Font Size: 

The objective of this work was to develop a methodology for assessing the structuralintegrity of mooring components for offshore applications. Finite element calculations wereperformed in order to determine the stress levels in studless and stud chain links as well asto evaluate the critical regions of the links. A study was also developed based on theconcept of critical volume associated with the material volume susceptible to a certaincritical crack size. The results showed that the studless chain links present a higher criticalvolume than that related to the stud chain links, fact that confirms the beneficial effect ofthe stud. According to the crack assessment procedure the critical crack length is smallerfor the stud chain links. However, the critical association between volume and crack sizeturns the studless chain links more susceptible to brittle fracture than the stud chain links.