Proceedings of the Twenty-first (2011) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Maui, Hawaii, USA, June 19-24, 2011

Copyright 2011 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-96-8 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set); www.isope.org

Spectral Fatigue Analysis of a Transportation Barge

Amresh Negi, Sharad S. Dhavalikar
Research and Rule Development, Indian Register of shipping
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

ABSTRACT
is required for the prediction of fatigue life. Depending on how stress
distribution is done, fatigue can be predicted using one of the three
approaches i.e. simplified approach, spectral approach or deterministic
approach.

Fatigue failure has become one of the most significant concerns in

offshore marine field. Offshore floating structures like transportation
barges are subjected to cyclic loading during voyages because of
chaotic sea environment. Random sea wave induces the cyclic stress in
the structure, result in sudden local failure of the structure element.
This may cause the loss of barge and costly offshore modules which are
carried by the barge such as top sides, jackets. During its life time,
barge experiences so many loading conditions, contributing to fatigue
damage.
At design stage, an adequate factor for safety has been considered for
the loads encountered during its lifetime. But due to great uncertainties
involved in fatigue failure, it is not possible to determine the fatigue life
accurately. Among various existing methods available for the
prediction of fatigue life, spectral fatigue method is considered to be
more realistic approach by taking real sea state energy spectrum into
account and is very convenient to use at the preliminary stage of design
for the estimation of the fatigue life as compared to other methods.
Here a study is made to find fatigue damage of the transportation barge
based on spectral analysis.

Simplified approach assumes the long-term stress to follow the

Weibull probability distribution. However, the most challenging part of
this method is to decide on the shape parameter, which requires a good
practical judgment. In Spectral fatigue analysis, loads are obtained by
direct calculation by performing sea keeping analysis. For each sea
state, various stress response functions are computed at specified
location of a vessel. Rayleigh probability density function used to
define the short term stress range for each sea state where the vessel is
being operated. The fatigue damage accumulated during the entire
vessel life is assumed to be sum of the damage due to encountered sea
states. Deterministic approach termed as one wave method which has
been considered the simplest form of spectral analysis. In this method
usually one sine wave loading function is found based on spectral
method. But again it depends on designers experience to select the set
of deterministic load waves that will predict adequate fatigue damage
demand for specified locations and joint configuration of ship structure.

KEY WORDS: Fatigue damage; spectral analysis; stress transfer

function; probability density function; bending moment RAO.

During voyages a vessel encounters the ocean waves from different

directions and as result it undergoes through so called wave induced
loads. If ship considered as flexible beam subjected to random sea
environment, which bends the ship hull girder upward direction
(Hogging) and downward direction (sagging) depends on the position
of the wave crests along the ship hull. Repetitive nature of these loads
makes an internal structure element which contributes to ship strength,
fail in fatigue mode.

INTRODUCTION
Stochastic nature of the ocean environment is the main source of the
fatigue demand for welded structural elements. Fatigue failure if not
considered at design stage can produce precarious consequences on the
floating structure. High tensile steel is extensively used in ship building
to improve strength to weight ratio. But, usage of high tensile steel has
not really enhanced the fatigue strength because of increase in hull
stress level. Fatigue strength estimation broadly can be classified into
two categories: (Xiang-chun Guo-qing and Hui-long, 2006) cumulative
fatigue damage based on S-N curve and fracture mechanics method
based on crack propagation. In cumulative fatigue damage assessment
using probabilistic approach, an appropriate stress distribution function

For assessment of fatigue strength it is required to compute the stress

cycles for different loading and environmental conditions. Stress cycles
can be estimated considering the wave induced global loads and local
loads. However, proper selection of type of loads depends on the
location of the structural element, for which fatigue life needs to be
predicted. A significant work on application of spectral fatigue method

936

specific environmental conditions as sea state and the wave heading

respectively.

was done by Wang, Y. (2010). The author has implemented the spectral
fatigue analysis to predict the fatigue life at connection of main deck
longitudinal to a transverse web at the midship section of dredger
barge. In his analysis, he considered the cyclic stresses due to vertical
and horizontal bending moment and finally compares with IACS R56.

