Elasto-plastic and fatigue analysis of a oil/air heat exchanger.

 

Scope of this analysis was to establish the stress and strain behavior of the inlet and recycling pans of a oil/air heat exchanger for aeronautic use.

The caps, made of aluminum, are composed of welded pieces and during the proof and burst pressure test cycles some regions of the structure can attain the zone of material plastic behavior.

The characterization of the material in the welded regions was made with the aid of static and fatigue test data on welded joints.

In the nonlinear analysis that includes load/unload cycles, hysteresis and hardening phenomena are taken into account. Then an evaluation of the fatigue life of the component was made.