Uncertainty assessment of fatigue damage of welded ship structural joints

The work presented here studies the effect of various factors related to fatigue damage assessment of ship hull structures. Fatigue life is predicted by the S–N approach based on the long-term stress ranges, calculated using the spectral approach. The importance and interaction between various factors, including ship main characteristics, operational profile based on a mission or loading condition, wave climatic data represented by the use of different scatter diagrams, wave spectra, heading distributions, are analyzed. The random origin of mean stress effect, imperfection, weld shape improvement, hot-spot calculation and resulting a notch stress concentration factor to fatigue life of a but welded ship structural component have been taken into account.

► The effect of various factors related to fatigue damage is analyzed.
► Fatigue life is predicted by the S–N approach.
► Long-term stress range are calculated using the spectral approach.
► The factors are ship characteristics, loading condition, wave data, wave spectra, headings.
► The importance and interaction between factors is analyzed.