The total number of stress cycles anticipated in a sea state can be

estimated by considering the span of time (T seconds) in which the
damage will be accumulated. Zero up crossing frequency (f0ij) can be
found by Eq. 5. The probability of occurrence (pi) of the sea state can
be obtained from the scatter table. Total number of cycles in
combination of the sea states and the wave headings can be determined
by

Transportation barges have considerable role in setting up an offshore

field as these large beam box shape structure are moving heavy items
from the fabrication yard to the actual field of deployment. These non
propelled barges are towed by single or more than one Tugs at normal
tow speed of 5.0~6.0 knots. In present study, spectral fatigue analysis
has been performed for the transportation barge by considering various
rain flow correction factors. Stress transfer function has been found
based on the vertical and horizontal bending moment calculated at
midship structure element for the various wave headings. Eventually
the damages were obtained using long crested and short crested sea
waves and Indian Ocean scatter table.

n = T . pi . f 0ij
f 0ij =

Spectral fatigue assessment technique is based on S-N curve approach.

S-N curve gives a relationship between the applied stress amplitude (S)
and number of cycle (N) to failure at that stress amplitude. In general, it
illustrates the material or structural element capacity to fatigue failure
at constant stress range. S-N diagrams can be represented by following
equation (Jiao and Moan, 1990).

i =1

Bendat (1964) suggested a method of determination of fatigue life

thought PSDs of stress. He demonstrated that the probability density
function of peaks for a narrow band signal tended towards a Raleigh
distribution as the bandwidth reduced. Assuming the induced stress
variation follow the Raleigh probability density function to describe the
stress range distribution is termed as Narrow Band Approximation
(NBA). NBA results in more fatigue damage than rain flow counting of
narrow band process. But as matter of fact the load process induced in
floating structure in ocean environment is not narrow band, therefore a
cycle correction factor known as rain flow wide band correction factor
is included in the analysis to avoid conservatism due to NBA.

(2)

mean life to failure at stress range Si by utilizing the equation (Eq. 1).
Based on assumption that the fatigue damage linearly accumulative, the
cumulative fatigue damage due to stochastic load process can be
calculated with Palmgren-Miner model (Fols, R.,1998).

{ }

n
n
m
E ( s ) = s m f S ( s ) .ds
C
C 0

In order to predict fatigue life accurately, it is very important to apply

appropriate wide band correction factors. Over a period of time
different researchers have given the correction factors based on
intensive numerical simulation to obtained wide banded random
process.

(3)

Where, a variable amplitude stress range can be considered as a random

variable S with a probability density function fS(s). For the Gaussian
load process this function can be approximated as Rayleigh distribution
and expected value can be given as
m
E {s m } = b m 1 +
2

(7)

The most fundamental step for fatigue analysis is to have stress

response of the structure. In time domain fatigue analysis, the stress
time history can be estimated by numerical simulation or
experimentally. Cycle counting rain flow techniques are applied in
order to determine the number of response cycles for the fatigue
assessment due to irregular loads. Total damage produced by random
loads can be calculated by summing the damage produced in each
cycle. However, this is very time consuming process.

Where, D ( 1, for design purpose.) is the cumulative damage ratio. ni

is the total number of the cycles that structure endure and N i ( Si ) is the

D=

(6)

Narrow Band Approximation

(1)

ni
N i ( Si )

m0ij

T
m
D = (2 2) m + 1 f 0ij pi ( ij ) m
C
2

Where, m and C is the slope and strength coefficient of S-N curve

respectively. These coefficients are determined experimentally.
However, this relation cannot be directly applied to the ship structure
which is exposed to random loadings. Thus, a relation between the
variable amplitude stress range and mean fatigue life in conjunction
with Eq. 1 is known as palmgreen-Miner linear damage rule given by
following equation as
D=

m2ij

Finally, the equation for a single sea state and heading is given as
(Wang, 2010)

SPECTRAL FATIGUE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

C
N= m
S

1
2

(5)

