Finite Element Analysis

Lambda Technologies provides finite element analysis (FEA) services in support of residual stress design and characterization. Residual stresses can be designed to dramatically increase the fatigue performance and damage tolerance, and mitigate stress corrosion cracking (SCC) for an array of components for the aerospace, automotive, power generation, nuclear, medical and rail industries. Lambda uses several commercial software packages for FEA including ANSYS, FEMAP, and ALGOR, as well as specialized macros and subroutines written by Lambda engineers specifically for residual stress analysis and design.

Using FEA, along with custom software tools, Lambda provides a total residual stress design solution including:

• Reverse engineering of components when 3D solid model does not exist.
• Determination of in-service applied stresses.
• Analysis of modal shapes, natural frequencies and associated vibratory stresses.
• Design of compressive residual stresses using Lambda’s patented Fatigue Design Diagram (FDD) to meet specific component performance goals.
• Determination of distortion and compensating tension.

Applications:

• Optimization of compressive residual stress for any component.
• Rigorous layer removal correction of arbitrary geometries in support of x-ray diffraction residual stress measurement.
• Optimization of machining sequence to minimize distortion.
• Input of residual stresses measured by x-ray diffraction into FE model for prediction of compensatory stress and distortion