Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering · Inha University
Marine Structural Mechanics
and Integrity Lab
Fracture and fatigue assessment for ships and offshore structures, grounded in structural mechanics and advanced through sensing, simulation, and software.
- Current projects
- 7
- Research thrusts
- 9
- Public tools
- 3
- Student researchers
- 6
Marine Structural Mechanics and Integrity Lab 선박해양 구조역학 및 구조건전성평가 연구실
Structural mechanics provides the foundation: how structures carry load, deform, buckle, and collapse under operational and extreme conditions. Structural integrity builds on that foundation to assess crack initiation and growth, fatigue damage, and fitness for continued service.
Research thrusts
All research →Nine lines of work, held together by one question: how marine structures fail, and how far ahead of the failure we can see it coming. Follow any card for the methods, the funding behind it, and the papers it rests on.
Ductile fracture and failure of marine steels
How marine steels neck and tear, measured in tests and written into finite element subroutines.
- Hosford–Coulomb
- VUMAT
- material testing
- localised necking
Fatigue, crack growth and engineering critical assessment
Whether a structure that already carries a defect is fit to stay in service.
- engineering critical assessment
- fatigue crack growth
- welded joints
Collision, grounding and crashworthiness of ship structures
Collision, grounding and dropped objects, carried past the point where plating tears.
- ship collision
- grounding
- plate tearing
- accidental limit state
Blast, underwater explosion and naval survivability
Damage extent and whipping response of naval hulls under explosion and internal blast.
- underwater explosion
- hull whipping
- in-compartment blast
- survivability
Ultimate strength and progressive collapse
Buckling, load shedding and final collapse of hull girders and stiffened panels.
- progressive collapse
- hull girder
- stiffened panels
- differentiable methods
Moorings and dynamic power cables for floating offshore wind
The mechanics that sets the fatigue life of floating wind moorings and power cables.
- dynamic power cables
- mooring fatigue
- CableDyn
- CableXsec
Virtual sensing, monitoring and structural digital twins
Reconstructing load and fatigue state from the few measurements that can realistically be taken.
- virtual sensing
- Kalman filtering
- inverse finite element method
- digital twins
Floating solar and marine renewable energy structures
Wave response of large floating solar arrays, and the connectors holding them together.
- floating solar
- wave-structure interaction
- seakeeping
- connectors
Peridynamic modelling of crack initiation and growth in welded steel
Cracks that form and branch from the material model rather than from the mesh.
- peridynamics
- welded steel
- hydrogen effects
- crack initiation
Research software
Software & facilities →We treat research software as an output in its own right, developed under version control with automated tests and documentation, and released as the accompanying papers appear.
Mission and vision
Advancing structural mechanics and integrity assessment for safe and sustainable marine infrastructure, with particular emphasis on fracture, fatigue, and structural failure.
Cracks and fatigue damage often develop where direct observation is difficult. We investigate the mechanics of damage and failure, then turn that understanding into assessment and monitoring methods that engineers can use with confidence.
- Creativity
- Openness
- Responsibility
- Excellence
The team
All members →
Jun Soo LimPropeller–ice interaction and ice milling
Kyusung ShimFracture mechanics and naval ship structures
Woojin LeeUltimate strength of ship structures
Jun Hyeok HwangOut-of-plane and in-plane bending (OPB/IPB)-induced fatigue in a fairlead mooring chain
Hui Won LeeEngineering critical assessment of IMO independent Type B and Type C tanks
Jin Seong ParkStructural integrity of dynamic power cables
What's happening
All news →Work with us
Graduate students investigate fracture and fatigue in ships and offshore structures through mechanics, modelling, virtual sensing, and research software.
Now open: 2 MSc positions and 1 PhD position are available for the 2027 September intake. Undergraduate research slots are currently full.
Find us
Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean EngineeringInha University
100 Inha-ro, 2N481, Michuhol-gu, Incheon 22212, Republic of Korea