Introduction to the new FKM guideline which considers nonlinear material behaviour

In 2018 the German Research Association of Mechanical Engineering (FKM) will present a new guideline for calculating the fatigue crack initiation life of structures and components . The user of this guideline … is able to calculate the fatigue life for crack initiation for structures of steel, cast steel and aluminium alloy … has to perform an elastic FE-calculation and gets the quality of an elastic-plastic calculation … is able to determine the cyclic material parameters and the damage parameter Wöhler curve by the ultimate tensile strength Rm … is able to calculate the fatigue life in HCF and LCF for constant and variable amplitude loading This paper presents the algorithms of the new guideline, gives an overview about the mechanical background and discusses the results for specimens of steel and aluminium alloys. It also shows results comparing the new to the current FKM guideline for a given steel structure.