Round Robin Study on Structural Hot-Spot and Effective Notch Stress Analysis

Within the Network of Excellence MARSTRUCT a round robin was carried out in which three different structural details were assessed by calculating structural hot-spot stresses or in one case the effective notch stresses. The first structural detail deals with the stress increase at thickness steps in plate structures. For two different cases the structural hot-spot stress is determined with different types of models. The second structural detail is the penetration of a longitudinal through a bulkhead with four different hot-spots. The third structural detail deals with the assessment of root failure of single-sided fillet welds. The welded joint of the end connection of a rectangular hollow section member is taken as an example. The relevant stress here is the effective notch stress in the fictitiously rounded notch root. In the paper, the different modelling techniques applied are described. The results are compared with each other and sources of scatter are identified. Finally, recommendations regarding appropriate modelling are derived from the results.