Chapter 23 Structural Analysis and Hydroelasticity of Ships

CHAPTER 23

THE ANALYSIS OF FATIGUE STRENGTHS AND THE

ESTIMATION OF THE EXPLOITATION PERIOD
OF THE SHIP HULL STRUCTURE
23.1. The steps of the fatigue strengths analysis

Obs. This chapter is based on the methodology from the naval register rules:
Germanischer Lloyd (GL), Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and Bureau Veritas (BV).
The fatigue analysis is focused on the reduction of the cracks in structure induced by
the dynamic loads in rough sea, just from the design stage. Because of the random
characteristic of the loads on the ship hull, coupled with the fabrication and material defects,
the occurrence of the cracks cannot be fully eliminated at the design stage, so that the naval
registers require periodic annual inspections of the ship hull structure. The fatigue analysis is
made for the structural elements of the ship hull, which have the highest stress values, having
the main influence over the estimated expected ship exploitation life in safety conditions.
The steps of the fatigue strengths analysis are the following:
the identify of the structural domains where significant dynamic loads occur;
the fatigue analysis;
the evaluation of the alternative constructive solutions with a lower risk from the point of
view of the fatigues strengths.
In the case of the ship structures, the dynamic loads dominant, from the points of view
of fatigue strengths, are the same as in the case of the global ship hull strengths, respective the
wave loads. The dynamic structural response induced from sea waves is obtained with the
following methods:
the determinist method, of the naval registers, which are based on the ship girder loads
from the equivalent cvasi-static wave. This method is used at the 3D-FEM study of the
ship hull structure, from the point of view of the global ship strengths.
the spectral method, that requires a solution of the ship hull dynamic response in the
frequency domain and can be applied to the ship rigid body (oscillations) and also to the
ship elastic hull (oscillations and vibrations), but under linear hypothesis of the excitation
forces and of the motion equations. This method is used for the standard seakeeping
analysis (adv) at linear ship hull oscillations, and also for the linear analysis in the
hypothesis of the hydroelasticity theory (hel & dyn_lin) at linear oscillations and linear
springing.
the time domain analysis method of the stress field distribution, that makes possible to
include the non-linearities from the ship-wave dynamic system, being completed with a
spectral analysis based on the Fourier FFT method. This method is based on the non-
linear model for the calculation of the ship hull dynamic response, in the hydroelasticity
theory hypothesis (dyn_nln), with the inclusion of the following phenomena: linear and
non-linear springing, slamming (bottom and side) and whipping.
In order to check the fatigue strengths criteria, there can be applied two methods:
a) the method of admissible value p , for the variation of the maximal stresses at the
prescribed extreme loads;
b) the method of the damage cumulative factor D, based on the Palmgren-Miner method of
the design curves stress-cycles S-N.

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23.2. Notations and register requirements

In the following there are considered the following notations from fig.23.1.

Fig.23.1 Stresses recordings

the instantaneous values of the stress field.

Obs. In the case of complex ship structures, it is considered as reference for the fatigue
strengths estimation the equivalent von Mises stresses, = vM .
m the average value of the stress field variation.
Obs. In the case of the naval structures, the average stress is equal with the value
obtained in the case of the still water loads, m = vM _ ac .
= max min the range of the stress field.
max = a + m min = a + m = 2 a , where a the stress amplitude.
R eH the material yield stress limit.
R m the breaking stress limit of the material.
Obs. According the GL rules, ch.1,sec.17.A.3, there are valid the following values for
the naval steel materials characteristics:

Tab.23.1 The naval steel characteristics

ReH [N/mm2] Rm [N/mm2]
235 400
315 440
355 490
390 510

1
fc = the correction factor of the asymmetric cycle ( max min ) at the
m
1
Rm
equivalent symmetric cycle ( max = min ) , using the Morrow method.
c = f c the corrected value of the stresses range (the equivalent symmetric
cycle).
max the maxim value of the range for the stress field for a spectrum for the given
loads.

