Towards the Procedure Automation of Full Stochastic Spectral Based Fatigue Analysis

• Main Authors: Khurram Shehzad, Ren Huilong, Feng Guoqing, Asifa Khurram
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1045.2230; http://www.maxwellsci.com/print/rjaset/v5-4388-4394.pdf

Abstract: Fatigue is one of the most significant failure modes for marine structures such as ships and offshore platforms. Among numerous methods for fatigue life estimation, spectral method is considered as the most reliable one due to its ability to cater different sea states as well as their probabilities of occurrence. However, spectral based simulation procedure itself is quite complex and numerically intensive owing to various critical technical details. Present research study is focused on the application and automation of spectral based fatigue analysis procedure for ship structure using ANSYS software with 3D liner sea keeping code AQWA. Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL) macros are created and subsequently implemented to automate the workflow of simulation process by reducing the time spent on non-value added repetitive activity. A MATLAB program based on direct calculation procedure of spectral fatigue is developed to calculate total fatigue damage. The automation procedure is employed to predict the fatigue life of a ship structural detail using wave scatter data of North Atlantic and Worldwide trade. The current work will provide a system for efficient implementation of stochastic spectral fatigue analysis procedure for ship structures.