A new simulation method has made it possible to predict when and where heavily stressed engine components are likely to fail. Car manufacturers can thereby significantly reduce the time for developing new engine components.

Exhaust fumes come hissing out of car engines at up to 1050 degrees Celsius – and that’s pretty hot! It exposes the engine components to tremendous stress, for they expand heavily in the heat. On frosty days, by contrast, the material contracts.

In the long run, such temperature fluctuations put the material under enormous pressure. The manufacturers therefore test particularly stressed components on a test rig while the vehicle is still under development. However, these investigations cost time and money. Component prototypes have to be built and modified in a time-consuming trial-and-error process until the manufacturer has finally produced a reliable component with no weak points.

These investigations have to be repeated for each new material. For certain car manufacturers and suppliers, however, time-consuming component tests are now a thing of the past. A new simulation method developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg enables companies to significantly reduce the time taken to develop exhaust manifolds.

Exhaust manifolds collect the hot exhaust fumes from the engine and pass them on to the catalytic converter. They are exposed to particularly high temperatures and therefore under very great stress.