Abstract
Corrosion at welds is pointed out as a main factor that causes damage to ships. Insufficient maintenance for ship causes serious accidents due to the deterioration of products. These accidents lead to serious problems such as environmental pollution from spilled oil, loss of life, etc. In order to prevent such accidents, we have to design the Life-Cycle of a product before product design, evaluate a product-life, and make maintenance plans by computer simulation. Additionally, we should think of realizing the best product design from the viewpoint of whole Life-Cycle management.
This paper presents the Welds Spring Model, which can be considered an effect of corrosion at welds of a ship structure, and shows the scenario for the collapse of a ship. The Welds Spring Model is defined by several springs on welds to consider welds as a structural element like parts. In addition, the simulation for evaluating the product deterioration by corrosion at welds is discussed. In order to support the Life-Cycle design with consideration of the corrosion, we have developed the Life-Cycle system that is based on a product model for the computer aided design and production.
