Fatigue reliability assessment of a complex welded structure subjected to multiple cracks

Published Date
November 2013, Vol.56:868–879, doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2013.06.011

Author 

W. Huang

Y. Garbatov

C. Guedes Soares ^,

Centre for Marine Technology and Engineering (CENTEC), Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal

Received 1 December 2012. Revised 9 June 2013. Accepted 11 June 2013. Available online 15 July 2013. 

Highlights

• A fatigue reliability assessment of the correlated growth of multiple site cracks is developed.
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  Five through thickness cracks will initiate and propagate at critical hot-spots in the structure.
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  Stress intensity factors for all combinations of crack lengths, are calculated by finite elements.
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  The Paris–Erdogan law is used to predict the fatigue crack propagation life.
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  Fatigue reliability is evaluated accounting for the correlation between any two failure modes.

Abstract

A probabilistic approach for fatigue reliability assessment of a complicated ship welded structure subjected to a correlated growth of multiple site cracks is developed here. It is assumed that five through thickness cracks will initiate and propagate at the critical hotspots in the web frame structure. Stress intensity factors at the tips of cracks, considering all possible combinations of all cracks of different lengths, are calculated by finite element analysis. The geometry correction functions of the five cracks, as a function of a crack size are determined by using nonlinear regression analysis estimating the statistical descriptors of the five geometry correction functions. The Paris–Erdogan law is used to predict the fatigue crack propagation life. Fatigue reliability of the web-frame welded structure is evaluated while accounting for the correlation between any two-fatigue failure modes caused by multiple site fatigue cracks propagating in the welded structure.

Keywords

Fatigue reliability

Multiple site crack

Fracture mechanics

Crack propagation

Finite element analysis

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  Corresponding author.
  
  

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