Spectral fatigue analyses comparison study: Suez Canal vs. Cape of Good Hope Arab Academy for Science, Technologies and Maritime Transport (AASTMT)

ABSTRACT Suez Canal is one of the shortest navigational routes between east and west. Vessels that transit the Canal should normally save distance, time and operating cost. During the current economic recession and low fuel prices, longer shipping routes may be chosen to avoid the Canal transit fees. Harsh weather conditions may be encountered along these lengthy routes resulting in higher stresses and structural fatigue damage on ship’s hull, which would impact structural safety and affects the cost of ship maintenance. This paper quantifies ship structural fatigue damage along the routes: Suez Canal transit versus the Cape of Good Hope. Several voyages of an Aframax tanker along these routes are selected and evaluated for fatigue damage using a route-specific spectral fatigue damage assessment approach. Fatigue accumulation during the tanker lifetime, for each trade route, is computed as the sum of all the encountered sea states having caused fatigue damage along that route. Results are presented as fatigue damage and fatigue life for each trade route. Results show that in addition to saving in distance and time, less accumulated fatigue is achieved along the Suez Canal route.