| Monitoring System |
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| Hull structure's fatigue life monitoring system using fatigue sensors |
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Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation developed with Kawasaki Heavy Industries a compact and highly sensitive sensor, Fatigue Damage Sensor (FDS), which can be attached for fatigue damage monitoring in the vicinity of welding parts of structures exposed to fluctuating loads.
On FDS, crack will propagate from the initial notch after receiving fluctuating strains on the structural members. The fatigue damage can be monitored by measuring its crack length on FDS using the fundamental characteristic of FDS; its crack growth rate is always constant independent of its crack length against the same strain fluctuating ranges. More accuracy results will be anticipated as compact Kawasaki FDS can be attached on the stress concentrating areas as close as possible.
Comparing to the fatigue damage evaluation method by strain gauges, monitoring method by FDS is a simple and easy one with low-price. FDS application is growing day by day throughout bridges, rolling stocks, and so on in addition to ships. |
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| Structure of FDS |
Kawasaki FDS |
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