Shorter development cycles and increased quality requirements have stretched traditional test-based durability processes to the limit. Evaluating and optimizing durability performance on a virtual prototype, before physical testing, is the only valid alternative. Just a few years ago, predicting fatigue life on component level used to take weeks, while a system-level analysis used to take months – if possible at all. Exploring multiple options to optimize the durability of a design was simply not feasible. The only option was to use expensive hardware treatments late in the development process.
