Load Data Calculation in Electric Axle Drives and Fatigue Assessment for the Electric Motor Subsystem*

Extended Version of the Contribution to the DVM Report Fatigue 2013

Dustin Knetsch, MS, was born in 1987 and studied mechanical engineering with a focus on mechanics and materials in Mannheim and Erlangen from 2006 to 2011. He has been employed at Schaeffler Technologies GmbH & Co. KG in Herzogenaurach, Germany since 2011 as a CAE and validation engineer in the systems house for electric mobility with a focus on structural mechanics in the field of electrical axle systems.

Dr.-Ing. Matthias Funk, born in 1984, studied materials science in Erlangen, Germany from 2003 to 2008. In 2012 he received his PhD from the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany with the topic of fatigue testing on metallic microspecimens and nanospecimens. As part of his PhD work he received research fellowships at the Erich-Schmid-Institut in Leoben, Germany and the National Center for Electron Microscopy at UC Berkeley, USA. He has worked since 2012 in the “Kompetenzzentrum Festigkeit” (“Center of Excellence: Strength”) at Schaeffler GmbH & Co. KG in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

Dipl.-Ing. Tobias Kennerknecht graduated in Mechanical Engineering with diplomas from the university of Karlsruhe (TH) in Germany (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)) and Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) in France (Arts et Métiers ParisTech), in 2005. He was employed at Siemens AG Automation and Drives from 2005 to 2007, where he worked on the development of pressure transmitters for industrial applications. Since 2008, T. Kennerknecht has been working on small scale reliability of materials and experimental mechanics. He was a research associate at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology IAM-WBM from 2008 to 2012. Afterwards, he joined the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, where he conducts research and development in the group for Micromechanical Stress Analysis.

Dr. rer. nat. Christoph Eberl, born 1975, finished with a degree in materials science at the University of Stuttgart, Germany in 2001. He did his PhD at the Max-Planck Institute for Metals Research on ‘Fatigue of Al thin films at ultra high frequencies’ which he finished in 2004 with distinction at University of Stuttgart, Germany. Subsequently, he worked as postdoc at the mechanical engineering department of the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Baltimore, USA, until 2007. Up to now, he has a formal relationship with the JHU as visiting scientist. From 2007 to 2012 he lead an independent research group ‘Microreliability’ at the IAM-WBM of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. Since 2012 C. Eberl is heading a group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials in Freiburg, Germany. In 2014 he accepted an offer from University of Freiburg and the Fraunhofer society to become full professor and head of the department for Materials and Micromechanics at the University and Deputy Director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials.