The influence of small flaws on the fatigue crack growth threshold will be investigated in this project. It is hoped that via experimental effort and fracture mechanics assessments, it will be possible to demonstrate that the design life of welded structures in ships can be improved by taking into account the growth of short flaws.
The work carried out during this PhD is focusing on mechanical testing to simulate “short” cracks and establish corresponding ΔK0; engineering critical assessment (ECA) in accordance with BS 7910; and computational simulation to examine the effect of crack size on ΔK0.
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