Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures Vol 2

Practical Design of Ships and
Other Floating Structures

Practical Design of Ships and
Other Floating Structures
Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on
Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures
16 - 21 September 2001
Shanghai, China
Edited by
You-Sheng Wu
China Ship Scientific Research Center,
Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
Wei-Cheng Cui
School of Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, China
and
Guo-Jun Zhou
China Ship Scientific Research Center,
Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
Volume II
2001
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First edition 200 I
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

International Symposium on Practical Design of Ships and
other Floating Structures (8th: 2001 Shanghai, China)
Practical design of ships and other floating structures
proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on
Practical Design of Ships and other Floating Structures
16-21 September 2001, Shanghai, China
1_Naval architecture - Congresses 2. Shipbuilding -
Congresses
I. Title II. Wu, You-Sheng III. Cui, Wei-Cheng IV. Zhou,
Guo-Jun
623.8
ISBN 0080439500
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record from the Library of Congress has been applied for.
ISBN: 0-08-043950-0 (2 Volume set)
@J The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Printed in The Netherlands.
v
PREFACE
During the last century the science and technology of ships and marine structures experienced
extremely great progress, and thus created the modern shipbuilding, shipping and ocean industries.
The relevant achievements were a part of the driving sources, which changed the whole world and the
society. Among the efforts towards these achievements was the creation of "The First International
Symposium on Practical Design in Shipbuilding" in 1977 in Tokyo. Later on it became a series of
symposia, PRADS as the abbreviation. Last century seven PRADS symposia were held in Tokyo ('77
and '83), Seoul ('83 and '95), Trondheim ('87), Varna ('89), Newcastle ('92) and The Hague ('98).
This proceedings contains the papers presented at "The 8th International Symposium on Practical
Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures" held at Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition
Center, China on 16-21 September 2001. This is the first of the PRADS Symposia in the 21st century.
The overall aim of PRADS symposia is to advance the design of ships and other floating structures
as a professional discipline and science by exchanging knowledge and promoting discussion of
relevant topics in the fields of naval architecture and marine and offshore engineering. Inline with the
aim, in welcoming the new era this Symposium is particularly for an increase in international
cooperation and giving a momentum for the new development of design and production technology of
ships and other f10ating structures for efficiency, economy, safety, and environmental production.
The main themes of this Symposium are Design Synthesis, Production, Hydrodynamics,
Structures and Materials of Ships and Floating Systems. Proposals for over 270 papers from 26
countries and regions within the themes were received for PRADS'2001, and about 170 papers were
accepted for presentation at the symposium. With the high quality of the proposed papers the Local
Organizing Committee had a difficult task to make a balanced selection and to control the total number
of papers for fitting into the allocated time schedule approved by the Standing Committee ofPRADS.
Volume I of the proceedings covers the subjects about design synthesis, production and part of
hydrodynamics. Volume II contains the subjects for the rest of hydrodynamics, structures and
materials.
On behalf of the Standing Committee of PRADS and the Local Organizing Committee of
PRADS '200 1, we would like to thank all the participants for their great contributions to the successful
symposium. The full support from the sponsors, Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering Division of
Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and
Chinese Institute of Navigation are greatly acknowledged. Sincere gratitude is also extended to China
Ship Scientific Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and other institutes and shipyards in
China, who have helped the preparation of this Symposium.
You-Sheng Wu
Wei-Cheng Cui
Guo-Jun Zhou
VII
These Proceedings of Volumes I and II contain papers presented at the 8th International
Symposium on Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures. The Symposium was held at
the Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition Center in Shanghai, China, on 16-21 September
2001, and organized by:
CAE Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering Division

CSNAME Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
CIN China Institution of Navigation
These organizations are represented in the Local Organizing Committee.
The Local Organizing Committee organized the Symposium under supervision of the PRADS's
Standing Committee. The Symposium gained the generous support of many sponsors. They are listed
together with the membership of the committees in the following.
HONORARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Mr. Rong-Sheng Wang, President, Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
Mr. Xiao-Jin Chen, President, China State Shipbuilding Corporation
Mr. Shan-Xiang Hong', Vice Minister, Ministry of Communications
Mr. Ping- Tao Huang, President, China Shipbuilding Industrial Corporation
Mr. Zai-Kuan Jin, Vice President, China State Shipbuilding Corporation
Mr. Ke-Jun Li, President, China Classification Society
Mr. Zu- Yi Lin, President, China Institute of Navigation
Prof. Dian-Zuo Wang, Vice President, Chinese Academy of Engineering
Mr. Hui Wang, Vice President, China Shipbuilding Industrial Corporation
Mr. Guang-Qin, Zhang, Vice President of Commission of Science,
Technology and Industry for National Defence
PRADS STANDING COMMITTEE
Prof. S. Motora (Honorary Chairman), Previously, Ship and Ocean Foundation, Japan
Prof. You-Sheng Wu (Chairman), China Ship Scientific Research Center, China
Prof. T. Borzecki, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland
Dr. L.L. Buxton, University afNewcastle, UK
Prof. O.M. Faltinsen, The Norwegian Institute of Technology, Norway
Dr. R. Porcari, Italian Ship Research Center, Italy
Prof. J. J. Jensen, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Prof. H. Kim, Seoul National University, Korea
Dr. D. Liu, American Bureau of Shipping, US.A.
Prof. H. Ohtsubo, University of Tokyo, Japan
Dr. M.W.C. Osterveld (Ex-officio), MARIN, The Netherlands
Prof. H. Petershagen, University q(Hamburg, Germany
Dr. S. G. Tan, MARIN, The Netherlands
Prof. Wei-Cheng, Cui (Secretary), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
viii
PRADS LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Prof. You-Sheng Wu (Chairman), China Ship Scientific Research Center

Prof. Jian-Xun Lu (Co-Chairman), China Ship Research and Development Academy
Prof. Ze-Liang Chang, Counselor s Office Shanghai Municipality
Mr. Tian-Zu Cheng, Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineering
Prof. Wei-Cheng Cui (Secretary), Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Prof. Shi- Tang Dong, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Prof. Xiao-Hong Gao, Wuhan University of Technology
Prof. Ri-Xiu Guo, Naval Engineering University
Prof. You-Sheng He, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Prof. Bing-Han Hsu, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Mr. Ke- Yi Hu, Shanghai Jiang Nan Shipyard
Prof. Sheng Huang, Harbin Engineering University
Prof. Zhuo-Shang Ji, Dalian University of Science and Technology
Mr. Qi-Kang Liang, Marine Design and Research Institute of China
Mr. Zhi-Ping Lu, Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute
Mr. Wen-Sun Shen, Dalian New Shipyard
Prof. Zi- Ying Sheng, Shanghai Academy of Science
Mr. Heng- Yuan Wang, Shanghai Hu Dong Shipyard
Prof. Xiu-Heng Wu, Wuhan University of Technology
Prof. Xue- Yan Xu, Marine Design and Research Institute of China
Mr. Heng- Yi Zeng, China Ocean Petroleum Co.
Prof. Bing- Van Zhang, Marine Design and Research Institute of China
Prof. Sheng-Kun Zhang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Prof. Guo-Jun Zhou (Secretary), China Ship Scientific Research Center
Mr. Zhen-Bo Zhou, Shanghai Corporation of Shipbuilding Industry
Prof. Ymg-Fu Zhu, Wuhan Ship Design Institute
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
Prof. Ying-Qiu Chen, China Classification Society

Prof. Zhu-Shun Dong, Naval Engineering University
Prof. Van-Liang Guo, Marine Design and Research Institute of China
Prof. Xiang-Lu Huang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Prof. Run-Pei Li, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Prof. Guo-Ping Miao, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Prof. Hong-Cui Shen, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Prof. Zhong-Kun Shi, Hua Zhong University of Science and Technology
Prof. Guo-Qiang Wang, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Prof. Chang-Jian Weng, Wuhan University of Technology
Prof. Fei Xia, Wuhan Ship Design Institute
Prof. Zuo-Shui Xie, Hua Dong Shipbuilding Institute
Prof. Zao-Jian Zou, Wuhan University of Technology
IX
SPONSORS
Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering Division

Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
China Institution of Navigation
Ship Mechanics Committee, CSNAME
China Ship Scientific Research Center
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Marine Design and Research Institute of China
Wuhan University of Technology
STAFF MEMBERS OF THE SECRETARIAT
Prof. Guo-Jun Zhou, China Ship Scientific Research Center

Mr. Bo-Ling Kang, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Mr. Zhen-Ping Weng, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Mr. Ren-Han Li, Chinese Academy of Engineering
Ms. Wen-Ji Li, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Mr. Xue- Wen Yin, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Ms. Jie Xu, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Ms. Qi-Hua Li, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Ms. Jia- Yu Qian, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Mr. Zheng- Yu Song, China Ship Scientific Research Center
Xl
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
Preface v
PLENARY LECTURES
Maritime Safety Culture and Development of Ship and Offshore Installations Design Standards 3
in the 21 st Century
Ke-Jun Li
Structural Safety of Ships 13

D. Liu
Shipping Industry in the 21 st Century 21

Jia-Fu Wei
1. DESIGN SYNTHESIS FOR SHIPS AND FLOATING SYSTEMS
LIFE CYCLE COST AND SHIPPING SYSTEM
A Consideration of Life Cycle Cost of a Ship 29

Yasushi Kumakura and Hiroshi Sasajima
The Experiment of River-Sea-Going Ore Barge Fleet and Renovation of Existing Integrated Barge 37
Shun-Huai Chen, Wei Zhang, Jun-Ming Li and Cheng-Fang Wang
DESIGN OPTIMISATION
Optimization of a Wave Cancellation Multihull Ship Using CFD Tools 43

