Fracture mechanics procedures for assessing fatigue life of window and door corners in ship structures

A comparative Study of fracture mechanics procedures for assessing the fatigue life of ship structures is presented. The effect of some factors oil life prediction equation is considered. Also emphasis is made to point out the usefulness of fracture mechanics for estimating the fatigue life of cracked and un-cracked ship structures. The procedures are verified against fatigue test data and demonstrated with ail example calculation using data from onboard measurements and fatigue tests. The main interest is in the ship Structures including large openings e.g. window and door corners. The example calculation concentrates in defining the remaining fatigue life and the critical crack size of the cracked door corners in a passenger ship. The investigated details contain longitudinal welds and gas Cut edges.