Fatigue Analysis on Key Components of Semi-Submersible Platform

Fatigue damage is one of the main reasons of the failure of Semi-Submersible platform. As the complex of random loading, it is difficult to analyze fatigue life accurately and determine the sensitivity of parameters. In this paper, the fatigue life on key-components of semi-submersible platform is analyzed with Spectral-based analysis method. Firstly, the stress responses of whole model platform under the random wave loads are calculated. The calculation results of whole model platform for cut-boundary interpolation are used in local model to calculate the key-component stress responses of local model. Generating the fatigue stress energy spectrum by scaling the wave energy spectrum and the complex fatigue stress transfer function in detail local model is described next. The stress response of short-term sea-state is assumed to obey Rayleigh distribution, and the spectral moments are calculated. Finally, the fatigue life of key components is analyzed according to S-N curve and Palmgren-Miner’s rule. The results show that the fatigue life of the connection meets the specification requirements, and the key components are the fatigue sensitive areas of semi-submersible platform.