C. Yang, R. Lohner and 0. Sofa
A Module-Oriented Optimization Tool 51

Ph. Riga
The Fine Optimization of Ship Hull Lines in Resistance Performance by Using CFD Approach 59
L. Xu and YY Wang
HULL FORM DESIGN
Parametric Hull Form Design - A Step Towards One Week Ship Design 67
C Abf, S.D. Bade, L. Birk and S. Harries
Mission Based Hydrodynamic Design of a Hydrographic Survey Vessel 75

s.L. Toxopeus, PF van Terwisga and C.H Thill
Hull Form Design of a Passenger Catamaran for Operation in the Yellow Sea Region 83
Seung-Hee Lee, Young-Gill Lee and Jae Wook Lee
XIl
Hull Form Design of Cargo Ship in Shallow and Strong Current Waterways 91
Li-Zheng Wang and Long-Fei Xi
NOVEL SHIP CONCEPTS - HIGH SPEED VESSELS
The Impact Load of Wing-in-Ground-Effect Craft in Waves and Application of Hydro-Ski 97

Zu-Shun Dong, Xiao-Peng Gao and Wei Sun
Conceptual Design of Very Large-Size Super-High-Speed Foil Catamaran Containership 105

Keh-Sik Min, Seon-Hyung Kang and Oi-Hyun Kim
A Practical Application of Air Lubrication on a Small High Speed Boat 113

Jinho Jang, II Jun Ahn, Jaesung Kim, Jung-Chun Suh, Hyochul Kim, Seung-Hee Lee and Museok Song
The Hybrid Hydrofoil Stepped Hull 119

S. Duffty and C.D. Barry
NOVEL SHIP CONCEPTS - TRIMARAN
The Design of Trimaran Ships: General Review and Practical Structural Analysis 127
T Coppola and M Mandarino
Calm Water Experimental Research on Geosims of High Speed Trimaran: Hydrodynamic Characteristics
and Model-Ship Correlation 135
E. Begovic, C. Bertorello and P Cassella
Trimaran Model Test Results and Comparison with Different High Speed Craft 143
C. Bertorello, D. Bruzzone, P Cassella and I. Zotti
Hull Form Development and Powering Performance Characteristics for a 2,500 Ton Class Trimaran 151
Kuk-Jin Kang, Chun-Ju Lee and Do-Hyun Kim
FLOATING PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
Design Recommendations from the FPSO - Fatigue Capacity JIP 159

I. Lotsberg
Design of FPSOs Based on Maneuvering Stability 167

us. Matter, JS Sales Jr. and SH Sphaier
Extreme Response and Fatigue Damage of Ship-Shaped FPSO 175

(,hun-Tian Zhao, Yong Bai and Yung Shin
VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURES (I)
An Investigation into Wave Induced Drift Forces and Motions of Very Large Floating Structures 187
N Ma, T Hirayama and K. Ishikawa
A Study on the Horizontally Dynamic Behavior of a VLFS Supported with Dolphins 197
Hao Liu, Hiroo Okada, Takashi Tsubogo and Koji Masaoka
Experimental Study on the HydroeIastic Response Characteristics of a Pontoon Type Floating Structure 205
T Y Chung, JH Chung, S Y Hong and YJ Ji
VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURES (II)
Simulation Study on Coastal Ecosystem Around a Very Large Floating Structure in Tokyo Bay 213
D. Kitazawa, M Fujino and S Tabeta
xiii
Effects of a Draft on Hydroelastic Responses of a Pontoon Type Very Large Floating Structure 22]
H Maeda, T Ikoma, C.K Rheem and M Arita
A Study on Deck Wetness and Slamming of Very Large Floating Structures 229
Hyunkyoung Shin, Ho-Young Lee, Choon-Gyu Lim, Jeom-Moon Kang, Oi-Hyun Kim and
Myung-Cheol Yoon
SAFETY ASSESSMENT
Probabilistic Ana]ysis Too]s for Surface Ships Under Seaway and Extreme Dynamic Loads 237
YJ Lua and FE. Hess
Comprehensive Fuzzy Approach in Hazard Identification of Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) 245
Ying-Qiu Chen and Shao-Fen Lin
Estimating the Risk of Cargo Shifting in Waves - Methodology and Results 253
A. Ryrfeldt and T Kallstam
DESIGN PRINCIPLE AND CRITERIA
Ship Design Using Probabilistic Damage Stability Rules - A Sensitivity Study 26]
P.H Lauridsen, JJ Jensen and J Baatrup
Integration of First-Princip]e Approaches to Design for Damage Survivability 269

D. Konovessis and D. Vassalos
Rational Design Criteria and Their Application to Hull Form Optimisation of F]oating Systems in
Random Seas 275
1. Birk and G.F Clauss
DESIGN METHODS
The Application of a Decomposition and Reuse Approach in Marine Design 285

KG. Tan and P Sen
Evaluating Design for Upgradeability: A Simulation Based Approach for Ships and Marine Products 293
1.1. Buxton and G.H Stephenson
Model-Based Simulation for Container Loading / Unloading 30]

Soon-Sup Lee, Jong-Kap Lee and Hong- Tae Kim
Research on 3D-Layout Design of Ship Compartment Based on CBR 309

Jun-Hua Li, Ying-Fu Zhu, Wen- Ye Ying and Jun Lu
Development of a Sophisticated Hull Form CAD System 'EzHULL' Based on a Non-Manifold Model
and' X-topology' 3] 5
Kyu-Yeul Lee, Joong-Hyun Rhim, Sang-Uk Lee, Doo-Yeoun Cho and Young-Bok Choi
MARINE STRUCTURAL DESIGN
A Design Modification of VLCC with Wide Web Frame Space 323

Jae-Hyung Park, Chang-Hwan Jang and Joo-Ho Heo
Optimization of the Design of Ship Structures Using Response Surface Methodo]ogy 33]
M Arai and T Shimizu
XIV
APPLICATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
A Study on an Information System of Damages of Ship Structures 341

Y Kawamura, T Seki, T Sakuragi and Y Sumi
Bayesian and Neural Networks for Preliminary Ship Design 349

HB. Clausen, M Liitzen, A. Friis-Hansen and N. Bjorneboe
2. PRODUCTION
DEVELOPMENT IN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Innovation in Ship Production: What Can We Expect? 359

H Wilckens
New Production System for Vessels of Composite Materials Using an Adjustable Mould 367
.long Oh Kwon, Jaesung Kim, .lung Chun Suh. Hyochul Kim, Seung Hee Lee, Young Gill Lee,
Kisung Kim, Jae Wook Lee, Jae Moon Lew, Sanghong Lee, Jae Kyu Lee, Dae Sun Kang and
Duk Soo Chung
Mobile Agent Based Supply Chain Management in Shipbuilding Industry 373

Jing-Yun Cheng, Bei Lu and Sheng-Kun Zhang
Energy and Environment Dimension in Ship Manufacturing Processes 381

MA. Shama
FABRICATION MECHANICS
Study on Heat Transfer Between Gas Flame and Plate During Line-Heating Process 389
Y Tomita, N. Osawa, K. Hashimoto, N. Shinkai, .l Sawamura and K. Matsuoka
Study on the Process Technology of Line Heat Forming of Hull Fabrication 397
Ylljun Lill, Zhuoshang Ji, Dong Wang and Yanping Deng
Numerical Simulation of Welding Distortions in Large Steel Structures 403

L. F. Andersen
3. HYDROMECHANICS
COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS - FLOW SIMULATION
Simulation of Viscous Flow of Modern Surface Ships Using the FINFLO RANS Solver 413
Ting-Qiu Li and .l Matusiak
Viscous Flow Around Rotating Ships 421

C. Levi and .lB. V Wanderley
Numerical Simulation of Flows over Underwater Axisymmetric Bodies with Full Appendages 429
Zhen-Yu Huang and Lian-Di Zhou
Viscous Flow Calculations Used for Dredger Design 437

M Hoekstra, A. de Jager and HH Valkhof
Fully Non-linear Wave Computations for Arbitrary Floating Bodies Using the DELTA Method 445
TZllng-Hang Lee and Chang-Lung Chen
xv
COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS - ENVIRONMENT
Flow Behavior Around Tandem Oil Fences 451

Dong Gi Han, Choung M Lee and Sang J Lee
A CFD-Based Parametric Study on the Smoke Behaviour of a Typical Merchant Ship 459
Eunseok Jin, Jaedon Yoon and Yongsoo Kim
Application ofCFD to Assessment and Design of the Air-Ventilation System in the Reefer Container
Holds of Container Carriers 467
Bong Jun Chang
RESISTANCE
Wash and Wave Resistance of Ships in Finite Water Depth 475

Qinzheng Yang, o.M Faltinsen and Rong Zhao
On Scale Effect of the Resistance Due to Stem Waves Including Forward-Oriented Wave Breaking
Just Behind a Transom Stern 485
T Yamano, Y Kusunoki, F. Kuratani, T Ikebuchi and 1 Funeno
Numerical and Experimental Evaluation of the Hull Characteristics of Two-Semi-Displacement

Fast Monohulls 493
CMF Sampaio, K Nishimoto, CH Miyagi, K Hirata and 1. Miwa
Empirical Prediction of Ship Resistance and Wetted Surface Area Using Artificial Neural Networks 501
K Koushan
A New Method for Resistance and Propulsion Prediction of Ship Performance in Shallow Water 509
T Jiang
Lower Frictional Resistance Characteristics of Foul Release Systems 517

