Simplified Approach to Inspection Planning

Authors

Allan Bloch, John D. Sørensen and Michael H. Faber

Abstract

A simplified and practically applicable approach for risk based inspection planning of fatigue sensitive structural details is presented. The basic idea behind the approach is that the fatigue sensitive details are categorized according to their stress intensity factors and their design fatigue life to service life ratio, i.e. the fatigue design factor (FDF) and SN curve. When the reserve strength ratio (RSR) and the corresponding probability of total structural failure given fatigue failure of the considered detail is known it is possible to make a generic description of fatigue sensitive structural details and thereby develop pre-made inspection plans in tables which depend on relative cost of inspections, repairs and failures. Due to the simplicity of the format of the developed inspection plans the proposed approach has a high potential in code making for the design and maintenance of steel structures. The validity of the proposed approach is illustrated through a study regarding inspection planning of offshore structures.

Published in/by

Proceedings PMC2000, 8th ASCE Specialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics and Structural Reliability, Notre Dame, Indianapolis USA, July 23-26, 2000.