Topic outline

  • Home Page

    Welcome to the home page of the Fatigue of Structure course. 

    The course focuses on the fatigue assessment of engineering components and structures. Lectures cover an introduction to fatigue phenomena, main methods for fatigue assessment (i.e. stress-based and strain-based approach, fracture mechanics approach), fatigue assessment of welds and residual stress effect, introduction to multiaxial fatigue, and statistical aspects.  Weekly assignments (1-6) and optional final projects permit the students to apply the acquired competencies to practical cases of engineering relevance. If the student selects an optional final project, this replaces two last assignments (5-6). Assignment and project reports are delivered in PDF format using the MyCourse page. The pdf files should be named, such as AssignmentNumber_FirstName_Surname.pdf.

    After the course, you:

    • understand the material behavior under cyclic loading and fatigue phenomenon
    • can identify the main affecting factors and requirements for fatigue assessment
    • understand the main modeling principles and assumptions used in common fatigue approaches
    • can apply selected fatigue approach for structural design.

    In addition to lectures on Monday and Tuesday, a weekly workshop is held based on students' questions about assignments on Thursdays. 

    The course is 5 ECTS, requiring an average of 135 working hours from participants.

    Reading materials

    The course textbook (Mechanical Behavior of Materials Engineering Methods for Deformation, Fracture, and Fatigue, Norman E. Dowling) is the primary study material to solve assignments. The textbook is available here: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aalto-ebooks/reader.action?docID=5173487. The subsections related to each lecture and week are given in lecture slides, but please note that lecture slides do not include all the details needed to solve the assignment.   

    Grading

    The course's final grade is a weighted average: 50% assignments, including optional project work, and 50% final exam. 

    Requirements for passing

    • All weekly assignments are delivered on time and passed with a grade of 1 (50% of maximum points).
    • Passing the final exam with a grade of 1 (50% of maximum points). 
    The final exam consists of 4 problems, covering theory (open questions) and calculations (along the lines of the assignments). At least 1 problem is usually dedicated only to theory.

     


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      Introduction to the course provides the most important information, e.g. contact information, learning objectives of the course, detailed course contents and organization, recommended study material, introduction to optional project-work. 

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