Fraunhofer: Predicting when engine components will fail

Research lead | Development opportunity

German scientists have developed a new simulation method that can rapidly predict when and where heavily stressed engine components are likely to fail. The technique is expected to speed up the time car manufacturers take to develop new engine components.

While exhaust fumes are expelled at temperatures of up to 1050 ºC, engine components are also exposed to low temperatures in winter. In the long run, such temperature fluctuations puts the materials under enormous pressure.

A new simulation method developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg will significantly reduce the time taken to develop exhaust manifolds, which collect hot exhaust fumes from the engine and pass them on to the catalytic converter. They are exposed to particularly high temperatures and therefore under very great stress.

The new simulation method makes it possible to determine places in which a component will wear out and fail after a certain number of heating and cooling cycles enabling the manufacturer can optimise the shape of the workpiece on the computer. This greatly reduces the number of real test runs required to test the manifold.

“It goes without saying that our simulation models can also be applied to all kinds of materials and used in other sectors of industry,” says IWM project manager Thomas Seifert. At present, Seifert and his colleagues are engaged in a joint project with RWE Power and Thyssen-Krupp to investigate heat-resistant nickel alloys for a new generation of power stations. These will be built to operate at particularly high temperatures and achieve a higher degree of efficiency than existing facilities.