Wrischings Rain Flow Correction Factor

Wrisching and Light (1980) presented an empirical wide band
correction factor. Multiplying the fatigue damage obtained due to NBA
by this correction factor can be approximated to wide band process.
This correction factor is based on simulations and given by

(4)

( m, ij ) = a ( m ) + [1 a ( m )][1 ij ]b ( m )

Where b = 2 2m0 ij , where m0ij is the zeroth moment of the spectral

m

process. denotes the gamma function. Suffix i and j represents the

937

(8)

Where,
a ( m ) = 0.926 0.033m, b ( m ) = 1.587 m 2.323

Environmental Conditions and Wave Spectrum

Operating area of the barge considered for the analysis is Indian Ocean.
Hence, wave data for the Indian Ocean scatter table (NIO, Goa, India)
is considered.

ij is a measure of bandwidth process and can be estimated as (Cartwrite

and Longuet-Higgins, 1956).

ij = 1

m22ij

The Pierson-Moskowitz (P-M) spectrum is used to define the

distribution of energy with frequency for the short term wave statistics.
P-M spectrum is used to model fully developed sea, where waves are
reached to the point of equilibrium with the wind blowing for long time
over a large area. The P-M equation to model the sea state is given by
(IACS R34)

(9)

m0ij m4 ij

Longuet Higgins (1975) proposed new spectral width parameter,

which is more effective than the old one and used for the analysis.
m0 ij m2ij

ij =

m02ij

4
1 2 4

H S2 2 5
4
S ( ) =

Exp

4 TZ
TZ

(10)

Closed Form Fatigue Damage Expression

Rices Formulation

The short term damage incurred in the i-th sea-state in j-th direction, for
bi-linear S-N curves where the negative slope changes at point Q = (NQ,
SQ) from m to r = m + m (m > 0) and the constant C changes to C,
the expression (ABS Guideline note, 2004 ) is given as follows

Based on the rice distribution term as Rician distribution the wide band
correction factor was given by Kim, Wang and Shin (2007) as

m +1
m +1

1 2
1+
2
1 2 ) 2
( m, ) =
+ 1 +
(
2
m
2

+ 1

T
m M D
D = (2 2) m + 1 (m,ij ) ij f 0ij pi ( ij ) m
C
2
i =1 j =1

(11)

= 12

in the sea state and i is the endurance factor having its value between 0
and 1 and measuring the contribution of the lower branch of the S-N
curve to the damage. It is defined as

(12)

The Dirlik Wide Band Rain Flow Correction Factor

i = 1

Based on Monte Carlo simulation Dirlik (1985) purposed the stress

range probability function as combination of an Exponential and two
Rayleight distributions for the stress range probability density function
as follows.

p(S ) =

D1
e
Q

Z2

D2 Z 2 R 2
e + D3 Ze
R2

Z 2
2

m1
m0

( m / 2 + 1)

0 ( r / 2 + 1, i )

(16)

0 =Incomplete Gamma function

(13)

2 ( m0 ) 2

While deriving the above equation for the fatigue damage in specific
sea state the stress range is normally expressed in terms of probability
density functions for different short-term intervals corresponding to the
individual cells of the wave scatter diagram. Linear addition of short
term damages sustained over all the sea states gives the total damage
for the structure element. Total fatigue damage accumulated over
operational service life (T) can be estimated by accounting for all sea
states encountered with the different wave directions and all possible
load cases.

m2
S
, = 1 2 , Z =
1
m4
2 ( m0 ) 2

Stress Transfer Function and Spectral Moments

Correction factor (Kim, Wang and Shin, 2007) given as

Q ( m + 1) R
( m, ) = D1
+

D2 + D3
2 m + 1 2

m / 2

0 ( a, x) = u a 1 exp ( u ) du

1.25( D3 D2 R )
m D12
,R=
D1
1 D1 + D12

m =

0 ( m / 2 + 1, i ) (1/ i )

SQ

Where, i =
2 2
ij

Where,
2( 2 )
1 D1 + D12
D1 =
,
D
=
, D3 = 1 D1 D2
2
1+ 2
1 R
Q=

(15)

Where, M and D denotes the total number of sea states and direction
respectively. ij = m0 ij is the standard deviation of the stress response

