Lifetime assessment and fatigue performance
General description
Laboratory Soete (Ghent University) applies it’s expertise in the field of tribology and fracture mechanics to perform fatigue and lifetime assessments of various components and structures used within the field of mechanical construction.
One such an example is related to the (remaining) lifetime of pressure vessels such as pipelines, heat exchangers and many more. In the field of tribological contacts, attention is directed towards the wear and wear mechanisms as a function of the components lifetime.
Both experimental and computational expertise are available for your project. Contact: koen.VanMinnebruggen@ugent.be.
Test equipment
- Pressure vessel up to 175bar
- Pulsator up to 600kN
- Strong Floor up to 2000kN
- Large scale radial bearing up to 1350kN (LSB)
- Large scale thrust bearing up to 1500kN (WENZ)
- Flat on flat tribological wear testers (LSF & MSF)
- Four point bending fatigue
Case studies
- Rail fatigue testing in four point bending up 600kN with typical loading rates of 4Hz to 8Hz (i.e, 10 to 20 million cycles per month).
- Composite bushing (up to 400mm diameter x 300mm long) testing in reciprocating motion of +/- 5° at a radial load of 1350kN.