Durability prediction of EN 1.4512 exhaust mufflers under thermomechanical loading

•The durability simulation is comparable to experiments.•Welds and changes in geometry affect durability the most.•The total damage is dominated by fatigue damage.

A damage operator approach for random non-isothermal loading is demonstrated in this paper. The approach is then used to predict the damage of a thermomechanically loaded exhaust muffler. Material properties of the basic material and the weld have been treated separately. The results from thermal and structural analyses using FEA have been applied to the exhaust muffler in LMS Virtual.Lab and both fatigue and creep damages predicted. Tested exhaust mufflers were then subjected to the same loading conditions as in the calculation, and load cycles were repeated up to the point of failure or 2 million cycles. Simulated and test results are comparable.