This study proposes a simple methodology to estimate the mechanical response and lifetime of weldedheat exchangers subjected to thermal loadings. The structure of the heat exchanger is modeled toestimate its mechanical response for thermal loads. Thermoelastic calculations are carried out with thefinite elements method. From these simulations, the regions where the stress concentrates areidentified. Then, a micromechanics approach is adopted to identify the material’s elastic plasticresponse with isotropic and kinematic hardening. Its durability under oligocyclic fatigue isinvestigated with an original 4 points alternate bending.d vice. From these experiments, a Manson-Coffin criterion is identified. This criterion is used to estimate the heat exchangers lifetime in terms ofmaximum cycles for thermal loadings with different magnitude. To this end, the plastic deformation isestimated from the macroscopic calculation with an energy equivalence between the thermoelasticcalculation and the non linear one. The predictions are found in agreement with experimental datacarried out on test-heat exchangers, for both the thermoelastic response and the number at cycles atrupture.
