FRACTURE MECHANICS, FRACTURE CRITERIA. AND FRACTURE CONTROL FOR WELDED STEEL SHIP HULLS

ASSTffACT [~ This paper describes a comprehensive toughness criteria for welded ship hulls that can be used for shipbuilding steels of all strength levels. Because of the fact that stress concentrations are al”ays present in large corfplex welded structures such as ships, high local stresses as well as discontirmities or flaw “ill be present in welded ship hulls. Therefore, primary emphasis in the proposed fracture-control guidelines is placed on the use of steels with moderate levels of notch-toughness and on the use of properly designed crack arresters, rnwever, the importance of proper design and fabrication should be emphasized.