Parametric method for the assessment of fatigue damage for marine shaft lines

An original parametric method is introduced for the assessment of the fatigue life of marine shaft lines. The particularity of the method lies in the fact it introduces a relevant load modelling around a limited number of parameters specific to marine shaft lines while depicting the loading complexity (multiaxiality, mean stress effect, non-proportionality of the loading path). The method is designed to allow for assessments, in both in-use and pre-design phase shafts, towards a particular fatigue damage mode. The observations made in this study show two damage modes. On one hand, a damage mode issued from multiaxial cycles and associated with ship maneuvers, corresponding to HCF regime. On the other hand, there is a damage mode in the VHCF regime resulting from bending stress cycles due to the structure rotary bending.