New Design Calculation

You always start a new design calculation by selecting this command New Design Calculation. FATcomp takes you through and supports you during all the necessary steps until you have completed and checked the design criteria. You can always go backwards and when a calculation is completed the result appears as one row in the calculation sheet that you have in the main window.

Select New Design Calculation from the File or Edit drop down menues. You can also use the shortcut or right-click on the calculation sheet.

Picture 1: New Design Calculation, selection from menu bar (above) and shortcut (below).

There are several steps in the Design Calculation process, picture 1:

• The Joint wizard - where you select the weld joint (or similar design object from the database representative for the specific location detail you are studying).
• The Maximum Stress Range guide - where you enter the minimum and maximum stresses.
• The Stress History Parameter and Number of Cycles guide - where you estimate the load from experiments, field measurements or experience values.
• The Thickness improvement, Material and Fatigue Enhancement Factors guide
• The Partial Safety and load factors guide.
• The Angular and Axial Misalignment factors guide.
• The Design Criteria result guide, which is the final step in the Design Calculation

The next step is to have a look at the results graphics by using the Joint wizard, a database with several hundreds of different fatigue loaded reference items. Select the one that can represent the structural part you are analysing.