ASME Ⅷ Div 3 fatigue evaluation is based on the theory that cracks tend to nucleate along the slip lines oriented in the maximum shear stress planes. This code provides methods to calculate the fatigue stresses when the principal stress direction does not change (proportional loading) and axes change (nonproportional loading). When principal stress direction does not change within a fatigue cycle, shear stress amplitude is calculated only on the three maximum shear stress planes. But when the principal stress directions do change within a loading cycle, the plane carrying the maximum shear stress amplitude (also known as critical plane) cannot be easily identified and all planes at a point needs to be searched for the maximum shear stress amplitude. This paper describes the development of an ANSYS-APDL macro to predict the critical plane at each surface node of an FE model using the FEA stress results. This macro searches through 325 planes (at 10° increments along two angles) at each surface node and for each load step to identify the maximum shear stress and the corresponding normal stress for each surface node. The fatigue life is calculated for each surface node and is plotted as a color contour on the FEA model. This macro can be extended to calculate the fatigue life using other critical plane approaches such as the Findley and Brown-Miller models.
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