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Chapter 23 Structural Analysis and Hydroelasticity of Ships

Obs. In the case of determinist analysis 3D-FEM, max corresponds to the case with
equivalent cvasi-static wave height h w = 14m (or h w = 12m ) , and in the case of the spectral
analysis and in time domain analysis, it corresponds to the values from the long-term period
analysis at R = 20 years .
n the number of the cycles applied for the variation of stress .
Obs. The maxim number n max of cycles applied to the structure, for a estimated
exploitation life of the ship R = 20 years , are as following:
- n max = 5 10 7 cycles , according GL ch.1,sec.20.A,2.4, in the case of the deterministic
analysis, or when the maxim dynamic response is not decomposed on spectral
components; (23.1)
R 365 24 3600 R 365 24 3600
- n max_osc = = 3.1536107 R f osc , n max_vib = = 3.1536107 R f vib
Tosc Tvib
in the case of the spectral analysis and the time domain analysis + FFT, having the
dynamic response decomposed on the modal components, where fosc , fvib are the eigen
oscillations and vibrations frequencies (on fundamental mode) of the ship hull.
N the number of cycles resulting from the fatigue criteria based on the S-N diagram.
R the fatigue strengths stress based on the S-N diagram at N = 2 10 6 cycles, for a
specific structural element.
Obs. In the case of welded joints of the ship hull deck shell, this structural element
according the GL rules, ch.1, sec.20, tab.20.3, is type 1 element, having R = 125 N mm 2 ,
and the isotropic plate field is type 28/29 with R = 140 160 N mm2 .
Rc = R f m f R f w f s the fatigue strengths stress according the corrected S-N
diagram, for N = 2 10 6 cycles.
f m the correction factor for material type, f m = 1 according GL,ch.1,sec.20.B,3.2.2 for
welded joints.
f R the correction factor for the average stress. According GL, ch.1,sec.20.B, 3.2.3 it
results the following values:
max
fR = 1 if m >
2
2 m max max
(23.2) f R = 1 + 0.151 if m
max 2 2
max
f R = 1.3 if m <
2
f w the correction factor for the quality of the welded joints, according GL., ch.1, sec.
20.B, 3.2.3 it results f w = 1.00 1.25 .
f i the correction factor for the structural element importance. According GL., ch.1,
sec.20.C, 3.2.5 for the main structural elements there is considered f i = 1 .
p = f n Rc R m the admissible value from the fatigue strengths criteria, where
f n according GL., ch.1, sec.20.B, 2.1, tab.20.2, has the value of f n = 3.16 for the welded
structures under cycles n max 5 10 7 .
D is the damage cumulative factor.
Obs. In the case of satisfying the fatigue strengths criteria the damage cumulative
factor must be D 1 .

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Chapter 23 Structural Analysis and Hydroelasticity of Ships

23.3. The S-N design diagram

Def. The S-N design diagram is the low limit of a 95% from the made tests,
corresponding to the survival probability of 97.5%, considering the occurrence further of the
significant fatigue damages in the complex structures. Mathematic, the S-N curve is idealized
with a linear relation between log( ) and log(N ) (fig.23.2).

Fig.23.2 The S-N diagram (GL)

According GL., ch.1, sec.20.B, 3.1.2, for the ship steel the S-N diagram is obtained
with the following relations:
(23.3) log(N ) = 6.69897 + m Q Q = log( R ) 0.39794 m 0
where m 0 = 3 is the inverse of the S-N diagram slope for N 5 10 6 ; R max 160 N mm 2 .
The slope m of the S-N diagram has the following values:
according GL., ch.1,sec.20, 3.1.3, for cycles with variable amplitude, in the case of ship
hull with random sea waves loads, it is considered:
m = m0 Q0
(23.4.a)
m = 2m 0 1 Q > 0
according GL., ch.1,sec.20, 3.1.4 for cycles with constant amplitude, it is considered:
m = m0 Q0
(23.4.b)
m= Q>0

23.4. The check at the fatigue strengths

a) The admissible values method for the maxim prescribed stresses

(GL.,ch.1,sec.20.B,2.1)
The maxim variation of the stress must to satisfy the following criterion:
(23.5) max p R m
In the analysis cases when this criterion is not satisfied, it results that the structure has
an expected exploitation life lower as R=20 years and this value is evaluated again using the
damage cumulative factor D.