M Candries, M Atlar, A. Guerrero and CD. Anderson
PERFORMANCE
Evaluation and Computer Program on the Speed Trial Analysis Method of the Ongoing Work in ISOrrC8 525
Eun-Chan Kim, Hyun-Se Yoon, Sa- Young Hong and Yoon-Rak Choi
A Test Procedure and Evaluation Method for Seakeeping Trials with Address to Broaching-To 533
0. Lundbdck
Experimental Investigation of Bank Effects under Extreme Conditions 54 I

D.-Q. Li, M Leer-Andersen, P. Ottosson and F Trdgardh
SEAKEEPING AND RINGING
Effects of Different Three Dimensional Formulations on the Seakeeping Computations of High Speed Hulls 547
D. Bruzzone, F Gualeni and L. Sebastiani
Measurement of Ship Motion During Model Tests and Full Scale Seakeeping Trials 555
Nan Xie, Guo-Liang Qian, Huan-Qiu Gao and Na-Xin Wei
Developing Seakeeping Performance Criteria for a Helicopter Pilot Training Vessel 563
F Crossland and MC Johnson
XVI
Dynamic Behaviour of Rigid Mono- and Multi-Hulled Vessels in Waves, Incorporating Non-Linear
Excitation 571
FA. Bailey, EJ Ballard and F Temarel
Time-Domain Simulations and Measurements of Loads and Motions of Planning High-Speed Craft
in Waves 579
K Garme
Analysis of Ringing by Continuous Wavelet Transform 587

SH Kwon, HS Lee, JS Park, MK Ha and YJ Kim
DECK WETNESS AND IMPACT
Green Sea and Water Impact on FPSO in Steep Random Waves 593
C. T Stansberg and Sf. Karlsen
Long Term Prediction Method of Shipping Water Load for Assessment of the Bow Height 603
Y Ogawa, H Taguchi, f. Watanabe and S Ishida
A Practical Design Tool for Wave Impact on Bow and Deck Structures 611
0. Hellan, JR. HojJ and C. T Stansberg
SLAMMING AND SLOSHING
Wave Impact on Decks of Floating Platforms 621

R. Baarholm, OM Faltinsen and K Herfjord
Impact Pressure Analysis on High-Speed Craft in Waves, through FE-Analysis on Full-Scale and Model 629
Measurement Data
A. Rosen
Assessment of Sloshing Loads for Tankers 637

P. C. Sames and T.£ Schellin
MANOEUVRABILITY - COMPUTATION AND SIMULATION
Prediction of Hydrodynamic Forces Acting on Ship Hull in Oblique and Turning Motions by a Simple
Surface Panel Method 645
K Nakatake, T Sekiguchi and J Ando
A Numerical Study on Viscous Flow About a Ship in Manoeuvring Motion 651

Xie-Dong Zhang and Xiu-Heng Wu
Simulation of the Propulsion System Behaviour During Ship Standard Manoeuvres 657
G. Benvenuto, S Brizzolara and M Figari
MANOEUVRABILITY
Experimental Study on the Maneuverability for a Wide Beam New Suezmax Class Tanker 665
Heung-Won Seo, Tae-II Lee and Seung-Myun Hwangbo
On Steady Horizontal Forces and Moment Due to Short Waves Acting on Ships in Manoeuvring Motion 671
M Uena, T Nimura, H Miyazaki and K Nanaka
An Empirical Formula for Steering Gear Torque of Tankers with a Horn Rudder 679
DJ Son, JH Ahn and KF Rhee
xvii
VOLUME II
Preface v
3. HYDROMECHANICS (continued)
PROPULSOR AND PROPULSION
Propeller Design and Analysis System Using an Object-Oriented Database in Windows Environment 685
Chang-Sup Lee and Chung-Ho Cho
A Propeller Design Method with New Blade Section for Improving Cavitation Inception Under
Unsteady Condition 693
Wei-Xin Zhou, You-Hua Wu and Shi-Tang Dong
An Optimisation Method Based on Hilbert Space Theory for Design of Marine Propellers and Hull Form 699
TS. Jang, T Kinoshita and T Hino
Numerical Analysis of Cavitating Propellers Including Viscous Flow Effects 705

F Salvatore and PG. Esposito
Propeller Design Based on Surface Panel Method by Prescribed Pressure Distribution 713
Ting-Shou Tan
CFD-Based Optimization of Tanker Stem Form - Minimization of Delivered Horsepower Using

Self-Propulsion Simulator 71 9
Y Tahara, J Ando and Y Himeno
Numerical and Experimental Studies of Ducted Propeller 725

R. Zhao
Design of Cavitating Propellers by Lifting Surface Theory 733

Guo-Qiang Wang and Chen-Jun Yang
Prediction of Transient Loading on a Propeller from an Approaching Ice Block 741

P. Du, B. Colbourne and Chin Shin
PODDED DRIVES
Investigations of Podded Drives in a Large Cavitation Tunnel 749

J Friesch
Triple Pod Propulsion in the World's Largest Ever Cruise Liner 757
R Hamalainen and J van Heerd
Hydrodynamic Trends in Hull Lines of Podded Driven Large Cruise Vessels 767
R Lepeix
HULL-PROPULSOR-APPENDAGES INTERACTION
Simulating the Self-Propulsion Test by a Coupled ViscouslPotential Flow Computation 777

S.K Chou, e. Y Hsin, S. W Chau and We. Chen
Numerical Computation of Ship's Effective Wake and Its Validation in Large Cavitation Tunnel 785
J W Park, JJ Kim, D.S. Kong and JM Lew
XVIII
Wake Fields Prediction on the Propeller Plane by Neural Network 791

HJ Shin and SM Hwangbo
Effect of Vertical Pre-Swirl Stator Vanes on the Propulsion Performance of a 300K Class VLCC 799
Jiman Yang, Kihyun Park, Kwang Kim, Jungchun Suh, Hyochul Kim, Seunghee Lee, Jungjoong Kim and
Hyoungtae Kim
Development and Experimental Study of a Novel Submarine Guide Vane Propeller System 807
Hui-Zhi Yao and Hong-Cui Shen
EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
Development and Application of a High Speed Video System in HSVA's Large Cavitation Tunnel HYKAT 815
C. Johannsen
Uncertainty Analysis of Towing Test 823

Mo-Qin He, Hong-Cui Shen and Shu-Long He
Transient Flooding in a Damaged Ferry 831

JM Riola and J Valle
4. STRUCTURES AND MATERIALS

WAVE INDUCED LOADS AND RESPONSES
Prediction of Wave-Induced Rolling Responses by a Time-domain Strip Theory 839

Zhao-Hui Wang, JJ Jensen and Jin-Zhu Xia
Methods to Reduce the Effects of Irregular Frequencies in Hydrodynamic Analysis of Vessels with
Forward Speed 847
SX Du, D.A. Hudson, WG. Price and P Temarel
The Effects of Forward Speed on Hydrodynamic Pressure and Structural Response of Ships in Waves 857
Chih-Chung Fang, Hua-Tung Wu, Hoi-Sang Chan and Chung-Yung Lu
Ship Motions and Sea Loads by a 3D Rankin Panel Method 865

Li Xu, Wei-Xing Zhang, Chen-Bi Zhao, Fa-Yan Xu and You-Fang Chen
EXTREME WAVE LOADS
Experiment on Extreme Wave Loads of a Flexible Ship Model 871

Rui-Zhang Chen, Shuang-Xing Du, You-Sheng Wu, Ji-Ru Lin, Jia-Jun Hu and Ya-Lin Yue
Estimation of Nonlinear Long-Term Extremes ofthe Vertical Bending Moments in Ships 879
G.S Baarholm and T. Moan
A Direct Calculation Approach of Determining Extreme Combined Bending Moments for Fast Fine
Form Ships 887
Xue-Kang Gu and Jin-Wei Shen
HYDROELASTICITY
Flutter of Hydrofoil in Viscous Field 895

Can Sima, Xiao-Ci Zhang and You-Sheng Wu
Symmetric and Antisymmetric Hydroelastic Analysis of a Bulker in Waves 903

SE. Hirdaris, WG. Price and P Temarel
XIX
Hydroelastic Model for Bottom Slamming 9] ]

A. Bereznitski and V Postnov
Hydrodynamic Impulsive Loads Acting on Ship-Hull Plates 919

Gang Wang
RELIABILITY
Risk Analysis Applied to Occurrence of Maximum Wave Bending Moment 925

EA. Dahle, D. Myrhaug and H.T. Wist
Fuzzy Reliability Analysis of a Ship Longitudinal Strength 931

.1M Yang and.l Y Huang
Reliability-Based Requalification of Existing Offshore Platfonns 939

T. Moan and 0.1 Vardal
Deterministic and Probabilistic Assessment of FPSO Hull Girder Strength 947

A. Incecik and Y Pu
Consistent Code Formulation for Ship Structural Design 955

A.E Mansour, .Is. Spencer, PH. Wirsching, .IE McGovney and D.D. Tarman
Reliability of Stiffened Ship Decks 965

K. Rajagopalan
ULTIMATE STRENGTH - SENSITIVITY
Total Analysis System for Ship Structural Strength 971

T Yoneya, H. Kobayashi, M Abdul Rahim, Y Sasaki and M Irisawa
Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analyses in the Predicted Critical Buckling Strength of a Longitudinally
Stiffened Sub-Panel 979
Wei-Cheng Cui, Li-Juan Shi and Jin-Fei Zhang
Sensitivity Analysis on Ultimate Hull Bending Moment 987

Ph Rigo, C. Toderan and T Yao
ULTIMATE STRENGTH - HULL GIRDER
Assessment of Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of Aged Tankers 997

