Fatigue Assessment of Ship Structures

During the past years, evaluation of fatigue life of ship structures gained significance because of the continuous trend towards lightweight and highly optimised structures, as well as the intensified use of higher tensile steel. In the course, suitable tools for fatigue assessment will be presented with respect to the following problems:

 

• Avoidance of cracks in cyclic-loaded structural components
• Prediction of fatigue lifetime of marine structures
• Verification of damages in view of appropriate repair measures
  

Course objective

The course offers a systematic overview of fatigue fundamentals as well as practical application of various approaches for the fatigue assessment of welded joints and free-plate edges in maritime structures.

Emphasis

Different approaches as well as applications will be presented with special focus on ships and other marine structures:

• Fatigue basics
• Nominal stress approach
• Structural or hot-spots stress approach
• Notch stress approach
• Fracture mechanics approach
• Spectral analysis
• Common Structural Rules for tankers and bulk carriers
• Finite element calculations, damage cases

Main focus will be on the nominal stress approach as it is implemented in GL-fatigue rules.