Analysis of fatigue crack propagation in the frame of a hydraulic press

Within this paper the fatigue crack growth in the frame of a hydraulic press will be discussed. The crack growth started at a shrink hole in a notch in the middle part of the frame. The state of stress of the crack is predominantly influenced by the notch, which induces a Mixed-Mode-loading during the crack growth. The propagation of the crack will be analyzed with the crack simulation program ADAPCRACK3D, which has been developed at the Institute of Applied Mechanics at Universitنt Paderborn. This program is able to calculate fully automatic the stress intensities along a 3D-crack front as well as the crack path and the lifetime of a structure.