Where the regularity factor calculated by

Z
Q

(14)

Wave induced Vertical and horizontal bending moments were obtained

for a set of wave frequencies and headings for unit wave amplitude
through performing seakeeping analysis. These Vertical and Horizontal
bending moment RAOs (RAOM,V and RAOM,H ) are converted into
stress transfer function (Vertical and horizontal bending stress RAO) as
(Fols, R.,1998)

(14)

938

RAO , v =

z z0
RAOM ,Ver
I yy

(17)

RAO , h =

y
RAOM , Hor
I zz

(18)

Hydrodynamic Model
+
Load distribution

Where, z = Vertical distance of the structural part from the base line in
meters. y=Horizontal distance of the structural part from the centre line
in meters. z0=Distance of the neutral axis from the Base line. Iyy, Ixx =
Midship section modulus with respect to neutral axis and the centre line
axis of the vessel respectively in m4. The combined transfer function
can be derived as

RAO ,t = ( RAO ,v )2 + ( RAO ,v )2 + 2RAO ,v RAO ,v cos( v h )

Sea Keeping Analysis

VBM, HBM RAO

(RAOM,V and RAOM,H)

(19)

Location of the ship

structure element

Where v and h denotes phase of the stress process due to vertical and
horizontal hull girder bending respectively. Stress transfer function can
be obtained
H ( | ) = RAO ,t

S-N Curves, Sea

States

Damage, Fatigue life

(21)

Fig. 1 Procedure for Spectral Fatigue Analysis

Where, is the encounter frequency. Once the stress energy spectrum

obtained, considering the long crested sea the nth order spectral
moment (ABS Guideline note, 2004) is calculated as

mn = n S ( | H s , Tz , ) d
0

Step-II Perform seakeeping analysis to determine the hull girder load

transfer function. Load transfer functions depend on hull form
geometry, wave directions, wave frequency and the location of the
structural element.
Step-III Stress transfer function is determined from the Load transfer
function using an appropriate factor. This factor is based on the
structure element location and used to convert the wave induced
horizontal and vertical moments to get the stress transfer function.
Step-IV Based on the structural joint configuration, suitable S-N curve
is to be selected. By considering sea spectrum (P-M spectrum) spectral
analysis needs to be done for the forward speed of the barge.
Eventually, stress response obtained for various sea states and
respective directions.
Step-V Finally, damage and fatigue life calculation is done by
computing various spectral moments obtained in step-IV and applying
suitable equations for rain flow correction factors shown in preceding
section.

(22)

Where, = p V p 2 cos / g
Where, p represents the regular frequency and V is the vessel speed.
For confused short-crested sea directional spreading conditions must be
apply. Confused short-crested seas result in a kinetic energy spread,
which is modeled using the cosine-squared approach, (2/) cos2.
Generally, cosine-squared spreading is assumed from +90 to 90
degrees on either side of the selected wave heading. Applying the
wave spreading function modifies the spectral moment as follows:

' = + 90

mn = '

= 90

2 2 ' n
cos . S ( | H s , Tz , ) d

Spectral Analysis

(20)

Stress response spectrum can be produced by

S ( | H s , Tz , ) =| H ( | ) |2 .S ( | H s , Tz )

Stress Transfer Function

(Stress RAO)

(23)

CASE STUDY: TRANSPORTATION BARGE

The procedure and theory of spectral fatigue explained in previous
section was finally applied for the spectral fatigue analysis of the
transportation barge. The principal particulars for the barge are given in
table 1.

Where is the spreading angle between a wave component and the

dominant wave direction.

METHODOLOGY
Table 1. Principle particulars of analyzed transportation barge
In this paper, spectral fatigue analysis is discussed for the deck
longitudinal stiffener of a transportation barge. Procedure for the
spectral analysis is shown in Fig. 1. Spectral analysis can be performed
by using the following steps:

Principal dimensions
Length overall
Breadth
Depth
Sectional properties of midship section
Distance from baseline to Neutral axis, z0
Moment of Inertia, Ixx
Moment of Inertia, Iyy

Step-I identify all load cases and loading conditions, a vessel is going
to encounter during its operational life. Formulate load cases for
different and most probable load combination to obtain the load
distributions for the seakeeping analysis.

