| ID | Competence Statement |
| FATkn1 | List the conditions necessary for fatigue failure. |
| FATkn2 | List the possible sources of cyclic loading in your company products. |
| FATkn3 | List potential sites for fatigue in your company products. |
| FATkn4 | Sketch a sinusoidal stress variation and show the maximum stress, minimum stress, mean stress, alternating stress (or stress amplitude), stress range and stress ratio. |
| FATkn5 | List a common source of harmful tensile residual stress in your company products. |
| FATkn6 | List ways of inducing beneficial compressive stresses in your company products. |
| FATkn7 | Sketch a fatigue diagram, showing the Modified Goodman, Gerber, Soderberg and Langer/Yield lines. |
| FATkn8 | Sketch typical welds, highlighting features detrimental to fatigue performance. |
| FATkn11 | Define the terms Nominal stress, Notch stress, Equivalent stress and Weld-Throat stress. |
| FATco1 | Discuss the initiation, propagation and fast fracture stages of Fatigue in metallic materials. |
| FATco2 | Describe how the data used to construct an S-N curve are obtained. |
| FATco3 | Discuss the term high cycle fatigue, highlighting a common source in your company products. |
| FATco4 | Discuss the statistical nature of fatigue and explain how this is handled in relevant design standards and codes of practice. |
| FATco5 | Discuss the salient features of an S-N diagram for steels and explain the terms endurance limit, infinite life and low cycle fatigue. |
| FATco6 | Discuss the typical appearance of a fatigue failure surface in a metallic component and explain how the source of the fatigue failure is commonly identified. |
| FATco7 | Discuss the observed relationship between endurance limit and static tensile strength for steels and explain why this relationship does not hold for welded steels. |
| FATco8 | Discuss the philosophy of Safe Life Design. |
| FATco9 | Explain the term Damage Tolerant Design. |
| FATco10 | Contrast the Stress-Life and Strain Life / Manson-Coffin approaches to fatigue assessment. |
| FATco11 | Explain the use of Endurance Limit Modifying Factors in Stress-Life based fatigue assessment. |
| FATco13 | Discuss the effects of corrosion on fatigue life and highlight how this is typically handled in relevant standards and codes of practice. |
| FATco14 | Discuss the term Fatigue Strength Reduction Factor in relation to stress concentrations and explain how this has traditionally been handled in relevant design standards and codes of practice. |
| FATco15 | Discuss the concept of cumulative damage and explain how this is commonly handled. |
| FATco16 | Explain why a multiaxial stress field can complicate an analysis and discuss approaches to handling this. |
| FATco17 | Discuss the significance of the choice of equivalent stress used in the fatigue assessment of welded joints |
| FATco18 | Outline a conservative approach to situations where the directions of principal stresses vary during a stress cycle. |
| FATco21 | Discuss why weld toe grinding can be beneficial and explain how a design standards and codes of practice will typically allow for this improvement. |
| FATco25 | Reflect on why fatigue is such a long-standing and persistent cause of failure. |
| FATco26 | Discuss the nature of and typical locations for, stress singularities in a finite element model and explain how they would typically be handled in a fatigue analysis. |
| FATco27 | Describe the approximations inherent in a plate/ shell idealisation of welded joints and how these could influence fatigue assessment. |
| FATco28 | Discuss the term Effective Notch Stress and Nominal Stress. |
| FATco29 | Explain how a Cyclic Stress-Strain Curve is constructed and used. |
| FATco30 | Explain Neuber's Rule and its limitations and why corrections to the elastic strain range from an elastic analysis may be necessary. |
| FATco31 | Discuss the term Local Plastic Strain Amplification Coefficient and Elastic Follow-Up. |
| FATco33 | Explain why corrections for mean strain are often unnecessary for low cycle fatigue. |
| FATco35 | Discuss the term endurance limit for many non-ferrous metals, steels in a corrosive environment and the possible effects of load sequencing. |
| FATco37 | Reflect on how variable amplitude load sequencing can affect the prediction of damage accumulation and fatigue life. |
| FATap1 | Employ a fatigue diagram, consisting of Modified Goodman and Langer lines, to assess fatigue performance of components. |
| FATap2 | Carry out elastic fatigue assessment using design standards and code guidelines for components and structures including any special procedures for ancillary components such as bolts, |
| FATap5 | Use Reservoir Counting / Rainflow Method or similar to specify the necessary stress ranges, number of cycles and loading history for any component to be analysed. |
