An Approach for Reliability-Based Fatigue Design of Welded Joints on Aluminum High-Speed Vessels

2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (01) ◽  
pp. 85-98
Author(s):  
Matthew Collette ◽  
Atilla Incecik

Fatigue cracks are an ongoing problem for aluminum high-speed vessels, and preventing fatigue cracks caused by wave loading is expected to be a significant challenge for future aluminum high-speed ferries and military vessels. To aid in this effort, a hot-spot fatigue design approach using first-order reliability methods (FORM) is constructed. Two different limit state functions are investigated, and the accuracy and consistency of the FORM method for the highly nonlinear fatigue limit state equations are evaluated through a comparison with Monte Carlo simulation results. The sensitivity of the resulting safety index to changes in the input variables, and their uncertainties, are presented graphically. The method is compared to existing design standards for four simple structural details.

1988 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Finn Kirkemo

For offshore structures the fatigue limit state is governing the structural dimensions of several members and joint connections. Safety against fatigue failure is achieved through a combination of design requirements and performance of in-service inspections with repair of detected fatigue cracks. A review of uncertainties involved in fatigue life predictions by fracture mechanics is presented with particular reference to steel structures. Sources of uncertainties considered are: environmental conditions, hydrodynamic loading, global structural analysis, local stress calculation at fatigue sensitive points, and fatigue crack growth modeling by fracture mechanics. A probabilistic model using the fracture mechanics in probabilistic form is presented. This model accounts for uncertainties in loading, initial and critical defect sizes, material parameters, and in the uncertainty related to computation of the stress intensity factor. Failure probabilities are computed by first-order reliability methods and sensitivity factors are determined. Model updating based on in-service inspection results is formulated. Uncertainties with respect to detecting a crack and to correctly sizing a crack are included. Experience on application of the analysis method is presented.


Author(s):  
Yordan Garbatov

Purpose Fatigue strength and reliability assessment of complex double hull oil tanker structures, based on different local structural finite element approaches, is performed accounting for the uncertainties originating from load, nominal stresses, hot spot stress calculations, weld quality estimations and misalignments and fatigue S-N parameters including the correlation between load cases and the coating life and corrosion degradation. Design/methodology/approach Ship hull wave-induced vertical and horizontal bending moments and pressure are considered in the analysis. Stress analyses are performed based on the nominal, local hot spot and notch stress approaches. A linear elastic finite element analysis is used to determine the stress distribution around the welded details and to estimate structural stresses of all critical locations. Fatigue damage is estimated by employing the Palmgren-Miner approach. The importance of the contribution of each random variable to the uncertainty of the fatigue limit state function is also estimated. The probability of fatigue damage of hot spots is evaluated taking into account random coating life and corrosion wastage. Fatigue reliability, during the service life, is modelled as a system of correlated events. Findings The fatigue analysis showed that the fatigue damage at the hotspot, located at the flange of the stiffener close to the cut-out, is always highest in the cases of the structural hot spot stress and effective notch stress approaches, except for the one of the nominal stress approach. The sensitivities of the fatigue limit state function with respect to changes in the random variables were demonstrated showing that the uncertainty in the fatigue stress estimation and fatigue damage are the most important. Fatigue reliability, modelled as a parallel system of structural hot spots and as a serial system of correlated events (load cases) was evaluated based on the Ditlevsen bounds. As a result of the performed analysis, reliability and Beta reliability indexes of lower and upper bounds were estimated, which are very similar to the ones adopted for ultimate strength collapse as reported in literature. Originality/value This paper develops a very complex fatigue strength and reliability assessment model for analysing a double hull oil tanker structure using different local structural finite element approaches accounting for the associated uncertainties and the correlation between load cases and the coating life and corrosion degradation. The developed model is flexible enough to be applied for analysing different structural failure modes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Ku ◽  
Jieyan Chen

