Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

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Problem descriptions
This example is a fatigue analysis of an existing design to check the fatigue life of critical
weld details. The crane trolley runs on rails supported by two box girders. The box girders
have diaphragms at intervals along its length.

The crane operates 200 days per year. The crane travels along girders 20 times/day carrying a
load of 15 tons (150 kN) including dynamic effects, the dead weight of the trolley being 1 ton
(10kN).
20 x 200 times a load of 150 kN
The analysis is carried out for the case when the trolley returns empty
10 x 200 times trolley returns empty
and then for the case when the trolley returns carrying a load of 7 tons (70kN).
10 x 200 times trolley returns with a load of 70 kN

Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

The critical welded details have been identified in the inset sketch
and numbered 1-5. The weld description and their categorization
for fatigue purpose by Eurocode 3, Part 1.1 are as follows:
1
EC 100
Longitudinal web to bottom flange manual fillet weld, closing welds of
the box section, 4 mm throat

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Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

2
EC 80
Transverse manual fillet at bottom edge of diaphragm to web weld
3
EC 80
Transverse manual fillet at top edge of diaphragm to top flange weld
Weld details 4 has to be accessed for the direct compression
stresses produced by the local wheel loads as well as bending
stresses resulting from the girders behaving as a beam, and the
longitudinal shear stresses from shears in bending.
4
EC 112/EC 80
Web to top flange longitudinal manual T-butt weld under crane rail

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Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

4
EC 80 for shear flow
Web to top flange longitudinal manual T-butt weld under crane rail

EC 80

Welded stud bolt for fastening rail.

Given values
b t_flange := 500 mm
tt_flange := 10 mm
W1 := 150 kN
:=

b b_flange := 500 mm h web := 500 mm

tb_flange := 10 mm

W2 := 70 kN

tweb := 10 mm

Wdead := 10 kN

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Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

Ls := 15 m

Stress calculations
Calculation of moment inertia and section modulus of the box girders

Area of each element

top flange At_f := b t_flange tt_flange = 5 10 3 mm 2
bottom flange Ab_f := bb_flange tb_flange = 5 10 3 mm 2
3

Aw := hweb tweb = 5 10 mm

web

Distance from centroid of each element to bottom flange

top flange

bottom flange

web

yw :=

tt_flange
yt_f := hweb + tb_flange +
= 515 mm
2
tb_flange
yb_f :=
= 5 mm
2
hweb
2

+ tb_flange = 260 mm

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Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

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The values of the calculation are shown in the following table:

Element
Area A
top flange
6500
bottom flange
5000
Webs
10000
Total
21500
* Distance from bottom flange

y*
515
5
260

Ay
Ay^2
3347500 1723962500
25000
125000
2600000 676000000
5972500 2400087500

The position of neutral axis can be calculated as: ycg =

ycg :=

5972500 mm
21500 mm

Ay
, i.e.
A

= 277.791 mm

The second moment of area can be calculated as:

Total1 =

Ay

Total1 := 2400087500 mm

1
1
3
4
8
4
3
4
4
4
Iweb :=
500 10 mm = 1.042 10 mm
Itop_f :=
650 10 mm = 5.417 10 mm
12
12
1
3
4
4
4
Ibottom_f :=
500 10 mm = 4.167 10 mm
12

Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

Total2 =

A) ycg

Total2 := 21500 mm ycg = 1.659 10 mm

8

I := Total1 + 2 Iweb + Ibottom_f + Itop_f Total2 = 9.494 10 mm

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The section modulus can be calculated as:

I
6
3
Ztop :=
= 3.92 10 mm
(500 mm + 10mm + 10mm ycg)

I
6
3
Zbottom :=
= 3.418 10 mm
ycg

Calculation of bending stresses

Participation of the crane rail is ignored. The highest bending stresses will be at midspan when
the trolley is also at midspan. As the trolley passes from one end to the other end of the girders,
the bending moment due to living loading will go from zero to maximum and back to zero. The load
is assumed to be carried equally between the two girders. Maximum bending moment range per
girder
M :=

(W1 + Wdead) Ls
2 4

= 300 kN m

The stresses can be calculated using simple bending theory, i.e.

Bending S =

M y
I

or

S=

M
Z

Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

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This calculation leads to the following results for the stress ranges at different weld details under
the full load conditions.
h := hweb + tt_flange + tb_flange = 520 mm
S ( y) :=
Point 1

M y
I
y1 :=

h web
2

= 250 mm

S ( y1 ) = 78.996 MPa

Point 2

y2 := ycg tb_flange 100 mm = 167.791 mm

Point 3

y3 := h tt_flange ycg = 232.209 mm

S ( y3 ) = 73.375 MPa

y4 := h tt_flange ycg = 232.209 mm

S ( y4 ) = 73.375 MPa

y5 := h ycg = 242.209 mm

S ( y5 ) = 76.535 MPa

Point 4

Point 5

S ( y2 ) = 53.019 MPa

Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

Assessment for the trolley carrying the full load of 150 kN

According to Eurocode 3, Ni may be calculated as follows:

Ni ( Si) =

SD

6 Mf
5 10

Ff i

SD

6 Mf
5 10

Ff i

if

Ff Si <

if

if

Ff Si

SD
Mf

SD
Mf

> Ff Si

SL
Mf

SL
Mf

in which
Ff := 1.0 is the partial safety factor for fatigue loading;
Mf := 1.35 is the partial safety factor for fatigue strength
according to Table 9.3.1;
SD is the stress range at constant amplitude fatigue limit;
SL is the stress range at cut-off limit;

