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The peak stress method (PSM) is an engineering, finite element (FE)‐oriented method to rapidly estimate the notch stress intensity factors by using the singular linear elastic peak stresses calculated from coarse FE analyses. The average element size adopted to generate the mesh pattern can be chosen arbitrarily within a given range. Originally, the PSM has been calibrated under pure mode I and pure mode II loadings by means of Ansys FE software. In the present contribution, a round robin between 10 Italian universities has been carried out to calibrate the PSM with 7 different commercial FE codes. To this aim, several two‐dimensional mode I and mode II problems have been analysed independently by the participants. The obtained results have been used to calibrate the PSM for given stress analysis conditions in (i) FE software, (ii) element type and element formulation, (iii) mesh pattern, and (iv) criteria for stress extrapolation and principal stress analysis at FE nodes.

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This paper describes the properties and the engineering applications of the smart materials, especially in the mechatronics field. Even though there are several smart materials which all are very interesting from the research perspective, we decide to focus the work on just three of them. The adopted criterion privileges the most promising technologies in terms of commercial applications available on the market, namely: magnetorheological fluids, shape memory alloys and piezoelectric materials. Many semi-active devices such as dampers or brakes or clutches, based on magnetorheological fluids are commercially available; in addition, we can trace several applications of piezo actuators and shape memory-based devices, especially in the field of micro actuations. The work describes the physics behind these three materials and it gives some basic equations to dimension a system based on one of these technologies. The work helps the designer in a first feasibility study for the applications of one of these smart materials inside an industrial context. Moreover, the paper shows a complete survey of the applications of magnetorheological fluids, piezoelectric devices and shape memory alloys that have hit the market, considering industrial, biomedical, civil and automotive field

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