Probability-Based Cost Benefit Analysis of Fatigue Design , Inspection and Maintenance

Safety of marine structures against fatigue failure is achieved through design of individual elemen~, utilization of structural redundancy, and ins~ction for fatigue cracks with subsequent repair of detected cracks. Eachsafety itemhasa certain COSIanditisof impmlance[ominimizethetotaf exp?cted costforthelife time of the structure, Four different repair strategies are compared arid the total expected cost of design, insyction, repair and failure is minimized. The optimization parameters are a stress related design parameter, ins~ction times, andinspection qualities.