A. Ikeda, T Yao, 0. Kitamura, N Yamamoto, M Yoneda and H. o.htsubo
Ultimate Strength and Reliability Assessment for the Ship Hull Girders Used in ISSC-2000
Benchmark Study 1005
Hai-Hong Sun and Yong Bai
An Assessment of the Ultimate Plastic Strength of the Ship's Aged Hulls 1013
G. V Egorov and V V Kozlyakov
ULTIMATE STRENGTH - STIFFENED PLATES AND SHELLS
A New Design Model for Ultimate and Buckling Strength Assessment of Stiffened Plates ]02]
E Steen, TK. 0stvold and S. Valsgard
Ultimate Strength of Longitudinally Stiffened Panels: Multi-Criteria Comparative Analysis 1029

.I Y Pradillon, T Quesnel, C. Toderan and Ph Rigo
xx
Ultimate Strength of Submersible Structures 1037

I.P Pasqualino and SF Estefen
FATIGUE ASSESSMENT AND DESIGN
A Report on Fatigue Failure of a Highly Skewed Fixed Pitch Propeller 1045

Hochung Kim, Keunjae Kim, Sungpyo Kim and Moonchan Kim
Fatigue Analysis of Aluminium Box-Stiffener Lap Joints by Nominal, Structural and Notch Stress
Range Approaches 1053
Naiquan Ye, T Moan and B. W Tveiten
Fatigue Strength Assessment of Cruciform Joints 1061

W. Fricke and R. Wernicke
Fatigue Strength Assessment of Hull Details for an FPSO 107]

S Berge, A. Johansen and I.G. Bjorheim
Evaluation of Simplified Prediction Method of Stress Response Function From the Viewpoint of
Fatigue Strength Analysis of a Ship 1081
T Fukasawa, K. Hashimoto and Y Tomita
Combination of Fatigue Damages Produced by Several Wave-Induced Loads Based on Correlation

Coefficient Method 1089
H Kawabe and K. Shibazaki
Fatigue Analysis of an Aged Jack-up Platform Structure Refitted to Cantilever-Beam Type 1097
Wu Nie, Yu-Wu Sun and Li-Ping Sun
FATIGUE STRENGTH - VARIOUS FACTORS
Analysis of Three-Dimensional Cracks in Ship Structures Subjected to an Arbitrary Loading by

Numerical Weight Function Method 1105
YSumi
Effect of Mean Stress Changes on the Fatigue Strength of Spectrum Loaded Welds J] 13
G.B. Marquis and TPJ Mikkola
A New Look at the Effect of Bandwidth and Non-Normality on Fatigue Damage 1121
Lei Yu, PK. Das and ND.P Barltrop
FATIGUE TESTS
An Experimental Investigation on Fatigue Behavior of Inverted Angle and T-Type Side Longitudinals
in Tankers I] 29
Jinsoo Park, Kuk Bin Kim, Wha Soo Kim and Doe Hyun Kim
Fatigue Behaviour of Different Bracket Connections ] 137

H Paetzold, O. Doerk and H Kierkegaard
Fatigue Tests on Large Scale Knuckle Specimens 1145

o.D. Dykstra, G. TM Janssen and J WI. Ludolphy
FATIGUE CONTROL
The Pre-Fabricated Hull Details for Application in Design and Repair 1153
S. V Petinov
XXI
Fatigue Strength of Load-Carrying Box Fillet Weldment in Ship Structure 116]

Wha Soo Kim, Doe Hyun Kim, Sang Gab Lee and Yoon Ki Lee
VIBRATION AND NOISE
A VBAR Model to Identify the Dynamic Characteristics of Marine Structures 1169

C.F Hung, YT Peng and WJ Ko
Vibration Analysis Method of Ship Structures in the Medium Frequency Domain 1177
F. Besnier, G. Bechepay, Y Mavrakakis and M Ferry
A New Method for Determining Acoustic Added Mass and Damping Coefficients of Fluid-Structure
Interaction 1185
Q. Zhou, W Zhang and PF Joseph
Vibration Prediction of Rectangular Tank Structures 1]97

Y Takeda
Influence of Journal Bearing Model1ing Method on Shaft Line Alignment and Whirling Vibrations 1205
L. Murawski
VIBRATION CONTROL
Experimental Studies on Resistance Reduction and Vibration Reduction by Bubbly Layer 1213
Wen-Cai Dong, Fan Wu, Yun-Xiang Zhu and Ri-Xiu Guo
Application of Higher Order Balancer to Control the Superstructure Vibration of a Container Ship 1221
Soo-Mok Lee, Won-Hyun Kim and Kyoon-Yang Chung
NON-LINEAR DYNAMICS
Nonlinear Dynamics of Towed Underwater Vehicles - Numerical Model1ing and Experimental Validation 1227
G.F Clauss and M Vannahme
Vortex-Induced Vibration of Two Dimensional Wing-Spring Coupled System 1237

Zhi-Xing Yu, Ying-Zhong Liu and Guo-Ping Miao
FIRE AND BLAST
Fire Risk Analysis and Its Application to Ships ]243

M Dogliani and A. Vergine
The Characteristic Analysis of Marine Fire Spread Phenomena with Multi-Equations System for Fire
Safety Design 1253
Nobuyoshi Fukuchi and Changhong Hu
Application of Computation a] Fluid Dynamics in the Fire Safety Design of Marine Systems 1261
Changhong Hu and Nobuyoshi Fukuchi
An Examination of Some Structural Limit States for Hydrocarbon Explosions ]269

PA. Frieze, RB. Corr, R.o. Snell and VH Y Tam
COLLISION AND GROUNDING
Design Against Minor Impacts ]277

M. Liitzen and P.T. Pedersen
Experimental Study on the Buffer Bow Structures 1285

H Endo, Y Yamada and O. Kitamura
XXII
Calculation of Collisions with the Aid of Linear FE Models 1293

E. Lehmann, ED. Egge, M. Scharrer and L. Zhang
COLLISION AND EXPLOSION
A Simplified Internal and External Mechanics Model for Ships' Collision 1301
K. Suzuki, H Ohtsubo and K.s. Sajit
Numerical Simulation of Ship-Submarine Collisions 1309

R. Donner, F Besnier and H Le Sourne
Fluid Mesh Modeling on Surface Ship Shock Response Under Underwater Explosion 1315
Sang-Gab Lee, Jeong-II Kwon and Jung-Hoon Chung
APPLICATION OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Weight Reduction in Sandwich Structures by Use of Curved Panels 1323

C. Berggreen and B. C. Simonsen
Use of Large-Deflection Theories for Design ofFRP Panels 1331

B. Hayman, MJ Larsen, D. McGeorge and P. Noury
Design of Tee Connections in FRP Ships Using an Analytical Approach 1339

R.A. Shenoi and W Wang
MISCELLANEOUS
History of PRADS 1345

M. Mano
AUTHOR INDEX I]
KEYWORD INDEX I7
3. HYDROMECHANICS (continued)
Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures 685
You-Sheng Wu, Wei-Cheng Cui and Guo-Jun Zhou (Eds)
© 200 I Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
PROPELLER DESIGN AND ANALYSIS SYSTEM

USING AN OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASE
IN WINDOWS ENVIRONMENT
Chang-Sup Leel and Chung-Ho Chol
I Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering,

Chungnam National University, Taejon, Korea
ABSTRACT
An integrated propeller design and analysis system using an objected-oriented database in Windows
environment is developed. The system consists of various computational modules such as the basic
geometry definition, optimization, lifting-line and lifting-surface design and analysis, finite-element
steady and unsteady analysis, and cavity analysis. The whole system is controlled by a user-friendly
graphic user interface (GUI), which enables the user to perform the design swiftly and accurately. A
new database-drive class is designed and implemented to enable the exchange of information between
the object-oriented database and the computational modules. The dynamic link library (DLL)
technique enables the whole system disintegrated into modules. Selected graphical outputs are
demonstrated very helpful in performing design and analysis.
KEYWORDS
Propeller design, Propeller analysis, Database, Interface design, Graphic user interface, Windows
1 INTRODUCTION
An integrated program package for the design and analysis usually consists of many elemental
modules covering various computing needs. It is not an easy task even for the trained expert to follow
correctly the input/output procedure of various modules avoiding human errors. It gets even more
difficult if various modules are interrelated interchanging information among them. In order to use this
kind of package effectively, the user has to be familiar with the design flow, which must be simple, and
also can control the information flow between various modules.
The easiness in carrying out the design can be achieved by adopting the graphic user interface (GUI) to
control the computational flow. The GUI is now very popular in many applications working in
Windows environment and facilitates the use of the complicated programs through a series of simple
mouse clicks. To maximize the visual effect in judging the input parameters and the computational
results, the graphic package commercially available may be linked to the design package as a
686
dynamically linked library (DLL) file. The techniques are well known in the computer software
technology and have been successfully applied to the propeller design and analysis (ProDAS) package
by Jung et al(1996, 1997).
In order to provide the input data to each computational module and also to exchange the information
between modules, the data has to be stored and managed systematically, and to be easily accessible by
the user and by each program module. This paper will describe the procedure to build the systematic
relation between modular programs and the database (DB) system together with the sample application
of the package for the design and analysis of a propeller.
We note first that most of the existing programs in the ship design and marine hydrodynamics does not
use the database. Even when the database is in use, most programs only accept the ASCII file to
communicate between the database and the modular programs. Use of ASCII file is traditional as an
input/output form. With the increase of the package size, the code will generate unwanted junk files
and produce and save duplicate data files deteriorating the efficiency and accuracy of the design
procedure. The ASCII file is very inefficient in re-processing the information and is very difficult in
providing the proper data to the other modules. The number of the ASCII files increases with the
number of the modular programs, whereas only one
database file is necessary to support the whole
package. If separate treatment of the data among
different modules is necessary, the data set may be
grouped into separate tables to match the modular
programs.
To secure the linkage between the modules and the

