Comparative fatigue performance of alternative outer hull connection details -- Part I: procedure, particulars, and modeling

摘要

As a case study, a complete stochastic spectral fatigue analysis of a representative turret-moored FPSO design to be situated in a severe environment has been performed After a global fatigue screening, three longitudinal-to-web frame connections in the outer shell were chosen for in-depth fatigue analysis. For each connection, fatigue lives were computed and are compared for alternative designs in which the cross-section of the longitudinal stiffener, the profile of the web frame cutout, the presence of brackets, the offset of the web frame stiffener, and the position of the lug plate are varied. This paper comprises Part I, in which the analysis procedures, the particulars of the alternative details, and a description of the finite element modeling are presented.