A Simplified Approach to Estimate the Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of Ship Hull

Abstract

In this paper, the calculation of the ultimate longitudinal strength of the ship hull is revisited. A simplified approach dealing with the longitudinal ultimate strength of ship hull has been developed and an effective numerical program is implemented based on the individual components of ship structures. It is, then, possible to find the ultimate strength of the whole ship structure by evaluating those individual components. Comparisons of numerical results from the proposed approach and published literatures are conducted for further validation. Since relative errors of calculations of the current approach to the literature with respect to the experimental data are within 3%, it is shown that the proposed approach can be adopted for the estimation of the ultimate bending strength of ship hull in sagging or hogging condition with and without at fully plastic state. In addition, a comparison between the numerical result and the existing expression for a very large crude carrier also shows that the proposed approach is not only as accurate as those published literatures but also more available. Therefore, the proposed approach with the numerical program is quite suitable to be adopted in the preliminary design of ship structure due to its accuracy and simplicity.