Abstract Conical transitions have wide applications in wind turbine foundation as well as oil and gas jacket type of structures. The junctions where tubular and cone meet experience a sharp stress rise from shell edge effects. Like all structures experiencing sharp stress rises, fatigue considerations are critical. In addition to fatigue, the existing offshore structural design standards also require ultimate limit state checks. It is known from the lower bound theorem of plasticity limit analysis that the junction local edge effects do not impact the global capacity. Designing for the local junction ultimate limit state contains wide variations among existing design standards. In this paper, the design practices from API RP-2A, NORSOK N-004, and ISO 19902:2020 draft are assessed. They are compared to the shell plastic yield criteria of Hodge and Ilyushin. In addition, this paper provides a semi-analytical plasticity solution to determine junction plastic deformations. The formulation is based on cylindrical shell equations coupled with deformation plasticity theory. It is found that the growth of the junction plasticity zone is limited, which is consistent with the anticipation from the lower bound limit analysis theorem. The observations made in this paper show that the local junction plasticity is a secondary issue compared to other design considerations. Its ultimate limit state design equation can afford to be more lenient if chooses for future standards’ development.


Author(s):  
K Hirakawa ◽  
M Kubota

Fatigue failure of the railway axle, which has been a source of difficulty for engineers since railroad service started in the early part of the nineteenth century, was the beginning of the study of metal fatigue. In order to maintain the safety of a high-speed railway system, a large number of investigations and experiments have been carried out by outstanding researchers ever since, and many improvements have been made in the material, manufacturing, heat treatment and design methods. In comparing Japan and Europe on the fatigue design philosophy of the high-speed railway axle, it is recognized that there is a difference between the Japanese Shinkansen and the European TGV and ICE. The critical parts for fatigue strength are the press-fitted parts which suffer from fretting fatigue damage, such as the wheel seat, gear seat and brake disc seat. In Europe, the larger diameter of the press-fitted part makes the fillet the critical part. In Japan, however, the fatigue strength of the press-fitted part is increased by an induction hardening method. Also, a stress-relief groove is made at the closely press-fitted part of the axle. For several years, no fretting fatigue cracks in Shinkansen axles have been detected by magnetic particle inspection. It is noted that improvements over many years have been successful in achieving the safety of high-speed railway axles. These problems will be studied in this paper.


Author(s):  
S. Márquez-Domínguez ◽  
J. D. Sørensen

Deeper waters and harsher environments are the main factors that make the electricity generated by offshore wind turbines (OWTs) expensive due to high costs of the substructure, operation & maintenance and installation. The key goal of development is to decrease the cost of energy (CoE). In consequence, a rational treatment of uncertainties is done in order to assess the reliability of critical details in OWTs. Limit state equations are formulated for fatigue critical details which are not influenced by wake effects generated in offshore wind farms. Furthermore, typical bi-linear S-N curves are considered for reliability verification according to international design standards of OWTs. System effects become important for each substructure with many potential fatigue hot spots. Therefore, in this paper a framework for system effects is presented. This information can be e.g. no detection of cracks in inspections or measurements from condition monitoring systems. Finally, an example is established to illustrate the practical application of this framework for jacket type wind turbine substructure considering system effects.


Author(s):  
José A. F. O. Correia ◽  
Miguel Correia ◽  
Mads Holm ◽  
Julle Ekeborg ◽  
Grzegorz Lesiuk ◽  
...  

One of the major concerns in offshore structures are the welded connections where fatigue failures are highly relevant. In many cases of offshore welded connections, the fatigue cracks initiated may grow from the weld to the base material, but also from the root of the weld. In this study, the evaluation of design S-N curves for a double-side welded connection made of S355J2 steel used in offshore applications is proposed. The characteristic fatigue curve of the double-side welded connection is obtained using statistical analyses based either in the ASTM E739 standard as well as the probabilistic fatigue model proposed by Castillo & Fernández-Canteli. This study concludes with a comparison between the experimental fatigue curves obtained and the design S-N curves proposed in design codes for offshore structures. Existing code recommendations are very conservative when comparing the design S-N curves with the proposed new characteristic S-N curves. For the joint under investigation the hot spot and nominal stress approaches yield very similar S-N results.


