A cyclic-loading analysis repeats a predefined loading cycle (or cycles) a specified number of times. Cyclic-loading simulation has applications in industries where fatigue failure is a concern, such as automotive, aerospace, nuclear power, chemical, and electronics. A load can be any external parameter or combination of parameters affecting the solution, such as force, displacement, and temperature. Loading cycles are defined via tabular array parameters.

The cycle-jump method accelerates a cyclic-loading analysis by enabling the solver to jump over loading cycles based on control-function criteria. The method can be applied to any cyclically loaded problem where the solution may change rapidly within a particular cycle but evolves gradually on a cycle-by-cycle (global) basis. The global slow evolution allows cycles to be jumped over in the interest of efficiency and speed. When the global evolution is not slow, no cycle jumps occurs.

Also see Accelerated Thermomechanical Fatigue Analysis of Thermal-Barrier Coatings in the Technology Showcase: Example Problems.