Assessment of Fatigue Crack Growth in Imperfect Lap Joint: Part 2 — Crack Propagation Analysis Using “SCANP”

The deck plates of single-deck-type floating roofs for large oil storage tanks are joined by single-welded Full-fillet lap joints. In areas with frequent strong winds, fatigue cracks sometimes occur in the welds of the deck plate. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of the gap imperfection of the lap joints on the fatigue life. In the case that tensile load acted on Full-fillet lap joints, the stress at the crack face becomes larger by gap imperfection of the lap joint. The authors have developed a software system called “SCANP (Surface Crack Analysis Program)”, a software system to evaluate the stress intensity factor, K, and to simulate fatigue crack propagation for surface cracks for arbitrarily distributed surface stresses. The fatigue life of a lap joint was predicted by the “SCANP” using the calculated stresses at the root crack face and the toe crack face. The number of loading cycles to penetration for arbitrary bending load amplitudes and tensile load amplitudes are obtained.