939

91.5 m.
27.46 m.
5.5 m.
2.9247 m.
4.5832 m4.
33.417 m4.

for Double hull tankers, 2010) characterized by m = 3, m = 2, C =

4.31 1011 Mpa, C = 5.278 1014 Mpa was chosen for structure detail
as shown in Fig. 4

It has been observed that most of the time transportation barges are
carrying either jacket or topsides. Four load cases have been taken for
the fatigue strength assessment considering two loading conditions for
each of the type of loaded module as shown in table 2.
Table 2. Different load cases considered for the analysis
Load Conditions
LC1
LC2
LC3
LC4

Module
Top Sides
Top Sides
Jacket
Jacket

Draft
2.41 m.
3.30 m.
2.26 m.
3.30 m.

Displacement
5294 ton.
7450 ton.
4945 ton.
7436 ton.

According to marine warranty surveyor guidelines (Noble Denton,

2005) the draft must be 40%~60% of the depth of the barge for the
transportation at sea. Suitable ballast plans were obtained for each
loading condition to achieve desired hydrostatics, stability and strength
parameters in accordance with sea warranty surveyor guidelines. For
the various loadings, load distribution is plotted. Apart from hull
geometry, load distribution is another most desired input for the
seakeeping analysis. Load distribution for all four conditions is shown
in Fig. 2.

Ton/m

175

Fig. 4 Structure connection detail

RESULTS
Ideally, frequency domain hydrodynamic analysis tool should be used
for the seakeeping analysis, i.e. stress RAO computation in this case.
3D panel method based seakeeping programs are most suited for the
spectral fatigue analysis. Frequency domain tool like SWAN1 (RPM
based) imposes certain restrictions (SWAN1-User Manual, 2001) in
terms of combination of vessel speed, wave heading and frequency.
SWAN1 requires Froude number ( Fn = V / g.L ) in the range of

LC1

150

LC2

125

LC3
LC4

100
75

0.1 Fn 1.5 and also reduced frequency ( = V . / g ) should be

avoided. The transportation barge considered for the present study has
tow speed of 5.5 Knots (Fn = 0.09). This imposes restriction on using
SWAN1, where as time domain code SWAN2 has no such limitations
(SWAN2-User Manual, 2002). Hence it was decided to use SWAN2
for the present study for the computation of horizontal and vertical
wave induced bending moment RAOs for the location of structural
detail. For the computation of BM RAO, the contribution due to
inertial, gravitational, hydrostatic, radiation (due to ship oscillations),
diffraction and Froude-Krylove were included. The analysis was done
for 5 headings from 0~180 degree in the interval of 45 deg. and for total
19 wave frequencies 0.2~2.0 in the range of 0.1 rad/sec. For the
analysis the 75% of barge towing speed (V = 0.75*5.5 Knots) is
considered.

50
25
0
0

20

40
60
Length of Ship (m)

80

100

Fig. 2 Load distribution for the various load cases

The location of the structure detail for the fatigue estimation was taken
at the connection of deck longitudinal to the transverse bulkhead
vertical stiffener at midship region as shown in Fig. 3.

Considering the structural joint location marked in Fig. 3, the stress

transfer function was calculated using equations (Eq. 17~20,) for all
load cases and wave directions. Spectral analysis was done by using
IRS in-house developed program IRSPEC V2.0. P-M sea spectrum
definition is used to model sea states. Sea spectrum deformation due to
encountered wave frequency, forward speed and wave heading is
considered in the program.
Various spectral moments (i.e. mo, m1, m2 and m4) were found for
determining various wide band rain flow correction factor and the
fatigue strength estimation. Fatigue damage was calculated based on
various rain flow correction factors for both long crested and short
crested seas. For each load case damage was computed and the
expected fatigue life for the structural detail calculated by equation

Fig. 3 Midship section bulkhead of the barge indicating the location of

structural element for fatigue analysis
Fatigue life prediction was done for the flange of the longitudinal at
weld toe of bracket connection. The primary load effect at the selected
location for the fatigue demand comes from the wave induced vertical
and horizontal hull girder bending. A F2 class bilinear material (CSR

Fatigue Life =

940

Design Life
Damage Ratio

(24)

range, SR is defined as the largest stress range expected for reference

number of cycles NR.

