Numerical simulation on the ice-induced fatigue damage of ship structural members in broken ice fields

A fatigue damage assessment for an ice-going ship navigating through broken ice fields was carried out using a numerical model to simulate the interactions between ice floes and structure. The stress history was obtained by a numerical model and the corresponding fatigue analysis results are presented. The stress time series required for fatigue analysis could be extracted directly using an efficient interaction model, the application of a periodic media analysis method, and the convolution integral. A 2-parameter Weibull model was applied to describe the probability distribution of the stress amplitude, and the fatigue damage was obtained using the Palmgren-Miner rule. Finally, the fatigue damage considering the actual ice conditions of the Baltic Sea was calculated using the proposed method and LR method, and each result was compared.