Study of the Prediction of Fatigue Damage Considering the Hydro-elastic Response of a Very Large Ore Carrier (VLOC)

Estimating fatigue damage is a very important issue in the design of ships. The springing and whipping response, which is the hydro-elastic response of the ship, can increase the fatigue damage of the ship. So, these phenomena should be considered in the design stage. However, the current studies on the the application of springing and whipping responses at the design stage are not sufficient. So, in this study, a prediction method was developed using fluid-structural interaction analysis to assess of the fatigue damage induced by springing and whipping. The stress transfer function (Stress RAO) was obtained by using the 3D FE model in the frequency domain, and the fatigue damage, including linear springing, was estimated by using the wide band damage model. We also used the 1D beam model to develop a method to estimate the fatigue damage, including nonlinear springing and whipping by the vertical bending moment in the short-term sea state. This method can be applied to structural members where fatigue strength is weak to vertical bending moments, such as longitudinal stiffeners. The methodology we developed was applied to 325K VLOC, and we analyzed the effect of the springing and whipping phenomena on the existing design.