| FATap6 | Employ a finite element analysis system for the fatigue analysis of a component or structure. |
| FATap7 | Use hot spot stress techniques (extrapolation and/ or linearization) to determine structural stresses for fatigue assessment. |
| FATsy1 | Prepare a fatigue analysis specification, highlighting any assumptions relating to geometry, loads, boundary conditions and material properties. |
| FATsy2 | Plan a fatigue analysis, specifying necessary resources and timescale. |
| FATsy3 | Prepare quality assurance procedures for fatigue analysis activities within an organisation. |
| FATsy4 | Specify whether a Fracture Mechanics approach is more appropriate. |
| FATev1 | Assess the significance of neglecting any feature or detail in any idealisation being used for fatigue assessment. |
| FATev2 | Assess the fatigue significance of simplifying geometry, material models, loads or boundary conditions. |
| FAFMkn1 | Give an overview of the historical development of fracture mechanics |
| FAFMkn2 | Summarise the scope of fracture mechanics for the different types of cracks and material situations |
| FAFMkn3 | Define stress intensity factor and state the relationships between G and KI, KII and KIII for plane stress and plane strain crack tip conditions |
| FAFMco1 | Explain the Griffith criterion and the significance of the toughness parameter Gc |
| FAFMco3 | Identify the key field variables (displacement, strain, stress and principal stress) relevant to a general 3D crack profile and sketch their components. |
| FAFMco6 | Describe the significance of the strain energy release rate G |
| FAFMco8 | Describe a range of solutions to the more common geometrical configurations in both 2D and 3D, the latter having both straight, elliptical and circular crack profiles |
| FAFMco9 | Explain how a pre-existing crack propagates in a new loading field that exhibits both mode I and II behaviour at the crack tip, and discuss FE techniques useful for predicting the new crack propagation direction |
| FAFMco10 | Discuss the main components required of a FE model to represent the main features of a cracked structure, to include the discrete crack geometry, material properties and mechanical/thermal loads |
| FAFMco11 | Describe, from the results of a FE analysis, how it is possible to calculate K and/or G at any position along a crack profile; explain the difference between substitution and energy methods |
| FAFMco12 | Describe how the following energy methods work, their applicability, and limitations: the potential energy difference technique, the virtual crack extension method, J-integral (both as line and domain integrals), and crack closure work |
| FAFMco13 | Describe how special finite elements are use to represent the crack tip singularity and the availability in user's FE software |
| FAFMco15 | Describe the mechanism of plasticity in the context of its existence around a crack tip |
| FAFMco21 | Describe how cracks grow under fatigue conditions and the factors that affect this growth |
| FAFMco22 | Explain why there is a tendency for fatigue crack growth to be under LEFM conditions, the relevance of stress intensity factor; and the Paris law to describe growth rates |
| FAFMco23 | Describe how FE analysis can be used to calculate both the growing crack length and direction change from an initially cracked geometry under mixed mode conditions |
| FAFMap1 | Determine the meshing requirements for any FM approach being employed. |
| FAFMap2 | Employ an analysis system effectively for LEFM and use the Westergaard Equations (displacement or stress) to determine Stress Intensity Factors in components. |
| FAFMap6 | Use documented solutions for standard stress intensity factors to check FEA results or to benchmark FEA procedures. |
| BMPSap2 | Employ appropriate techniques to retrieve hot-spot and other stress quantities for the assessment of welds. |
| MASco8 | Explain, in metallurgical terms, how fatigue cracks form and grow in metallic materials. |
| MASco11 | Discuss the terms elastic-perfectly plastic, kinematic hardening, isotropic hardening, Bauschinger effect, hysteresis loop. |
| MASco19 | Discuss common material characteristics and typical manufacturing related flaws in welding. |
| MASco20 | Discuss common material characteristics and typical manufacturing related flaws in hot and cold rolled plate and tubes. |
| MASco21 | Discuss common material characteristics and typical manufacturing related flaws in forgings. |
| MASco22 | Discuss common material characteristics and typical manufacturing related flaws in castings. |
| MASap2 | Determine whether any allowance needs to be made to the material data for the effects of environment and variability. |
| PLASco33 | Explain Neuber's Rule. |
