Master Thesis Student - Kitagawa diagrams for defect requirements of highly stressed cast parts

Job description

Introduction Thesis work is an excellent way to get closer to Scania and build relationships for the future. Many of today's employees began their Traton career with their degree project. Background TRATON is pushing the limits of our current products and robustness of the parts in the system is essential. Robustness implies well defined properties, and low amount of defects. For cast components defects are very difficult to avoid completely. For this reason Tratons approach is to carefully define what casting defects can be tolerated. Cast defects will influence several important properties such as mechanical performance, part tightness and surface integrity. To understand the influence of defects on the mechanical performance of the component a fracture mechanics approach can be used. In the current Master thesis the use of Kitagawa diagrams to determine the influence on fatigue life will be investigated. Objective In a previous master thesis a calculation module incorporating Kitagawa diagrams was developed to quantify defect influence, and visualize, the acceptable defect size as a function of stress field. This thesis is a continuation of the previous master thesis and aims to develop the precision of the module and expand potential usage areas. Job description The thesis includes both experimental and theoretical work. The student shall: Literature Review of Kitagawa–Takahashi Diagram: Experiments and Simulations Study Tratons procedure for setting casting defect requirements Perform fatigue growth experiments of selected cast materials Several aspects of the calculation module shall be studied and developed, such as understanding of loads incorporated in the module, possible modifications for short crack behaviour and geometry factors used. Validation of the module via actual mechanical tests and literature data This thesis is suitable for one student at the degree of master of engineering Education/program/focus Education: Materials science, Solid mechanical engineering The following skills are seen as advantageous: Finite Element Method (FEM) for solid mechanics; fatigue and fracture mechanics; Python programming, Material science, Castings. Experience with Abaqus and HyperMesh/Simsolid, Number of students: 1-2 Start date for the thesis work: January 26th, 2027 Estimated time required: 20-24 weeks Contact persons and supervisors Mathias König, Senior Engineer, 070 087 76 36, Omid Lorestani, Senior Simulation Engineer, Application: Your application must include a CV, personal letter and transcript of grades A background check might be conducted for this position. We are conducting interviews continuously and may close the recruitment earlier than the date specified.