Fatigue and Structural Analysis of Welded Steel Joints

Della, C. , Puah, C. Y. and Shu, D. W. (2015) Fatigue and Structural Analysis of Welded Steel Joints. In: 8th International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies, Singapore, Asia, 28 Jun-3 Jul 2015,

Abstract

Welded joints are common in mechanical and marine structures, in particular Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels. The use of finite element method has brought significant advantages to the designers, as well as researchers, working in the area of welded structures. However, the use of finite element poses many challenges, due to the various methods to predict the stresses acting on the welded joints, such as the hotspot stress and effective notch methods, and the finite element models associated with these methods. In this research work, the hotspot stress and effective notch methods that are used to predict the stresses acting on the joints and finite element models associated with the methods are studied. Different types of elements, element sizes and meshing techniques are also considered. A comparative study of the results of the two methods is also performed. For the hotspot stress method, results show that the differences between the available models to predict the stresses in the welded joints can be significantly affected by the type of element chosen. For the effective notch method, initial studies show that the use of an effective notch ratio to determine the radius of the fictitious notch can improve the results of the finite element models. Further studies show that the use of triangular over quadrilateral elements for FE models will not significantly affect the results. Partitioning of the model mesh regardless of element type was strongly recommended over the free mesh technique. Results of the FE models have been verified with recommended models that have been presented in the literature.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Della, Dr Christian
• Authors: Della, C., Puah, C. Y., and Shu, D. W.
• Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General)
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering