Modern industry demands lighter, stronger, and more reliable products — all with shorter development cycles and reduced cost. While finite element analysis (FEA) is widely used to evaluate structural stress, fatigue analysis is often still done manually using spreadsheet-based methods. This approach is time-consuming, error-prone, and risks missing critical failure locations.
fe-safe changes that.
Built for Real-World Durability Challenges
fe-safe is a powerful, accurate, and easy-to-use fatigue analysis software suite that works directly with the results of major FEA solvers — including Abaqus, Ansys, and Nastran. It enables engineers to simulate fatigue life across entire models, not just isolated points, providing high-confidence predictions for complex loading scenarios.
fe-safe was the first commercial software to focus on modern, multiaxial strain-based fatigue methods, and it remains the industry benchmark for durability analysis.
Key Features of fe-safe
Advanced Fatigue Methods
fe-safe enables fatigue simulation and durability evaluation by calculating:
- Where fatigue cracks will occur
- When fatigue cracks are likely to initiate
- How cracks may propagate under service conditions
- Factors of safety on working stresses (for early design optimization)
- Probability of survival over service life (to support warranty assessment)
It supports a range of fatigue analysis methods, including:
- Low- and high-cycle fatigue
- Multiaxial strain-based fatigue
- Weld fatigue (BS7608 and others)
- Thermo-mechanical and vibration fatigue
- Surface finish, residual stress, and mean stress sensitivity
Benefits of Integrating fe-safe into Your Workflow
Using fe-safe as part of your simulation-driven design process helps you:
- Increase fatigue life of critical structural and mechanical components
- Optimize material usage for lighter and more cost-effective designs
- Reduce physical testing time and avoid over-conservative designs
- Lower warranty and recall costs through improved failure prediction
- Accelerate validation with improved correlation between test and analysis
- Support warranty prediction curves using statistical life distributions
- Improve “right-first-time” confidence before physical prototypes are built
Application Cases
Energy & Materials
- Fatigue life prediction of pressure vessels, risers, and heat exchangers
- Weld fatigue evaluation in pipelines and structural supports (BS7608)
- High-temperature fatigue including creep-fatigue interactions
- Life estimation of wind turbine towers and blade root connections
- Analysis of fluctuating load histories under extreme operational conditions
Civil Engineering and Construction
- Fatigue analysis of building joints, and structural supports
- Evaluation of welds and bolted joints under dynamic loading
- Contact and surface stress fatigue in structural interfaces
- Crack initiation prediction in mechanical anchor systems and supports
Industrial Equipment and Machinery
- Durability prediction for rotating equipment, pressure systems, and machine frames
- Fatigue analysis of cast, welded, or bolted assemblies
- Thermal-stress fatigue in processing and manufacturing equipment
- Crack initiation and lifecycle optimization for structural components
High-Tech and Electronics
- Vibration and drop fatigue analysis of consumer devices and electronics
- Solder joint fatigue and PCB fatigue under thermal cycling
- High-cycle fatigue analysis for lightweight assemblies
- Optimization of thin components under complex loading
Automotive and Transportation
- Durability simulation for suspension systems, chassis, and transmission housings
- Multiaxial fatigue in body structures, engine mounts, and wheels
- Vibration fatigue analysis of exhaust systems
- Rolling contact fatigue (e.g., wheel-to-rail or tire-road contact)
Aerospace and Defense
- Thermo-mechanical and high-cycle fatigue of airframe and engine components
- Fatigue prediction across flight cycles: takeoff, cruise, landing
- Composite-to-metal fatigue analysis
- Crack growth modeling under high-frequency loading
Consumer Products and Appliances
- Structural fatigue of plastics, enclosures, and functional parts
- Drop testing and lifecycle evaluation under repeated handling
- Optimization for material efficiency and product durability
Life Sciences and Medical Devices
- Fatigue life prediction of surgical tools, implants, and mechanical casings
- Durability assessment of components under patient or equipment use
- Virtual strain gauge placement and test correlation
- Fatigue evaluation to support compliance and warranty targets