database, we selected a relational database package,
Access of Microsoft, which is known easy to use
and reliable. Figure 1 shows the linkage between the
database system and the computational modules
under the control of the design system. If the user
asks, the modules can also be connected to the
traditional file system.
2 DATABASE INTERFACE DESIGN
We will now describe the procedure developing the interface to enable the data exchange between the
application and the database, using the driver, e.g., DAO (Data Access Objects) as adopted in the
present work, supplied by the developer of the database system. Figure 2 shows the relations between
the database interface classes, which may be grouped into three regions (Allison 1996). The classes
CDaoDatabase and CDaoRecordset, supplied by the database developer, connect the database and the
application, and provide the information passage between them. The programmer needs only to know
the meaning of the member variables and the usage of the member functions of these classes. The
classes in the upper-left region of Figure 2, CProdasDB, ... , CUpdate, provide the application modules
with the basic functions which locate the proper record set and enable the read/write operation. These
classes are very general and not related to the content of each module or to the specific tables or fields
in the database. The classes in the lower-left region of Figure 2, CDBMopti, ... , CDBMoptiRecSet,
provide the connectivity to exchange information between the module and database record set. This
portion has to be implemented into each module within the application package.
2.1 Function and Interrelations of Interface Classes
The CProdasDB class is the top-level class in the application containing the member variables,
pConnect and IObjlD, that connect the database and point the record, respectively. The class CConnect
creates an object to connect, to open, to attach or to detach from the database and also has the
functions to commit the data-writing into the disc or to roll-back the works that are not yet stored
permanently into the disc. The class CInterface contains the CConnect pointer pConnect and
CDaoRecordset pointer pRset, which are to be inherited into two derived classes CQuery and CUpdate
and used to point the database and the proper record. The CQuery class is used to move the pointer
into the requested record according to the query conditions. The class CUpdate is an abstract class
which updates the data modified by the application modules. The five classes described above, which
are the basic classes in ProDAS, provides the functions to create and to control the data flow
management.
The classes shown in the lower-left region in Figure 2 are dependent upon each computational module.
The class CDBMopti is derived from CProdasDB; CDBMoptiQuery and CDBMoptiUpdate from
CQuery and CUpdate, respectively; CDBMoptiRecSet from CDaoRecordset. The most basic class
among them, CDBMopti, has the right to use two friends CDBMoptiQuery and CDBMoptiUpdate and
hence can query and modify the data, upon creation of the CDBMopti object. This object may also use
its own member functions (e.g. getNumberOfBladesO and setNumberOfBladeO) to read and write the
data. The class CDBMoptiRecSet initializes the data in the record and provides gateways to do data
2.2 Exchange of Information between Application and Database
Once the interface classes are completed, they may be implemented into the source code as shown in
Figure 3. The upper portion shows the query table array of the CDBMoptiQuery class corresponding to
the fields of the database. For simplicity, shown only here are the table name "Mopti" and one
particular field [NoOfBlades] in the optimization module in ProDAS. Figure also shows how the
function getNumberOfBladesO returns the value of m_NoOfBlades, which is the member variable of
the object pRset pointing the recordset. The lower portion shows how the data m_NoOfBlades gets the
value [NoOfBlades] through DoFie!dExchangeO function implemented in DBMoptiRecSet code.
2.3 Creating Objects in Applications
If the interface classes and the implementation programs are completed, the remaining task is now to
create the object in the application program. Figure 4 shows a code segment extracting or storing the
data between the database and a DLL module in ProDAS. The function MOpti first connects to the
database by creating the CConnect object *pc, and then creates a CDBMopti object mopti. Two
functions InputFromDBFileO and OutputToDBFileO are then shown. The objective and contents of the
functions are obvious. The global variables belonging to the particular module, e.g. nve! or svs[n], are
assigned by calling the member functions of the CDBMopti class object mopti. All other variables
required by computation modules are extracted from the database similarly. Values determined by the
modules can also be stored by calling the member functions of the CDBMopti class as shown in
OutputToDBFileO function. As demonstrated so far, the interface class and implemented functions are
very simple to use and easily applicable to the computing modules.
3 DESIGN IN WINDOWS ENVIRONMENT
Existing design programs require high level of knowledge in using the codes, making decision and
evaluating designs. When various computation modules are involved, it is important to select proper
programs and to exchange information between
them. In practice, any computations can be repeated
as many times as needed with the updated input data
when passing through the design spiral. An ea~;jest
way to control the design flow in a complicated
package is to introduce the menu-driven method in
Windows environment as shown in Figure 5. Visual
display of various design steps in the pull-down
menu enables selections of proper "buttons"
representing pre-combined design stages. Figure 5
shows the package consists of six major design
steps including the data preparation, the preliminary
design, the lifting surface design, the strength
analysis, the cavity analysis and the diagnosis.
3.1 Data Preparation via Database System
The most significant advantage of adopting the

database is to use SQL to locate the record, to filter
and manipulate the data easily. Existing data may be
used as the stock propeller. Each module in ProD AS
has the corresponding data tables in the database as
shown in Figure 6. Each button in the figure, when
clicked by the mouse, shows the data input/out
windows as typically shown in Figure 7. Each box
in this figure contains the data for computing
module. This set of data may be manually typed,
corrected or read from the ASCII files, which might
be generated by other computations or experiments.
The computed output may also be displayed.
3.2 Visual Display of Outputs
By selecting the computation steps one by one as

suggested in the design menu in Figure 5, all the
design works can be performed without much
difficulty. The DLL technique also allows us to link
the commercially available graphic packages as the
library dynamically. The computed output may be
directed into the database and at the same time to
the graphic routines. Figure 8 shows the sample
plotting of the computed hull pressure fluctuation
induced by the cavitating propeller. The color contour maximizes the visual effect in locating the
region of high loads.
3.3 Onsite Guidelinesfor Decision Making
Since the design criteria can also be stored in the database, the computed output may be directly
compared with the criteria and displayed as shown in Figure 9. The computed unsteady force
amplitudes (in red) are compared with the guideline (in green). This online guideline feature is
especially useful to alert the designer, minimizing the likelihood of erroneous judgement and is useful
to the beginners who have limited amount of experiences.
690
Online Help Message
When the designer is not experienced or when the

design procedure is very complicated, the online
help system is very helpful. Figure 10 shows that
methods using various steps in design are fully
supported. Help files are written in HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language), which can be
accessed with a simple mouse click over the
underlined keywords. The help fIles remains open
on top of all other windows and thus the user is
assisted by the detailed online information trom the
Help file.
4 CONCLUSIONS
1.The database interface classes for easy exchange of information between the database and computing
modules are designed, illustrated in detail, so that the same technique can be applied to other
applications.
2. Each elemental program is modularized for dynamic linkage with the main program when needed,
reducing the size of the execution file, and ensuring easy maintenance in the future.
3. Storage of all design data into a single database can play the role of the stock propellers, and provide
information for other designs.
4. The menu-driven windows system is shown very easy to use, providing the maximum accuracy and
691
swiftness. Visual effect to demonstrate the output of the computations helps the designer to correctly
interpret the results and to make decisions for the subsequent design stages.
References
Allison, C. (1996). Object Persistence with Relational Database. C/C++ Users Journal, 14:5,37-46.
Jung, I.-S., Lee, c.-S. and Cho, C.-H. (1997). Design and implementation of interface between the
database and the application program. 1. SNAK, 34:4,139-147 (in Korean).
Jung, I.-S., Lee, C.-S. and Lirn, H.-K. (1996). Propeller design using QUI technique. Proc. Spring
Conference, Society of Naval Architects of Korea (SNAK), 220-223 (in Korean).
You-Sheng Wu, We i-Cheng Cui and Guo-Jun Zhou (Eds)
A PROPELLER DESIGN METHOD WITH NEW BLADE SECTION