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Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

According to the welded details, the following categories and characteristic values for each
welded details are provided according to Eurocode 3

100
80

SC := 80 MPa
112

80

73.681
58.945

SD := SC = 58.945 MPa
5
82.522

58.945

1
3

1
5

1
3

5 2
SL :=
SC
100

Si :=

S ( y1)

78.996
S ( y2) 53.019

S ( y3) = 73.375 MPa

73.375
S ( y4)

76.535

S ( y5)

3
5

n := 3
5

3

40.471
32.377

SL = 32.377 MPa
45.328

32.377

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Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

Ni ( Si , SD , SL) :=

SD

Mf
ND

Ff Si

SD

Mf
ND

Ff Si

if

(
N2 := Ni (
N3 := Ni (
N4 := Ni (
N5 := Ni (
N1 := Ni

Si
Si
Si
Si
Si

ND := 5 10
if

Ff Si <

Ff Si

SD

if

Mf
SL
Mf

)
307
SL ) = 1 10
1 ,0
307
SL ) = 1 10
2 ,0
307
SL ) = 1 10
3 ,0
307
SL ) = 1 10
4 ,0

= 1 10
, SD , SL
0 ,0
0 ,0
0 ,0
1 ,0

, SD ,
1 ,0

2 ,0

, SD ,
2 ,0

3 ,0

, SD ,
3 ,0

4 ,0

, SD ,
4 ,0

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307

SD
Mf

> Ff Si

SL
Mf

Example:

let

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

N1

N2

N150 := N3
N
4
N5

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1 10307

1 10307

307
N150 = 1 10

307
1 10

307
1 10

Since the crane travels the length of girders 20 times per day and the crane operates 200 days
a year. Therefore,

20 200
20 200

n 150 := 20 200
20 200

20

200

4 10 3

4 10 3

3
n 150 = 4 10

3
4 10

3
4 10

Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

The damage per year for each welded detail can be calculated using

n150
D150 :=

N
150

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ni
Ni

, i.e.

0
0

D150 = 0
0

0

Assessment for the trolley returning empty

The weight of the empty trolley is 10 kN compared to 160 kN for the fully loaded trolley. The
bending stress ranges due to the passage of the empty trolley will be 1/16 of those for the full
trolley. These ranges are all less than 10 MPa. The cut-off limits for all categories for direct stress
ranges, SL, have a minimum value of 14 MPa for category EC 36. Adopting this value the
applied stress ranges due to empty return trolley are all less than SL / Mf and can be ignored.

Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

Assessment for the trolley returning carrying load of 70 kN

In this case, each detail experiences half the number of cycles of stress ranges at a level of
(80/160), i.e. half the full stress ranges calculated above. These cycles have to be assessed
separately to find their damage sum n/N per year.
Si :=

Si
2

(
N2 := Ni (
N3 := Ni (
N4 := Ni (
N5 := Ni (
N1 := Ni

)
SL )
1 ,0
SL )
2 ,0
SL )
3 ,0
SL )
4 ,0

Si

, SD , SL
0 ,0
0 ,0
0 ,0

N1 = 1 10

307

Si

, SD ,
1 ,0
1 ,0

N2 = 1 10

307

Si

, SD ,
2 ,0
2 ,0

N3 = 1 10

307

Si

, SD ,
3 ,0
3 ,0

N4 = 1 10

307

Si

, SD ,
4 ,0
4 ,0

N5 = 1 10

307

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Example:

let

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

N1

N2

N70 := N3
N
4
N5

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1 10 307

1 10 307

307
N70 = 1 10

307
1 10

307
1

10

Since the crane travels the length of girders 10 times per day and the crane operates 200 days a
year. Therefore,

10 200
10 200

n 70 := 10 200
10 200

10

200

2 103

2 103

3
n 70 = 2 10

3
2 10

3
2 10

Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

The damage per year for each welded detail can be calculated using

n70
D70 :=

N
70

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ni
Ni

i.e.

0
0

D70 = 0
0

0

Assemblage of the calculated damage and determination of the fatigue life

The total damage can be calculated as:

0
0

D = 0
0

0

D := D150 + D70

Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

The fatigue life for each welded detail can be calculated as:

1
Fatigue_life :=
D

1.667 10303

1.667 10303

303
Fatigue_life = 1.667 10

303
1.667 10

303
1.667 10

Thus, the fatigue life due to bending effect is 221.463 years.

Assemt for weld at point 4 due to local stress

The stress ranges in weld 4 due to local wheel loads are calculated using a 90 degree load
dispersion and from an assumed point contact force, giving the following results based on an
individual wheel load of 40 kN.
Compression stress in weld 4:

Slocal := 40 MPa

EC category is 71 and characteristic stress values are:

SClocal := 71 MPa

1
3

2
SDlocal := SClocal = 52.313 MPa
5

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Example:

FAT life calculation for welded details on girders of a travelling overhead crane

SDlocal

Ff Slocal = 40 MPa

= 38.751 MPa

Mf

Damage can be calculated as:

3

SDlocal

Mf
6
6
Nlocal :=
5 10 = 4.546 10
Ff Slocal

1
7
Dlocal :=
= 2.2 10
Nlocal

The applied number of cycles for the local wheel load stresses is twice number for bending
stress cycles because the trolley has two wheels on each rail, i.e.
n local := 20 200 2 = 8 10
The total damage is

Dlocal_total := Dlocal nlocal = 1.76 10

The fatigue life due to local stress is

1
Dlocal_total

= 568.243

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