This analysis was done based on the assumption that during its service
life only these four loading conditions will be encounter by the barge
and each load case is experienced during one fourth of the barge
operational service life. If predicted fatigue life for the structure detail
due to different load cases are represented as L1, L2, L3 and L4, then
combined fatigue life is
LC = 1

P ( S > SR ) = 1

Where, P is the probability of exceedance of stress range (S) to

reference stress range (SR) on an average every reference number of
cycles (NR) cycles. From the definition of the probability distribution
function, it follows from Eq. (26) and Eq. (27) that

(25)

0.85 0.25 (1/ L1) + 0.25 (1/ L 2 ) + 0.25 (1/ L3) + 0.25 (1/ L 4 )

Table 3. Results for fatigue life obtained for the individual loading
condition as well as combined fatigue life considering long crested seas
(DR Damage ratio, Flife expected fatigue life)
Wirsching
Load
Cases
LC1
LC2
LC3
LC4
LC

DR
0.30
0.30
0.28
0.25

Flife
(years)
16.94
16.50
17.86
20.05
20.87

Rice
DR
0.32
0.32
0.30
0.27

Flife
(years)
15.83
15.42
16.70
18.78
19.51

k = S R / ( ln N R )

0.27
0.28
0.26
0.23

= 1.1 0.35

Flife
(years)
18.32
17.87
19.48
21.54
22.59

Wirsching

LC1
LC2
LC3
LC4
LC

DR
0.24
0.26
0.25
0.22

Flife
(years)
20.88
19.29
19.77
22.83
24.24

Rice
DR
0.26
0.28
0.27
0.24

Flife
(years)
19.33
17.86
18.35
21.20
22.48

Dirlink
DR
0.21
0.23
0.22
0.20

Flife
(years)
23.42
21.64
22.29
25.21
27.13

(28)

L 100
300

(29)

N km m
D = L + 1

(30)

Where, NL number of cycles for the expected ships life. NL may be

taken as N L = 0T / 4log L , 0 factor taking into account the time
needed for loading / unloading operations, repairs, etc. In general, 0
may be taken equal to 0.85, = coefficient taking into account the
change in slope of the S-N curve. For bi-linear SN curves where the
negative slope changes at point Q = (NQ, SQ) from m to m + m be
(m>0) and the constant C changes to C`

The factor of 0.85 accounts for the non operative time of the barge such
as maintenance and load out operations at shore. Final results and
fatigue life using Wirching, Rice and Dirlik wideband rain flow
correction factors for long creasted and short crested seas are presented
in table 3 and table 4. With Wirching correction factor the fatigue life
for long creased and long creasted seas were estimated 20.87 years and
24.24 years respectively.

m + m

0 + 1, 0
+ 1,

=1
m
+ 1

FATIGUE ASSESMENT USING IACS R56

(31)

S
Where, = Q ln N R
SR

In IACS 56 (1999) long term distribution of stresses are represented by

a two-parameter Weibull distribution, cumulative distribution function
is given by
S
FS ( S ) = 1 exp , S > 0
k

Where, L is the barge length between perpendiculars in m. In order to

calculate the fatigue damage, IACS 56 recommended that individual
component loads be determined with respect to a moderate exceeding
probability level (e.g., probability level 10-3 to 10-5). For present study a
value 10-4 chosen for the NR. Wave induced stress range (SR) at the
structural location was estimated through spectral analysis. The value
of SR was found for short crested and long crested sea for the
probability level of 10-4. Assessment of the fatigue adequacy of the
structure detail is based on the application of the Palmgren-Miner
cumulative damage rule and the capacity of welded steel joints with
respect to the fatigue strength is characterized by S-N curve. The
cumulative fatigue damage at structural location is given by

Table 4. Results for fatigue life obtained for the individual loading
condition as well as combined fatigue life considering short crested
seas (DR Damage ratio, Flife expected fatigue life)

Load
Cases

As a first approximation, the Weibull shape parameter for the

considered barge structural detail may be taken as

Dirlink
DR

(27)

NR

Using F2 class bilinear S-N curve, the fatigue life for the selected
structural configuration was predicted as 19.86 years and 26.25 years
using long crested and short crested seas respectively.