2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (04) ◽  
pp. 228-240
Author(s):  
Jeom Kee Paik ◽  
Celine Andrieu ◽  
H. Paul Cojeen

The present paper is a summary of the R&D results obtained through SSC SR-1446 project sponsored by Ship Structure Committee together with Alcan Marine, France, and Lloyd's Register Educational Trust, UK. It is recognized that the use of ultimate limit state (ULS) design method in addition to more conventional structural design standards will help make possible to move high-speed vessels to open-ocean transiting of large high-speed vessels, which is what the US Navy is certainly trying to do. The aim of the project is to investigate the collapse characteristics of aluminum stiffened plate structures used for marine applications by mechanical testing, together with nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA). Fabrication-related initial imperfections significantly affect the ULS behavior, and thus it is of vital importance to identify the features of initial imperfections prior to ULS computations. In the present study, a statistical database of fabrication-related initial imperfections on welded aluminum stiffened plate structures is also developed. The database and insights developed will be useful for design and building of welded aluminum high-speed oceangoing vessel structures.


Author(s):  
Inge Lotsberg

Reduced fatigue capacity of welded structures for larger thicknesses was introduced in design standards approximately 30 years ago. A significant amount of research on this topic was performed during the following years. In general the presence of a size effect was agreed upon. The size effect is considered to be dependent on the plate thickness at the considered hot spot in addition to size of attachment plate and type of dynamic loading. Only simplified recommendations on the size effect are included in most fatigue design standards. One reason for this is normal scatter in fatigue test data and also somewhat different recommendations based on these data in the literature. This has made it difficult to arrive at full agreement on recommended fatigue analysis procedures. In this paper a review of literature and design standards are presented together with a calibration of analysis method with fatigue test data. The effect of different parameters contributing to the size effect is illustrated. An attempt has been made to use the calibrated analysis model to also quantify the size effect based on crack growth analyses. Finally some recommendations on size effect to be used in fatigue design standards are presented.


Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 709
Author(s):  
Uwe Zerbst ◽  
Mauro Madia ◽  
Giovanni Bruno ◽  
Kai Hilgenberg

The safe fatigue design of metallic components fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM) is still a largely unsolved problem. This is primarily due to (a) a significant inhomogeneity of the material properties across the component; (b) defects such as porosity and lack of fusion as well as pronounced surface roughness of the as-built components; and (c) residual stresses, which are very often present in the as-built parts and need to be removed by post-fabrication treatments. Such morphological and microstructural features are very different than in conventionally manufactured parts and play a much bigger role in determining the fatigue life. The above problems require specific solutions with respect to the identification of the critical (failure) sites in AM fabricated components. Moreover, the generation of representative test specimens characterized by similar temperature cycles needs to be guaranteed if one wants to reproducibly identify the critical sites and establish fatigue assessment methods taking into account the effect of defects on crack initiation and early propagation. The latter requires fracture mechanics-based approaches which, unlike common methodologies, cover the specific characteristics of so-called short fatigue cracks. This paper provides a discussion of all these aspects with special focus on components manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). It shows how to adapt existing solutions, identifies fields where there are still gaps, and discusses proposals for potential improvement of the damage tolerance design of L-PBF components.


1989 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert G. Driver ◽  
D. J. Laurie Kennedy

Design standards provide little information for the design of I-shaped steel beams not loaded through the shear centre and therefore subjected to combined flexure and torsion. In particular, methods for determining the ultimate capacity, as is required in limit states design standards, are not presented. The literature on elastic analysis is extensive, but only limited experimental and analytical work has been conducted in the inelastic region. No comprehensive design procedures, applicable to limit states design standards, have been developed.From four tests conducted on cantilever beams, with varying moment–torque ratios, it is established that the torsional behaviour has two distinct phases, with the second dominated by second-order geometric effects. This second phase is nonutilizable because the added torsional restraint developed is path dependent and, if deflections had been restricted, would not have been significant. Based on the first-phase behaviour, a normal and shearing stress distribution on the cross section is proposed. From this, a moment–torque ultimate strength interaction diagram is developed, applicable to a number of different end and loading conditions. This ultimate limit state interaction diagram and serviceability limit states, based on first yield and on distortion limitations, provide a comprehensive design approach for these members. Key words: beams, bending moment, flexure, inelastic, interaction diagram, I-shaped, limit states, serviceability, steel, torsion, torque, ultimate.


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