Structural geometry and stochastic loads such as swell and wind seas can typically induce multiaxial stress states in welded details of marine structures. It is known that such complex time varying stress states determine the fatigue resistance of welded steel joints. Therefore, it is of importance to account for them in fatigue lifetime assessment. Over the past few decades, a wide variety of design codes and guidelines have been developed for performing fatigue assessments in engineering practice. In particular for multiaxial fatigue lifetime assessment, additional methods have been developed. These multiaxial fatigue methods are typically developed within academia. A consensus on the most suitable approach for the assessment of multiaxial fatigue in marine structures is lacking. This requires thorough investigation of all different approaches, and equitable comparison and validation with experimental data. Establishing a test setup that enables to test multiaxial fatigue of welded marine structures, is however time and cost intensive. Therefore, experimental multiaxial fatigue data is scarce.

Structural geometry and stochastic loads such as swell and wind seas can typically induce multiaxial stress states in welded details of marine structures. It is known that such complex time varying stress states determine the fatigue resistance of welded steel joints. Therefore, it is of importance to account for them in fatigue lifetime estimation. Over the past few decades a wide variety of design guidelines and methods have been developed for multiaxial fatigue assessment, but so far there does not exist a general hypothesis applicable to all possible load cases. This study provides an overview of the current state-ofthe-art in academia and engineering practice in terms of multiaxial fatigue assessment, and is focusing on the application to welded joints in marine structures. The progress of different approaches and methods is elaborated and commented upon, taking their hypothesis and (physical) basis into consideration. The insights that are provided in this paper form a valuable foundation for future investigations and emphasize the necessity of experimental proofs and model validation.

In engineering practice, multiaxial fatigue analyses are often avoided due to their complexity and computational intensity. However, damages have been encountered in turret bearings of Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO) offloading buoys which were likely caused by multiaxial fatigue. The Dang Van criterion has often been used to assess problems with multiaxial fatigue in rolling contacts. Therefore, this study set out to validate the application of the Dang Van criterion to turret bearings of FPSO offloading buoys. For this purpose, the criterion was corrected with a horizontal conservative locus for compressive hydrostatic stresses. Three load cases were identified based on the seakeeping analysis of an FPSO offloading buoy equipped with a wheel-rail turret bearing. For each load case, the surface pressure distribution and sub-surface stress states were determined analytically. Staircase tests were used to determine the characteristic parameters (α and β) of the Dang Van curve. Then, the Dang Van criterion was corrected and used to perform a multiaxial fatigue analysis in the critically stressed area of the wheel-rail contact. Finally, full-scale, long-duration fatigue tests were used to validate the results. The corrected Dang Van criterion shows agreement with the experimental results and is not rejected as multiaxial fatigue criterion for application to turret bearings in FPSO offloading buoys.

Marine structures are particularly prone to action of waves, winds and currents with stochastically varying composition, intensities and directions. Therefore, resultant stresses may cause multiaxial fatigue in specific welded structural details. For the assessment of multiaxial fatigue in welded joints, a wide variety of methods have been suggested. However, there is still no consensus on a method which can correctly account for non-proportional and variable amplitude loading. This paper beholds a comparative study of multiaxial fatigue methods applicable for design of marine structures. For the purpose of comparison several load cases were defined including non-proportional and variable amplitude loadings with different normal and shear stress amplitude ratios. Three types of methods are compared: those described by three different codes (i.e. Eurocode 3, IIW and DNV-GL), those described by three different multiaxial fatigue approaches from literature (i.e. Modified Carpinteri-Spagnoli Criterion, Modified Wohler Curve Method and Effective Equivalent Stress Hypothesis) and an approach based on Path-Dependent-Maximum-Range multiaxial cycle counting. From this study it has been concluded that non-proportional variable amplitude loading has a significant negative impact on the fatigue lifetime estimates, and that further research and experimental testing are essential to come to a consensus.