(26)

CONCLUSIONS
Where, S is the stress range for the random loading process, Weibull
shape parameter and k is the characteristic value of the stress range.
This assumption enables the use of a closed form equation for
calculation of the fatigue life when the two parameters of the Weibull
distribution are determined. For the estimation of k, reference stress

This paper presents a spectral procedure for the assessment of fatigue

life of deck structural element of a transportation barge based on the
linear summation of short term accumulation of fatigue damage for
each individual bin of a scatter table, which may be applied to ship

941

structure as well. The present study was carried out considering the
global hull structural loads. In principal, consideration of loads for the
fatigue life demand of any structural element strongly depends on its
location. For the structure detail, the stress range has been estimated by
linear summation of the wave induced stress components.

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areas, Marine Structures, Vol 11, pp 319-343.
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Association of Clasification Societies, Recommendation 34.
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International Association of Clasification Societies, Recommendation
56.
Jiao and Moan (1990), Probabilistic analysis of fatigue due to
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System Technical Journal Vol. 24, pp- 46156.
SWAN1 (2001),Ship Flow Simulation in Calm Water and in Waves.
User Manual, MIT, USA.
SWAN2 (2002),Ship Flow Simulation in Calm Water and in Waves.
User Manual, MIT, USA.
Wang, Y. (2010). Spectral fatigue analysis of a ship structural detail
A practical case study, International Journal of Fatigue, Vol 32, pp
310317.
Wirsching and Light (1980), Fatigue under wide band random
processes , Journal of the Structural Division, Vol. 106, No. 7, pp.
593-1607
Xiang-chun Guo-qing and Hui-long (2006) Study on the application of
spectral fatigue analysis, Journal of Marine Science and Application,
Vol 5, No. 2, pp 42-26.
Xue-Pittaluga and Cervetto (1994). Fatigue damage calculations for
oil tanker and container ship structure, Marine Structures, Vol 7, pp
499-535.

Total four load cases have been considered for the analysis. It is
observed that load cases LC2 and LC4 having same draft (3.30m each)
and almost same displacement (7450t and 7436t) the damage ratio
(0.303 and 0.2494 using Wirschings correction factor and long crested
sea states) varies considerably. It is depicted that for the fatigue
analysis, vessel draft is not only the main fatigue strength influencing
parameter but the mass distribution is also one of the critical variable to
consider.
Analysis was performed using short crested and long crested sea waves
assuming that damage accumulated due to each short term sea state for
the scatter table. From results it has been observed that modeling of sea
state as long crested wave predicts the high damage as compare to
modeling the sea environment as short crested wave. The reason is
being the high unidirectional value of stress range for the long crested
wave as compare to spreading waves, representing the realistic sea
conditions. For detail fatigue analysis it is recommended to model short
crested sea state. However, this requires a high computational effort. At
initial phase of design, designers can use long crested sea state as quick
check for being on more conservative side.
Various wide band correction factors have been used based on the
spectral moment obtained from the spectral analysis. It has been found
that Dirlik correction predict high fatigue life as compare to Wirsching
and Rice correction factors. On the other hand, Rice wide band
correction gives relatively low fatigue life. The result obtain using
IACS R56 predicts a good agreement with the result calculated using
Rice correction for long crested sea and Dirlik for the short crested sea
environment.

REFERENCES
ABS Guidance notes (2004). spectral-based fatigue analysis for
vessels,American Bureau of Shipping.
Bendat, J.S. (1964). Probability functions for random responses
Technical report, NASA.
Cartwright and Higgins (1956). The statistical distribution of the
maxima of a random function,. Mathematical and physical sciences,
Vol 237, No.1209, pp 212232.

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