The stress combination method for the fatigue assessment of the hatch corner of a bulk carrier based on equivalent waves

The stress combination method for the fatigue assessment of the hatch corner of a bulk carrier was investigated based on equivalent waves. The principles of the equivalent waves of ship structures were given, including the determination of the dominant load parameter, heading, frequency, and amplitude of the equivalent regular waves. The dominant load parameters of the hatch corner of a bulk carrier were identified by the structural stress response analysis, and then a series of equivalent regular waves were defined based on these parameters. A combination method of the structural stress ranges under the different equivalent waves was developed for the fatigue analysis. The combination factors were obtained by least square regression analysis with the stress ranges derived from spectral fatigue analysis as the target value. The proposed method was applied to the hatch corner of another bulk carrier as an example. This shows that the results from the equivalent wave approach agree well with those from the spectral fatigue analysis. The workload is reduced substantially. This method can be referenced in the fatigue assessment of the hatch corner of a bulk carrier.