Description

Marine structures are designed with a requirement to have reasonably long and safe operational life with a risk of catastrophic failures reduced to the minimum. Still, in a constant wish for reduced weight structures that can withstand increased loads, failures occur due to one or several following causes: excessive force and/or temperature induced elastic deformation, yielding, fatigue, corrosion, creep, etc. Therefore, it is important to identify threats affecting the integrity of marine structures. In order to understand the causes of failures, structure’s load response, failure process, possible consequences and methods to cope with and prevent failures, probably the most suitable way would be reviewing case studies of common failures. Roughly, marine structural failures can be divided into structural failures of ships, propulsion system failures, offshore structural failure, and marine equipment failures. This book chapter will provide an overview of such failures taking into account failure mechanisms, tools used for failure analysis and critical review of possible improvements in failure analysis techniques.

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