FOR IMPROVING CAVITATION INCEPTION UNDER UNSTEADY
CONDITION
Wei-Xin Zhou, You-Hua Wu and Shi-Tang Dong
China Ship Scientific Research Center, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214082, China
ABSTRACT
A propeller design procedure for improving cavitation inception in non-uniform inflow is presented.
Special attention is paid to the design of blade sections with Eppler Method, in order to behave higher
cavitation inception speed. The two-dimensional section directly obtained by Eppler method is
converted into a new blade section in three-dimensional case since they are significantly different from
each other. Calculations show that the cavitation-free bucket diagram of new blade sections is wider
than the conventional NACA sections.
The lift-line and lift-surface method are used for the initial propeller design with the circumferential
averaged inflow. Using steady/unsteady panel method to check and to modifY the design for meeting
the thrust requirement and selecting a key section suffering from cavitation. New blade sections are
adopted to improve the cavitation bucket. To investigate the influence of the chordwise loading
distribution forms on the propeller performance, two propellers with different chordwise loading are
designed. Their model test results confirm the effectiveness of the design method.
KEYWORDS
Propeller design, New blade section, Cavitation inception, Lifting-surface method, Surface Panel
method, Eppler section design
1 INTRODUCTION
It is well known that the object of wake adopted marine propeller design is to improve efficiency or
cavitation performance including reducing the propeller-induced vibration and noise. Therefore,
694
theoretical design methods, which take into consideration the radially varied but circumferentially
averaged inflow and adopt NACA66 thickness form and a=O.8 mean line for section design, have been
commonly employed.
For higher-speed marine propellers operating in non-uniform wake fields, some extent of cavity is
inevitable. It is not good enough to use usual design method with choosing the conventional blade
sections. However, use of the Eppler's method[2] makes it possible to design new blade sections for
prescribed pressure distributions around the blade section to delay cavitation inception.
During recent decade, numerous researchers have made contributions to developing propeller design
methods with new blade sections based on Eppler method for improving cavitation performance. It has
been theoretically and experimentally verified that the cavitation-free buckets of the new sections are
much wider than those from NACA series. Among them, the methods by Yamaguchi et.al. [3-5],
Kuiper [6], Nakazaki et.al.[7], Jin-Tae Lee et.a!. [8], Dang et al. [9] and C. Kawakita and T.
Hoshino[lO] have gotten satisfactory results.
This paper presents a design procedure of marine propeller with new blade sections. The existing
lifting-line and lifting-surface design method are employed for an initial design, by which only radially
varied but circumferential averaged inflow can be involved.As a check, the steady and unsteady panel
method are used to predict the hydrodynamics performance of the designed propeller at steady and
unsteady conditions. From unsteady calculations, in which both radial and circumferential non-
uniformity of inflow are taken into account, the sections suffering from cavitation can be found and a
key section is chosen. New blade section based on Eppler method is designed to raise cavitation
inception speed. An approach to convert a 2-D Eppler section into the one suitable for 3-D propeller
case is applied. The thickness form and the chordwise load distribution form of the key section are
employed for all radii to avoid the difficulty of surface fairing and smoothing.
To investigate the influence of the chord wise loading distribution form on the propeller performance,
two propellers with different chordwise loading forms are designed, one with NACA series sections
and the other with new sections. The model test results verify that the cavitation inception speed with
the application of new blade sections is significantly higher and its induced fluctuating pressure and
noise are much better than those of the conventional one.
2 DESIGN METHOD OF MARINE PROPELLERS BY USING NEW BLADE SECTIONS
Our new procedure of propeller design consists of six parts. Figure I shows its flow chart. Every
part needs iteration until the desired propeller performance is reached. The brief descriptions of each
part are described below.
2.1 Principle dimensions
The principle dimensions, such as diameter, tentative blade area ratio and radial chord-length
distribution, number of blades, skew and thickness are designed as usual way after examination on
wake harmonic analysis and strength. Those parameters except the blade area ratio and radial chord-
length distribution, which may be modified in lifting line design, are not changed in the further
695
optimization.
2.2 Propeller Lifting-line and lifting-surface design
In order to achieve the required thrust and better cavitation performance, the existing propeller lifting-
line and lifting-surface design methods are used to design detailed propeller geometry. At this stage,
only,circumferentially averaged, radial wake distribution can be considered.
In the lifting-line calculation, discretized vortex model is proposed instead of continuous one,
including each free vortex represented by segments of vortex line. The induced velocities are
calculated by numerical integration directly instead of Lerb's methods. By this way, the deformation
of the slipstream can be assigned to be closing to the real case in the near wake. The lifting-line design
is mainly utilized to obtain the initial hydrodynamic pitch angle and the chord-length distribution for
the lifting-surface code.
The lifting-surface design is to get the geometrical pitch angle distribution and the geometry of each
blade section. The blade shapes is usually chosen from the existing NACA a=O.8 camber lines and the
modified NACA66 thickness form, but now is from new blade sections if necessary. It will be
described in details in section 3.
2.3 Analysis of blade strength
The blade strength is checked according to the rules of ship classification societies. Then the static
stress distribution over the blade surface is analyzed by utilizing Finite Element Method (FEM) under
the static hydrodynamic loading distribution from the steady panel method calculation. Also the
dynamic blade stress can be examined by unsteady panel method and FEM.
2.4 Prediction of hydrodynamic performance
The propeller's thrust and torque are predicted by the steady panel method in circumferentially
averaged wake field. Using the unsteady panel method checks its time-averaged thrust and torque.
Both the steady and unsteady panel methods used were developed in CSSRC. Once the thrust is not
satisfied, modification of the design should be made until it is fulfilled.
2.5 Prediction of cavitation inception
For checking the cavitation inception on the blade sections at each radius, the pressure distributions of
each blade section are calculated over one revolution in both radial and circumferential non-uniform
wake field by the unsteady panel method. The operating curves for each section that is lift coefficient
CL versus -cpmin. where cpmin is minimum pressure coefficient, can be drawn. Among the sections, a
representative one suffering from cavitation is selected as a key section, usually O.7R or O.8R section
to be the candidate. Meanwhile, an equivalent 2-D section of the key blade section is defined based
on the same chord wise loading distribution and thickness distribution as in 3-D case, referring to the
concept of [6] ..
696
3 DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW BLADE SECTION
3.1 Design of two-dimensional sections
Taking into account the cavitation number, Reynolds number and lifting coefficient of the key section,
Eppler's method is used to design a new two-dimensional section, which is tried to widen and deepen
the cavitation-free bucket as much as possible. During the design process, many parameters have to
be adjusted and meanwhile, it should be kept in mind that as much as possible to avoid separation
occurring within the wide range of angles of attack, i.e., enough region for pressure recovery on
suction side to be required. In the present design procedure, a boundary layer calculation code is
provided for checking separation possibility. No separation occurring implies low drag of the section.
Fig.2 shows the cavitation-free bucket diagram and the operating curve of the key section of our
example. The cavitation bucket of conventional NACA blade section can't envelop the operating curve
but the new blade section can.
3.2 Design of three-dimensional blade sections of propeller
After gaining the two-dimensional new section design, a 2-D panel method is used to analyze the
chordwise loading distribution of that section. Fig.3 is the comparison between it and that of NACA
a=O.8 section.
The chordwise load distribution form and the chordwise thickness distribution form of that new section
is adopted for all blade sections of the new blade design by using lifting surface method again.
The camber lines from 2-D design and 3-D design are shown in figure 4, in which NACA a=O.8
camber line from 3-D design also shown. Fig.S shows the difference between the sections from two-
dimensional and three-dimensional design.
3.3 Verification of hydrodynamic performance of the new design
Utilizing the steady and unsteady panel method, its hydrodynamic performance and the pressure
distributions on the blade surface are checked in order to verify if the new design satisfies thrust
requirement and the cavitation inception speed is improved. Figures 6-8 are the comparisons of chord-
wise pressure distribution ofO.8R section between the new design and the conventional one. They also
show that the propeller with new blade section has more even pressure distribution than that of
conventional one, even if at the unsteady condition. That implies that the new design will have better
cavitation performance, such as higher inception speed, lower exciting forces and noise.
It should be mentioned that all the steps described above have been assembled into a package code.
4 DESIGN EXAMPLE AND ITS MODEL TEST RESULTS
In order to verify the effectiveness of our method, two propellers were designed for a high speed ship.
One propeller is designed with sections formed with NACA66(mod)and NACA a=O.8 meanline. The
697
other was designed with new blade sections by using present method. Fig2.-Fig.8 show some of the
design results and their test verification is presented and discussed below.
4.1 Propeller open-water characteristics
The present design procedure uses panel method to check and to ensure the design accuracy. In order
to verify the accuracy of the panel method, the designed example's open water hydrodynamic forces
are compared between the test results and calculated ones, and shown in figure 9. It shows in good
agreement with each other.
4.2 Cavitation observation and inception speed
Cavitation observation and inception tests were carried out in the simulated wake inside the cavitation
tunnel. The variations of cavitation pattern on the propeller blade during one revolution are shown in
Fig.IO-12 with angle interval 10 degree. Fig.IO shows that there exists bubble cavitation on the
backside from 0.5R to 0.88R for the propeller with conventional sections when the blade location at
80°. It is in good correspondence with the pressure prediction by the panel method (see Fig.7).
Fig.11 shows that there is face cavitation from the root to 0.55R along the leading edge within the
range of blade locations 280°-320° for that propeller. It is also in correspondence with the results
shown in Fig.8. Fig.l2 shows that neither bubble cavitation on the backside nor face cavitation was
observed for the propeller with new blade sections.
Fig.13 is the cavitation inception curve in the uniform inflow and Fig.14 is one in the non-uniform
inflow. It is proved that the cavitation bucket of the propeller with new blade sections is wider than the
one with the conventional blade section. And Cavitation inception tests in non-uniform inflow also
show that the inception speed of the propeller with new blade section is about 1.5knots higher than that
of the conventional propeller.
4.3 Fluctuating pressure and noise
Induced fluctuating pressures on a flat plate above the propeller models were measured and the
harmonic components of the maximum measured pressure among the transducers are shown in Table I.
The fluctuating pressure level of the propeller with the new blade sections is lower than that with
conventional sections.
Table 1 Comparison of the fluctuating pressure level for harmonic components
151 order 2ndorder 3'd order 41h order I

The conventional propeller 3.16kPa 1.23kPa 0.32kPa O.3lkPa
The new propeller 1.85kPa 1.05kPa 0.35kPa 0.32 kPa
Table I Comparison of the fluctuating pressure level for harmonic components
The noise tests were also carried out in the cavitation tunnel and its results are shown in Table 2. The
noise level of the propeller with the new blade sections is about 4dB lower at the maximum speed than
that of with conventional section. The overall noise level of the propeller with the new blade sections
698
lower over different ship speeds.
Max. speed 29knots 26knots 18knots

