Towards a Qualitative-Quantitative Decision-Making Aid for Fatigue Life Evaluation of Naval High Speed Light Craft

Abstract

The Life of Type (LOT) of a naval High Speed Light Craft (HSLC) can be limited by its structural fatigue life. The fatigue life of a ship is influenced by many factors, such as geometry, fabrication quality, the long-term load distribution, and analytical techniques. The complex dependencies between these factors and the fatigue life cause uncertainty in predictions. A lack of understanding of uncertainty can adversely affect the management of LOT risks, resulting in the reduction of availability of the ship and costly repairs. Therefore, improved understanding of the benefits and limitations of different fatigue life evaluation approaches informs the management of risks relating to the ship’s LOT. This paper presents the first phase of work in a comparative analysis of different fatigue life evaluation approaches for naval HSLC. The present work involves a holistic data review, codification of the data to reveal key themes, and individual expert comparative analysis of the different approaches. The next phase of the study is also described.