Fatigue performance assessment and service life prediction of high-speed ship structures based on probabilistic lifetime sea loads

Abstract

This article focuses on estimating probabilistic lifetime sea loads for high-speed ship structures with the aim of assessing fatigue performance and predicting service life from available data. Performance assessment and service life prediction for naval ship structures are extremely important issues. In particular, understanding the effect of sea loading on naval high-speed vessels is still a challenge. Potential lifetime load effects including low frequency wave-induced and high frequency slam-induced whipping loadings are investigated in this article by using a probabilistic approach. Clearly, integration of probabilistic sea loads into structural reliability assessment and service life prediction will provide a more reliable estimation of the long-term structural performance. Accordingly, this article presents an approach for fatigue reliability evaluation of ship structures based on the estimated lifetime sea loads. Loading information associated with sea states, ship speeds and relative wave headings is obtained from a joint high-speed sealift ship monohull structural seakeeping trials, while the S–N curves are established based on the British Standards.