A comparative study for the fatigue assessment of a ship structure by use of hot spot stress and structural stress approaches

Recently, a mesh-size insensitive structural stress definition (Battelle structural stress method) has been proposed. This method gives a stress state at a weld toe with a relatively coarse mesh, such as up to 2t (t=plate thickness) or irregular mesh shapes. The structural stress definition is based on the elementary structural mechanics theory and provides an effective measure of a stress state in front of a weld toe. In this present study, a fatigue strength assessment was carried out for a side shell connection of a container vessel using both the hot spot stress and the structural stress methods. A consistent approach to computing extrapolated hot spot stress for design purposes based on converged hot spot stresses is described and current fatigue guidance is evaluated. Fatigue strength predicted by the two methods, i.e. hot spot stress and structural stress approaches, at hot spot locations of a typical ship structure are compared and discussed.