Design of experiments for efficient fatigue life prediction of ship structures
Ships and Offshore Structures, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/17445302.2026.2715096
- Dergi Adı: Ships and Offshore Structures
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Applied Science & Technology Source, Compendex, INSPEC, Natural Science Collection (ProQuest), Earth, Atmospheric, & Aquatic Science Collection (ProQuest), Engineering Source (EBSCO), Materials Science & Engineering Collection (ProQuest), Technology Collection (ProQuest)
- Anahtar Kelimeler: design of experiments, Fatigue analysis, finite element analysis, ship structures, Taguchi method
- Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Fatigue damage in ship structures is a critical issue affecting operational safety and long-term reliability. Traditional fatigue analysis methods, including direct fatigue and spectral approaches, often incur high computational costs due to the large number of load scenarios. This paper presents a case study integrating Design of Experiments (DOE) techniques–specifically Taguchi's orthogonal array and the Plackett–Burman method–into fatigue analysis to reduce computational effort while maintaining accuracy. A representative ship model was analyzed using the Finite Element Method (FEM) under various operational and environmental conditions. Additionally, a simplified fatigue analysis was employed as an independent cross-check to confirm that the full-factorial baseline is not biased by scenario selection. A full-factorial design generated 108 FEM scenarios, reduced to 36 (Taguchi) and 22 (Plackett–Burman). Taguchi achieved 93% agreement with the full factorial analysis, while the Plackett–Burman achieved 84% agreement. These findings demonstrate that DOE techniques offer significant advantages as efficient, cost-effective and reliable tools for fatigue-life predictions in marine structures.