Determination of structural stress for fatigue assessment of welded aluminum ship details

Abstract

The main objective of this paper has been to review and to verify already published hot-spot stress extrapolation procedures for plate structures, and to develop and verify a new and general method for the structural stress extrapolation to be used together with a hot-spot design S-N curve for aluminum ship structures. The proposed extrapolation method has been based on the asymptotic behavior of the stresses adjacent to an idealized notch (‘singularity’). On basis of the fatigue test S-N data obtained in this study, relevant S-N curves to be used together with a proposed extrapolation procedure and with already published extrapolation methods have been suggested. A hot-spot design S-N curve with a characteristic strength of 32 was suggested as a suitable choice for the fatigue assessment of profile ground fillet welded stiffener/bracket connections while a design hot-spot design S-N curve with a characteristic strength of 25 was suggested for as-welded stiffener/bracket connections.