Fish cages in the open sea are exposed to cycle wave loads during theirservice life, and thus the fatigue reliability of mooring chains should bere-assessed to ensure the safety status. A numerical model was adoptedto calculate the tension force of mooring chains. A nonlinear contactfinite element model was proposed to calculate the breaking strength ofthe mooring chains considering corrosion effect and this model wasvalidated by the formula for break test loads in requirementsconcerning for materials and welding. The time variant fatiguereliability was obtained. The results indicate that the proposed finiteelement model can provide more reasonable results than the simplifiedmethod.
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