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Chapter 23 Structural Analysis and Hydroelasticity of Ships

b) The Palmgren-Miner method, of the damage cumulative factor D

(GL.,ch.1,sec.20.B,2.2)
It is calculated the damage cumulative factor D with the following relation:
m
n
(23.6) D = i 1 n i = p i n max N i = f SN ( ci )
i =1 N i

coupled with the histogram of the significant wave height ( p i , i = 1, m ) for the selected
navigation domain, prescribed by the naval registers rules GL, DNV, BV (tab.23.2).

Tab.23.2 The histogram of the significant wave height h1/3 on long-term period analysis
North Atlantic (Tb=1year) Word Wide Trade (Tb=1year)
8
PLTP 20 = 0.9 10 (fig.23.3.a) PLTP 20 = 0.8 10 8 (fig.23.3.b)
h1/3i [m] records pi h1/3i [m] records pi
1 14690 0.14690 1 26287 0.26287
2 26167 0.26167 2 34001 0.34001
3 22196 0.22196 3 20092 0.20092
4 15590 0.15590 4 10482 0.10482
5 9775 0.09775 5 5073 0.05073
6 5639 0.05639 6 2323 0.02323
7 3042 0.03042 7 1018 0.01018
8 1547 0.01547 8 432 0.00432
9 750 0.00750 9 178 0.00178
10 348 0.00348 10 70 0.00070
11 153 0.00153 11 28 0.00028
12 65 0.00065 12 11 0.00011
13 27 0.00027 13 4 0.00004
14 11 0.00011 14 1 0.00001
= 100000 1 = 100000 1

North Atlantic h1/3 Histogram LTP

0.300

0.250

0.200

0.150

0.100

0.050

h1/3[m]
0.000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Fig.23.3.a

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Chapter 23 Structural Analysis and Hydroelasticity of Ships

World Wide Trade h1/3 Histogram LTP

0.350

0.300

0.250

0.200

0.150

0.100

0.050

h1/3[m]
0.000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Fig.23.3.b

Obs. The histograms from tab.23.2 and fig.23.3.a,b can be used also for the long-term
period prediction, R=20 years, for the maxim of the stress field, with the probability PLTP 20 .
In the above relations, there are noted the following:
m = 14 the number of the division blocks of the histograms;
n i the number of the cycles applied to the naval structure for the sea state h 1 / 3i ;
N i the number of cycles from the fatigue strengths condition, based on the S-N
diagram for ci , corresponding to the sea state h 1 / 3i .
Obs. From the linear and non-linear spectral analyses (FFT) on short term, there result
the significant statistic values 1 / 3 on oscillation and vibration components associated to the
sea state h 1 / 3 , so that the damage cumulative factor D is obtained from the following
relations:
m n
D osc = N i _ osc = f SN ( ci _ osc )
i _ osc
n i _ osc = p i n max_ osc
i =1 N i _ osc

n i _ vib
N i _ vib = f SN ( ci _ vib )
m
(23.7) D vib = n i _ vib = p i n max_ vib
i =1 N i _ vib
D = D osc + D vib 1
Obs. In the practical cases, there are considered several loading cases j during the
exploitation life of the ship and the damage cumulative factor D results from relation:
M
(23.8) D = Pj D j 1
j=1

As example, in the case of the oil-tankers, the naval registers consider two main
loading cases: the full load and ballast, having the same probability of 50%. The combined
damage cumulative factor D is calculated in this case with the following relation:
(23.9) D = 0.5 D full + 0.5 D ballast 1

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The estimation of the exploitation life of the ship hull from the fatigue strengths
criterion, based on the calculations made for R = 20 years , results from the following relation:
20
(23.10) L = [ani]
D
When L < 20 years , there are necessary constructive changes of the ship structure and
even of the ship offset lines, if the wave dynamic loads are over the admissible limits (as
example the extreme loads from slamming and whipping).

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