The Reliability Assessment of a Ship Structure under Corrosion and Fatigue, using Structural Health Monitoring

Abstract

Reliability of a ship structure has been investigated in this study under two factors of fatigue and corrosion failure using structural health monitoring data. In order to use structural health monitoring data in assessing the reliability, Bayesian inference method has been used to update the distribution of loads applied on the structure. This study used structural health monitoring data to assess the reliability of a ship construction under two conditions: fatigue and corrosion failure. A Bayesian inference method was utilized to update the distribution of loads applied to the structure to employ structural health monitoring data in determining reliability. The load distribution obtained from the equations was used to assess the reliability of a ship structure during corrosion. The proposed mathematical model was examined using the data output of the force sensors installed on the commercial ship in the laboratory, whose model has been scale tested. According to the reliability analysis, the reliability index of the structure decreases with time as a result of corrosion and fatigue failures. The utilization of structural health monitoring data has boosted confidence in the reliability index for estimating the structure's real-life as determined by the study. The findings suggest that using the reliability criterion and health monitoring data during the design stage can provide a better knowledge of the structure's performance throughout time, according to the environmental conditions.