Conventional sections 144.0dB 144.0 dB 140.6 dB 136.4 dB
New blade sections 140.3 dB 139.1 dB 138.0 dB 135.5 dB
Table 2 Comparison of noise level for different ship speeds
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the design process and the model test results, following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) Due to marine propellers that operate in circumferential non-uniform wake fields, the propeller
with new blade sections can provide with better cavitation performance at wide range of angle
positions over one revolution than that of one with the NACA blade sections.
(2) From the open-water test, it shows that the panel method used in present design procedure provides
good accuracy.
(3) Model test results also show that all blade harmonic amplitudes as well as the noise levels of the
propeller with the new blade sections are significantly lower than those of the propeller with
conventional sections, and the cavitation inception speed of the new propeller is higher than the
conventional one.
References
[I] Abbott I.H. and Von Doenhoff A.E., Theory of Wing Sections. Dover Publications.
[2] Eppler R. And Somers D.M. (1980). A Computer Program for the Design and Analysis of low
Speed Aifoils, NASA Technical Memorandum 8021 O.
[3] Yamaguchi H.etal. (1985). Development of Marine Propellers with Better Cavitation
Performance(1 SI Report). Journal o(SNAJ. 158.
[4] Yamaguchi H. et. al. (1986). Development of New Marine Propellers with Improved Cavitation
Performance. Procedings of ISPC, Wuxi, China, CSNAME.
[5] Yamaguchi H.etal. (1988). Development of Marine Propellers with Better Cavitation Performance
(2nd Report). Journalo(SNAJ. 163.
[6] Kuiper G. et. al. (1993). A Propeller Design Method for Unsteady Conditions. Technical Session of
the Centennial Meeting of the Society o(Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
[8] Lee J.I., Kim M.C., Ahn, J.W.Kim, K.S. and Kim H.c. (1991). Development of Marine propellers
with New Blade Sections for Container Ships. Proceedings of Propellers Shafting 91 Symposium.
Virginia Beach, Virginia.
[9] Dang 1., Chen J. and Tang D. (1992). A Design Method of Highly Skewed Propellers with New
Blade Sections in Circumferentially Non-Uniform Ship Wake. China Ship Scientific Research
Center, Report English version 92004.
[10] Kawakita c., Hoshino I. (1998). Design System of marine Propellers with new Blade Sections.
23'" International Symposium on Cavitation. Mistubishi Heavy Industries.
(;) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
AN OPTIMISATION METHOD BASED ON HILBERT SPACE

THEORY FOR DESIGN OF MARINE PROPELLERS AND HULL
FORM
Taek S. Jang I, Takeshi Kinoshita I and Takanori Hino 1
Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Ship Research Institute 6-38- I, Shinkawa, Mitaka, Tokyo, 18 I -0004, Japan
ABSTRACT
By using the infinite dimensional optimization[Jang and Kinoshita(2000)], which is based on the
Hilbert space theory, optimal marine propellers and optimal hull forms are studied. In the first study,
Koyama's code[Koyama(l 980)], based on potential flow with simple viscous correction, are applied to
numerical calculation of hydrodynamic forces on blades of marine propellers. As a numerical example,
the MAU type propeller is considered and used as the initial guess for the optimization method. In the
second study, the Navier-Stokes solver[Hino(1996)] is used as a practical tool for hull design. For the
first step, two dimensional hull form is studied to minimize its drag. The numerical results for an
optimal marine propeller as well as hull form are illustrated and it is shown that practically reasonable
optimizations could be found.
KEYWORDS
Infinite dimensional optimization method, Optimal marine propellers, Optimal hull forms
OPTIMAL MARINE PROPELLERS
Forward speed of a propeller U, a diameter of a propeller d and revolution per time n being fixed
constant, the advance ratio J = U/nd is constant, so that thrust T and torque Q of the propeller are
functionals of the geometry of the propeller.(Figure I) Because the geometry can be described by a
distribution of pitch p(r), it is possible to assume that both the thrust T and the torque Q are
functionals of the pitch distribution p(r);
T = T(p) (I)
Q = Q(p) (2)
According to Eqn. I. and Eqn. 2., the propeller efficiency 17p is also a functional of the pitch
3 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the infinite dimensional optimization method based on the Hilbert space theory is applied
to find the optimal pitch distribution for marine propellers and the optimal shape for the two
dimensional hull form. Thereby desired performances are significantly improved compared to original
ones. Especially, it is interesting that pressure drag can be significantly reduced compared to frictional
one for the optimal hull. Unfortunately, in the case of the optimal hull form, there are some changes in
displacement, which looks like weak point of the present method; it is necessary to develop the method
further so that it can overcome the problem of change in displacement.
References
Baldwin B.S. and Lomax H. (1978). Thin layer approximation and algebraic model for separated
turbulent flows. AIAA , 78-257
704
Hino T. (1996). Towards Drag Reduction by Hull Form Optimization. Proc. 68th General MeetinR of
Ship Research Institute, December [in Japanese]
Jang T.S. and Kinoshita T. (2000). A minimization theory in a Hilbert space and its application to two
dimensional cavity flow with a numerical study. Journal of Marine Science and Technology
(submitted).
Jang T.S .. Kinoshita T. and Yamaguchi H.(2000). Application of an infinite dimensional optimization
method to marine propellers; unique optimal pitch distribution. Journal of Marine Science and
Technology (submitted)
Kodama Y. (1998). Scope of CFD for computing ship now. Proc. The third Osaka Colloquium on
advanced CFD application to ship flow and Hull(orm design. 395-405
Koyama K. (1980). On application of the lifting surface theory to marine propellers. Proc 13'"
Svmposium on naval hydrodynamics, Tokyo, 13-40.
Roman P.( 1975). Some Mordern Mathematics For Physicists and Other Outsiders. 1,2, Pergamon Press
Inc.
0200] Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF CAVITATING PROPELLERS

INCLUDING VISCOUS FLOW EFFECTS
F. Salvatorel and P. G. Esposito!
lINSEAN - Istituto Nazionale per Studi ed Esperienze di Architettura Navale,

Rome, Italy
ABSTRACT
Theoretical modeling of sheet cavitation by using a viscouslinviscid coupling technique is addressed.

The inviscid cavitating flow is studied by a boundary element approach including a sheet cavitation
model. The viscous-flow correction is given by 2D boundary-layer equations used at strip theory. Vis-
cous/inviscid coupling is obtained via Lighthill's transpiration velocity concept. Comparisons of present
numerical results with experiments in the literature show the importance of viscosity correction and
show the capability of the present methodology to give reliable cavity pattern predictions.
KEYWORDS
Theoretical Hydrodynamics, Sheet Cavitation, Inviscid Flows, BEM, Boundary Layers, Vis-
couslInviscid Coupling, Hydrofoils, Marine Propellers.
1 INTRODUCTION
Cavitation phenomena affect performance of high speed propellers and cause vibrations, noise and blade
surface erosion. The demand for large fast vessels motivates the current interest for developing reliable
prediction tools for the analysis of cavitating propellers.
Experimental investigations highlight the influence of viscosity effects on cavitation. In particular, in the
case of sheet cavitation, the location of the cavity detachment is typically associated with the occurrence
of laminar separation of the boundary layer. Hence, an accurate cavitation modelling should include
viscous flow effects.
Existing literature related to theoretical modelling of viscous cavitating flows is limited to
two-dimensional or three-dimensional flows around hydrofoils. Two-dimensional boundary layer
analysis coupled with inviscid cavitating flow solution by BEM is proposed in Kinnas et al. (1994).
Recently, commercial Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solvers have been coupled with
cavitation models, Hirschi et al. (1998) and Chahine & Hsiao (2000), with applications to 3D hydrofoils
in steady motion.
In the present paper, the analysis of cavitation in high-Reynolds number flows by means of a
viscouslinviscid coupling technique is proposed. This methodology extends a formulation presented by
706
Esposito & Salvatore (2000) that is limited to steady two-dimensional cavitating viscous flows. The
inviscid cavitating flow is studied by a boundary integral formulation for the velocity potential with a
sheet cavitation. The numerical solution is obtained by a zero-th order BEM.
The boundary layer surrounding the blade surface and the vortical wake is studied by using a boundary
layer approximation that is valid in the case of attached or slightly separated high-Reynolds number
flows. The boundary layer equations are solved in integral form. A viscosity correction to the potential
flow solution is obtained in terms of Lighthill's transpiration velocity approach (Lighthill, 1958),
adapted here to the case of cavitating flows. The boundary layer and the potential flow solution including
the viscosity correction are matched via an iterative process.
5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
A viscous/inviscid technique that allows to take into account viscosity effects in sheet cavitation mod-
eling via BEM has been presented. Numerical results by using inviscid-flow modeling and vis-
cous/inviscid modeling are discussed. It is shown that viscous flow correction is fundamental in order to
determine an accurate prediction of the cavity detachment line. It is also shown that small errors in
predicting the location of this line may produce large errors in the estimation ofthe cavity pattern. On the
other hand, if cavity detachment is prescribed, viscosity slightly affects both cavity extension and
thickness.
Here reliable results have been obtained by coupling a two-dimensional boundary-layer model with a
potential based BEM solver. A validation test has been performed in the case of three dimensional
hydrofoils, whereas the application to cavitating propellers in unsteady flow is underway.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Ministero dei Trasporti e della Navigazione in the frame of INSEAN
Research Program 2000-2002.
References
Chahine G.L. & Hsiao C.T. (2000). Modeling 3D Unsteady Sheet Cavities Using a Coupled Un-
RANS-BEM Code. Proceedings of the 23rd ONR Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, Val de Reuil
(France).
Esposito P.G. and Salvatore F. (2000). Optimal Design of Cavitating Blade Sections by Genetic Algo-
rithms. Proc. ofNCT 50,275-288.
Green lE., Weeks DJ., and Brooman W.F. (1973). Prediction of Turbulent Boundary Layers and
Wakes in Compressible Flow by a Lag-Entrainment Method. A.R.C.R. & M, n. 3791.
Hirschi R., Dupont P., Avellan, F. (1998). Partial Sheet Cavities Prediction on a Twisted Elliptical
Planform Hydrofoil Using a Fully 3-D Approach. Proceedings of the 3rd Int. Symp. on Cavitation,
Grenoble (France).
7]0
Kinnas SA. and Fine N .E. (1993). A Numerical Non-linear Analysis of the Flow Around Two and
Three-Dimensional Partially Cavitating Hydrofoils. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 254, 151-18 I.
Kinnas S.A, Mishima S. and Brewer W. (1994). Nonlinear analysis of Viscous Flow around Cavitating
Hydrofoils. Proc. of the Twentieth Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, 446-465.
Lemonnier H. and Rowe A. (1988). Another Approach in Modelling Cavitating Flows. J. Fluid Mech.
195, 557-580.
Michel R. (1952). Etude de la Transition sur les Profils d'Aile - Establissment d'un Point de Transition et
Calcul de la Trainee de Profil en Incompressible. ONERA Report n. 1/1578A.
Mishima S., Kinnas S.A., Egnor D. (1995). The Cavitating Propeller Experiment (CAPREX), Phases I
& II. Technical Report, Dept. Ocean Engineering, MlT.
Morino L., Chen L.-T. and Suciu E. O. (1975). Steady and Oscillatory Subsonic and Supersonic Aero-
dynamics around Complex Configurations. AlAA J. 13,368-374.
Pelleat J.M. and Pellone C. (1996). Experimental Validation of Two- and Three-Dimensional Numerical
Analysis of Partially Cavitating Hydrofoils. Journal of Ship Research 40:3,211-223.
Thwaites B. (1949). Approximate Calculation of the Laminar Boundary Layer. Aeronaut. Quart. 1,
245-280.
() 200 I Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
PROPELLER DESIGN BASED ON SURFACE PANEL METHOD

