 425C, 5.5 Bars: 400,000 Cycles

So in Caesar II we can define the above data as follows (Refer Fig. 2):
T1= 425C; T2= -20C
P1= 5.5 Bar; P2= 4 Bar and P3= 7 Bar

Fig.2: Caesar II spreadsheet explaining the input requirement

Now go to the load case editor and define load cases as shown in Fig.3 for fatigue analysis.
Click on load cycles button to input the number of cycles calculated above.

Fig.3: Load cases for Fatigue Analysis

Dont forget that all load cases with stress type FAT (for fatigue) must have their expected number of Load
Cycles specified.

After load cases are prepared run the analysis and find out the results from output processor. Part of the
output results are provided in the below attached figures for your reference (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5)
The fatigue stress range (Maximum Stress Intensity as calculated in Expansion stress case) may be
checked against the fatigue curve allowable for each fatigue load case as shown in Fig 4.

Fig 4: Output Screen showing stress range

However, this is not a true evaluation of the situation, because it is not a case of either-or. The piping
system is subjected to all of these load cases throughout its expected design life, not just one of them.
Therefore, we must review the Cumulative Usage report, which shows the total effect of all fatigue load
cases (or any combination selected by the user) on the design life of the system. Refer Fig 5 for example.

Fig. 5: Output Screen showing Cumulative usage factor

This report lists for each load case the expected number of cycles, the allowable number of cycles (based
upon the calculated stress), and the Usage Ratio (actual cycles divided by allowable cycles). The Usage
Ratios are then summed for all selected load cases; if this sum exceeds 1.0, the system has exceeded its
fatigue capabilities.
Please provide your inputs in comments section.