Abstract
The structural integrity of marine structures is significantly influenced in many practical applications by their fatigue behavior, especially when dealing with dynamically sensitive structural systems, e.g., offshore wind substructures. The propagation of cracks found in structural components can be estimated through fracture mechanics-based methods, in which the crack growth under cyclic loading is mainly driven by the stress intensity factor (SIF). To simplify the computation of the SIF, closed-form solutions are often suggested in industrial standards, yet their applicability is limited to specific geometries and loading conditions. Overcoming the aforementioned constraints, we propose here a general methodology for numerically simulating the SIF and growth of multiple cracks by computing the SIF of adjacent cracks in an integrated finite element analysis, in which interaction effects are implicitly considered. In our proposed method, the coalescence of bordering cracks is also adequately modeled and fatigue failure is defined based on fracture mechanics principles. With the objective of enabling an efficient SIF computation, we also provide the necessary modeling details for the appropriate implementation of the corresponding finite element analysis. The proposed methodology is then tested and validated in a finite thickness plate under cyclic loading setting, whereas in a more practical case study, we investigate the fatigue analysis of interacting surface cracks in an offshore wind structural connection. The results emphasize the importance of considering interaction effects and crack coalescence when simulating the fatigue evolution of structural details in practical applications, and within the study, specific insights are additionally provided for the fatigue analysis of offshore wind structural components. With respect to the investigated fatigue failure criteria, the results show that a through-thickness limit state might yield slightly conservative fatigue life estimates compared to the fatigue limit that results when failure is defined based on the material fracture toughness.
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