MASTS Webinar “Application of Peridynamics for Marine Structures”

Marine structures are subjected to harsh marine environment which can cause various damage types including fatigue and corrosion. Prediction of fracture and failure is a challenging research area. There are various methods available for this purpose including well-known finite element (FE) method. FE method is a powerful technique for deformation and stress analysis of structures. However, it has various disadvantages in predicting failure due to its mathematical structure. In order to overcome this problem, a new computational technique peridynamics was introduced. Peridynamics is a meshless method and it is very suitable for predicting crack initiation and propagation in structures subjected to different types of loading and environmental conditions. Peridynamics is also suitable for multiphysics analysis so that influence of different physical fields on each other can be accurately represented with damage prediction capability. In this webinar, various applications of peridynamics for marine structures will be demonstrated including stress corrosion cracking, pit-to-crack transition, underwater shock response of composite structures, fatigue damage prediction in metals, ice-structure interactions and fracture in marine lithium-ion batteries.

While Peridynamics is a useful technique for damage prediction in a structure, it is also important to  continuously monitor the health of marine structures by using sensors located at different parts of structures by establishing their “digital twin”, so that necessary actions can be taken before catastrophic consequences occur. There are various structural health monitoring approaches available for this purpose. In this webinar, a new methodology, known as inverse Finite Element Method (iFEM), will also be presented. iFEM has various advantages for being fast and robust which makes it suitable for real-time monitoring. Moreover, it is not necessary to measure loading acting on the structure which may not be an easy task under operational conditions.

 

This webinar is part of the MASTS 2025 webinar series. Join each month for a deep dive into the research from our members and wider marine science community. Want to get involved? Contact us by email with your webinar suggestion at masts@st-andrews.ac.uk.