An expert system for the determination of stress concentration factors

Abstract

Fatigue failures of stressed components are invariably initiated at sites where there is some feature causing the local stress to be significantly higher than the nominal design stress. Determination of stress concentration factors is therefore essential for the correct design of components subject to fatigue-inducing loads. This paper reports on the development of an expert system for advising aerospace designers about stress concentrations. The stress concentration evaluation system (SCONES) encapsulates and combines analytical, experimental and heuristic information for determination and optimization of stress concentration factors.