Milana, GiuliaGiuliaMilanaBanisoleiman, KianKianBanisoleimanGonzález, ArturoArturoGonzález2016-09-232016-09-232016-09-29http://hdl.handle.net/10197/798526th European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL 2016), Glasgow, UK, 25-29 September 2016This paper reviews the most common causes of failure in ship unloaders. The structural forms employed in the design of ship unloaders and the characteristics of the loads acting on these structures are introduced first. Then, typical failures including overloading, joint failure, cable breaking, corrosion and fatigue failure amongst others, are described. Fatigue failure is discussed in further detail. When assessing a ship unloader for fatigue, it is necessary to define the fatigue demand and the fatigue strength capacity of those structural details under investigation. The latter experiences stress cycles that accumulate over time until reaching a limit that leads to cracking. Loads and stresses need to be monitored to describe those cycles, and critical locations must be checked to prevent a catastrophic failure.enShip unloadersFatigue failureOverloadingConference Publication2016-09-21https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/