Assessment of ship structure under fatigue loading: FE benchmarking and extended performance analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical procedure based on the finite element (FE) method using ANSYS Workbench software to analyse fatigue phenomena in ship structures. Fatigue failure prediction is used as a stress-life approach, when the stress is still in a linear area. This condition is frequently referred as high-cycle fatigue. Five geometric shapes taken from midship points on the structure of a ship are sampled. There are four types of materials: HSLA SAE 950X, medium-carbon steel, SAE 316L, and SAE 304L. The types of loading imposed on each sample include three conditions: zero-based, zero mean, and ratio. Mesh convergence analysis is conducted to determine the most effective mesh shape and size for analysing the structure. The results showed that the configuration of the geometric shapes, materials used, loading schemes, and mean stress theory affect the fatigue characteristics of the structure.