Thises work 30hp- Kitagawa diagrams for defect requirements of highly stressed cast parts

Introduction
Thesis work is an excellent way to get closer to Scania and build relationships for the future. Many of today's employees began their Scania career with their degree project.

Background
Scania is pushing the limits of our current products and robustness of the parts in the system is essential. Robustness implies well defined properties, and low amount of defects. For cast components defects are very difficult to avoid completely. For this reason Tratons approach is to carefully define what casting defects can be tolerated. Cast defects will influence several important properties such as mechanical performance, part tightness and surface integrity. To understand the influence of defects on the mechanical performance of the component a fracture mechanics approach can be used. In the current Master thesis the use of Kitagawa diagrams to determine the influence on fatigue life will be investigated.

Objective

The main objective is to investigate and develop a method for incorporating Kitagawa diagrams into our fatigue-life simulations to quantify defect influence, and visualize, the acceptable defect size as a function of stress field. The validity of the method shall be discussed.

Job description

The thesis includes both experimental and theoretical work. The student shall:

• Literature Review of Kitagawa–Takahashi Diagram: Experiments and Simulations
• Study Tratons procedure for setting casting defect requirements
• Study Tratons tools for FEM and structural calculations
• Perform fatigue tests of selected cast materials
• Develop a calculation module based on Kitagawa diagrams to be included in structural calculations.
• Analyse the validity of Kitagawa diagrams in complex geometries

This thesis is suitable for two students where one focus on the part related to material science and the other student focus on simulation.

Education/program/focus

Education: Materials science, Solid mechanical engineering

The following skills are seen as advantageous: Finite Element Method (FEM) for solid mechanics; fatigue and fracture mechanics; Python programming, Material science, Castings. Experience with Abaqus and HyperMesh/Simsolid,

Number of students: 1-2

Start date for the thesis work: January 26th, 2026

Estimated time required: 20-24 weeks

Contact persons and supervisors
Mathias König, Senior Engineer, 070 087 76 36, mathias.konig@scania.com
Omid Lorestani, Senior Simulation Engineer, omid.lorestani@scania.com

Application:
Your application must include a CV, personal letter and transcript of grades

A background check might be conducted for this position. We are conducting interviews continuously and may close the recruitment earlier than the date specified.