Integrating Fatigue Analysis into a Machine Design Course or Finite Element Course

Fatigue is a major topic addressed in undergraduate and graduate machine design courses.Practicing engineers today commonly solve fatigue problems by hand coupled with static finite element analysis.More recently fatigue modules have been incorporated into a few commercial finite element codes which are emerging as a powerful numerical tool.A literature review of machine design textbooks, finite element textbooks, engineering educational journals, and engineering educational conference papers reveals that the topics of fatigue and finite elements addressed together are almost non-existent.In this work a simple cantilever beam fatigue example is considered and is solved by hand and the commercial finite element code ANSYS Academic Teaching Introductory Release 11.0.The hand solution is included to emphasize the importance of verification when solving a problem using the finite element method.The target audience of this paper is an instructor who would like to integrate fatigue into a finite element course or fatigue finite element (FE) analysis into a machine design course.