The material behaviour of forged components is subjected to an intensive
influence of the manufacturing process. The local logarithmic strain as
well as the cooling conditions may influence the cyclic stress-strain
behaviour as well as the fatigue behaviour of the material. For a
reliable lightweight design of components, those effects have to be
considered already during early product development stages, because the
definition of the component geometry will already imply process related
limitations regarding the achievable local material propeties. A
combination between a process simulation and a strain-based fatigue life
estimation, including a customized testing strategy, allows a
consideration of the manufacturing process influence as well as an
implementation of statistical and mechanical size effects and improves
the quality of the fatigue assessment and the reliability of numerically
derived stress limits for component design compared to the state of the
art.