Our Mission
Our mission is to provide industry with the best fatigue knowledge based on years of experience across a wide range of markets through on-site services using technical consultants, fatigue training classes and on-the-job fatigue training for engineers and managers.
These services embrace CAE and Test activities and the integration of both of these with product development process and targets.
Our goal is to delight our clients, delivering value and positive business experience on a win-win basis.
If you are a long serving fatigue expert and enjoy the challenge of working in the durability life prediction world, then we invite you to contact us as we are interested in building a network of consultants.
E-mail us at hr@fatigue-expert.com with a copy of your resume / CV and a description of why you want to join our Fatigue Expert team together with your contact details and expected hourly / day rates of remuneration.
Current vacancies
None at present.
However speculative approaches are always considered, so please send us an e-mail to hr@fatigue-expert.com and promise to respond to let you know if we have any job openings for you.
Here is an overview of some of our previous projects and technical developments. Confidentiality is essential for our clients so details provided here are restricted - we are pleased to discuss your fatigue design issues in confidence.
■ Offshore tethered structure: Fatigue technical expert and lead fatigue engineer to a product development team. Fatigue assessment of the structure was carried out according to DNV-RP-C203 and Norsok standard N-004. Since Lloyds Register was the regulatory authority, BS 7608 was also consulted.
■ Aircraft wing fatigue assessment: F&DT analysis of components in the wings. This required the use of MathCAD, MS Excel and DAMTOL to carry out and report fatigue assessments.
■ Failure analysis of train couplings: Principal consultant to a railway company investigating fatigue failures in couplings which had led to a closedown of a rail system.
■ Boiler life extension assessment: Principal consultant on a life extension assessment which was part of a boiler re-fit project at a UK coal fired power station.
■ Aircraft propeller fatigue analysis: Lead consultant for an aircraft propeller automated life assessment system.
■ Frequency domain fatigue life prediction tool trials: Pioneered the use
of vibration fatigue prediction technology and its application to aerospace and wind turbine components.
■ Fatigue analysis of FE stresses: Pioneered the development and use of fatigue life prediction tools for FEA.
Prysmian are leading major global cable manufacturers. One of their long serving cable winding machines exhibited a fatigue crack on the main shaft.
Fatigue-Expert checked the fatigue loading and confirmed the shafts were at the end of their fatigue life. A replacement shaft with an updated design to remove a stress raiser was proposed and this new shaft was installed during a planned strip down of the machine. Fatigue-Expert provided a risk assessment of the crack growth to allow planned upgrade to be carried out rather than immediate replacement.
Other similar machines operating across their global manufacturing sites were also surveyed and upgraded.
Bombara are an award winning innovative ocean energy company. They have developed the mWave™ product which produces environmentally friendly, consistent and cost competitive energy for commercial power generation in coastal locations throughout the world.
Fatigue-Expert were engaged to work with their development team to ensure the fatigue design of the support frame of their mWave™ product met the fatigue design life requirements.
Allowable fatigue stresses and weld joints were explored in this exercise as well as the detail design to ensure fatigue life was not compromised.
The Automobile Association is well known for their vehicle recovery services.
Fatigue-Expert were engaged to check the fatigue performance of a number of components used in their vehicle recovery equipment and systems.
In the first phase of this work, working with the supplier, a redesign of the critical component was developed and the fatigue life target met.
The second phase of this work involved checking a new component design and providing materials advice. A novel use of noise signatures was adapted to identify wear in the system after a period of operation.
Federal Mogul are a highly respected Tier 1 car component supplier with a specialist knowledge in friction materials technology.
Fatigue-Expert supported the clutch department to investigate fatigue failure of a development component. This included materials fatigue testing to obtain strain-life properties, including replicating the production process which involved plastic forming of the component.
The Strain-Life modelling approach to fatigue life estimation was introduced to the development team and demonstrated to provide better correlation with fatigue crack locations and lives.
Dr Lewis Lack C.Eng, MIMechE
Dr Lack formed FATIGUE-EXPERT in 2006 after a long career in Fatigue, Structural Integrity, Measurement and Testing across a wide range of industries globally.
After his research into Vertical Axis Wind Turbines at Reading University in the early 1980s and materials research at Sheffield University, he worked as a consultant fatigue engineer for nCode International, a developer of fatigue analysis and measurement software tools. During this period he developed the connection between Fatigue modeling and Finite Element tools, enabling Fatigue analysis to be used in the early development of products to optimise fatigue performance before expensive testing was carried out. He managed the business partner relationship to deliver this, PDA Engineering who launched P/Fatigue in the early 1990s.
Since FATIGUE-EXPERT was setup, he has worked on a wide range of fatigue problems, both in design and failure analysis. His background in materials means he is well equipped to solve fatigue problems as these typically involve consideration of loading, materials selection, manufacturing process and operation. He ran a fatigue test lab for a number of years as well so is well aware of materials characterization methods.
Dr Lack has delivered fatigue training for stress analysts as well as fatigue test engineers and this is part of what Fatigue-Expert offers today.
Dr Natalia Ermolaeva MSc in Struct./Mech. Eng
Natalia Ermolaeva graduated cum laude from Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute (currently Saint Petersburg State Marine Technical University, Russia) as a structural/mechanical engineer (MSc), where she also received a PhD degree in 1990 in the field of fatigue of structures and metallic materials for shipbuilding. While working as a senior researcher in Russian Academy of Science, she was chosen to take a part in scientific exchange program at Ford Motor Company and University of Michigan-Dearborn (USA) in 1998. Since 1999, Natalia worked in The Netherlands and in the U.K., initially at Delft University of Technology, and from 2003 and until recently at Allseas Engineering. The last position she held at the company was Principal R&D Engineer and Expertise Group (Material) Leader at the Innovations Department.
Natalia has an experience in fatigue assessment of marine and offshore structures (including tubular joints) supported by the vast theoretical knowledge, real-time measurements, numerical and experimental research she performed and/or supervised. Through her career, Natalia has authored and co-authored 40+ publications. She successfully serves as a reviewer for many international scientific journals (International Journal of Fatigue, Engineering Failure Analysis, Marine Structures, and others), and as an evaluator for European Research Council calls’ proposals.
Natalia has prepared and given a course on fatigue to structural engineers at Allseas for the last six years. She has a pleasure to offer the course now for those who are interested in structural fatigue outside the company, in addition to any consultancy work within the frame of her expertise.
Dr Eng. Paula van Lieshout
REGISTERED & MAILING ADDRESS
Fatigue Expert
159 Beacon Hill Road
Newark-on-Trent
NG24 2JW
CONTACT DETAILS
Email: info@fatigue-expert.com
Phone: +44 (0) 7980 694808
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