BY PRESCRIBED PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION
Ting-Shou Tan
College of Naval Architecture and Civil Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology

Yu Jia Tou, Wuhan 430063, China
ABSTRACT
Since the speed of ship is increasing or the propeller operates in non-uniform flow, the cavitation on
the propeller blades is often unavoidable. The cavitation on the propeller blades, giving rise to some
trouble such as blade cavitation erosion or severe vibration and highly radiated noise, is tightly related
to the distribution of pressure on the propeller blades. In order to improve the propeller cavitation
performance, this paper presented the technique of the propeller design based on the surface panel
method by prescribed three-dimensional pressure distribution that can be decided by the propeller
designer. It may also be obtained from the result of propeller lifting surface design or modifying the
pressure distribution of the existing propeller. The blade surface geometry is generated by the B-spline
method that enables it to be completely specified using only a small number of parameters. The square
summation of the differences between the pressure distribution calculated by the surface panel method
and prescribed at the control points on the blade surface is regarded as the objective function. The
parameters can be obtained by minimizing the objective function.
KEYWORDS
Propeller design, Surface panel method, B-spline, Pressure distribution
1 INTRODUCTION
Marine propeller design based on methodical series tests still use for typical commercial ship. In order
to improve the propeller cavitation performance, such as reducing the propeller induced vibration and
noise, or to improve the efficiency of the propeller, the theoretical design method perhaps is better
tools than the design charts method. The most familiar propeller design method is the lifting-surface
theory design. In this method, a part of the geometry is given; they are the radial distribution of chord
length, rake, skew, thickness and the type of the blade section. For given radial circulation distribution
and chordwise circulation shape under the condition of circumferential average inflow, the radial pitch
and camber surface are determined by the lifting-surface theory.
In present design method, for given thickness distribution and the desired three- dimensional pressure
7]4
distribution that can be obtained ITom the result of lifting-surface theory design or by modifying the
existing propeller. The propeller geometrical parameters to be determined still are the radial pitch
distribution and camber surface. They are generated by the B-spline curve and surface that ensure the
blade surface is fair by a small number of parameters. Therefore, an objective function, the square
summation of the differences between the prescribed pressure distribution and that calculated by
surface panel method is minimized by modifYing the geometry parameters.
2 PROPELLER BLADE SURFACE BY B-SPLINE
Propeller blade are generally defined by the radial distribution of geometrical quantities, such as chord
length, pitch, rake, skew, and chordwise distribution of camber and thickness. At each step in the
design process, the smooth blade surface is required in order to perform correctly the hydrodynamic
analysis of the design propeller. It is therefore desirable that geometrical parameters designed, such as
radial distribution of pitch and chordwise distribution of camber, are sufficiently smooth. The B-spline
not only have this property, but can define the blade surface with a relatively few number of
parameters, this is particularly convenient for design blades by numerical method. A B-spline curve or
surface is described by means of a control polygon net. The number of control polygon vertices
reflects the computational effort ofthe design process. For the present application, we choose the cubic
integral B-spline. The B-spline curve and surface are applied to the radial pitch distribution and the
camber surface, respectively. The radial pitch distribution is uniquely defined by following B-spline
curve.
717
parameter of the Levenberg-Marquardt method to improve convergence, the I is the identity matrix.
However, the new blade surface controlled by the design variables will not necessarily be the desired
surface since the elements of the Jocobian matrix depend in a nonlinear way on the shape of the blade
surface. A new Jocobian matrix must therefore be formed and process repeated until the blade surface
has converged.
5 DESIGN RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In order to show the validity of present design method, Two design examples are given, the first is an
existing propeller. The propeller DTMB4118 as mother propeller which principal data come trom
reference [I], another is a cargo ship propeller with new blade section, this propeller was designed by
the lifting surface theory in a non-uniform flow.
In this first example, the parent propeller is DTMB 4118 propeller; the design advanced is 0.833. Now
we change the propeller blade surface by reducing its section camber by 25 %, and increasing its
pitch ratio 5 % to obtain a desired propeller and meet the thrust coefficient. Then the pressure
distribution calculated based on surface panel method is regarded as the desired pressure distribution
Cp. The initial guesses of design variables (i.e. the B-spline control polygon vertices) are obtained by
using B-spline fitting for the parent propeller. The B-spline control polygon vertices by using Nw =5
(the radial) and Nu =9 (the chordwise), the number of the vertices N = Nw x (Nu - J) = 40. The
pressure distribution and the chordwise distribution of the camber are shown in Fig.2 and Fig.3,
respectively. From those figures, we can conclude that the present design method has been applied
successfully in designing a new propeller.
In the second example, the propeller was designed by the lifting surface theory method, the desired
pressure distribution come trom the results of the lifting-surface design. However, the pressure
distributions calculated by the lifting surface method and the actual pressure distribution probably have
some discrepancy. The propeller is redesigned by the present design method to obtain correct blade
geometry. The pressure coefficient on blade surface and the camber distribution are shown as in Fig.4
and Fig.5, respectively. From Fig.4, the pressure distributions prescribed and calculated based on panel
method are to agree well. But the camber distributions designed by lifting-surface and panel method
have a great discrepancy, this reflect that lifting force trom pressure distribution of lifting-surface is
too large so that a larger camber is required to match the larger lifting force.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The propeller design based on surface panel method trom the knowledge of the desired pressure
distribution by the B-spline Method has been applied successfully. Design results show that the present
design method needs only a relatively few number of the design variables to obtain the desired blade
surface. The present design method by prescribed pressure distribution can more effectively control
and improve the blade cavitation performance than the lifting surface design method which prescribed
the circulation distribution.
References
Kerwin, J. E. and Lee, C. S. (1978) . Prediction of Steady and Unsteady Marine Propeller Performance by
Numerical Lifting-Surface Theory· Trans. SNAME, 86, 218-253
2 Tan Tingshou.(1997) . Prediction of Hydrodynamic Performance on Propeller by Surface Panel Method·
Journal of Wuhan Transportation University, China, 21:2, 534--541
3 Tan Tingshou.(2000) . Improvement on Numerical Kutta Condition for Propeller Panel Method·
© 200] Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
CFD-BASED OPTIMIZATION OF TANKER STERN FORM

MINIMIZA TION OF DELIVERED HORSEPOWER
USING SELF -PROPULSION SIMULATOR -
('Osaka Prefecture University, Japan, 2Kyushu University, Japan)
ABSTRACT
The present work concerns tanker stem form optimization using CFD-based optimization method. The
main focus is placed on minimization of delivered horsepower (DHP) in conjunction with application
of self-propulsion simulator, which is based on extension of a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
(RaNS) equation solver including propeller effects evaluated by the infinite-bladed propeller theory.
The overall numerical method follows that developed in earlier work of the authors, i.e., coupling of
RaNS equation solver and successive quadratic programming. Constraints considered in the present
study are geometrical requirements of optimized hull form for displacement, profile, maximum beam
and depth, and stem frame lines to secure enough space for engine room. In the present paper, an
overview of the numerical method is given, and discussion of the results includes identification of
salient differences of forms and integral parameters between for the original and optimized hull forms.
In conclusion, the present method appeared to successfully optimize the given tanker stem form for
minimum DHP, and the modification trends automatically demonstrated in the present work agree well
with those commonly in use in traditional tanker hull form design.
KEYWORDS
Tanker Stem Form Optimization, RaNS Equations, Nonlinear Programming, Self-Propulsion

Simulator
INTRODUCTION
Determination of tanker stem form is one of the most important and time-consurning tasks for ship
designers. The designers must find the best compromise between the so-called V- and V-shaped stem
cross sections. V-shaped stems induce weaker stem bilge vortices and lower viscous resistance. In
contrast, U-shaped stems result in generation of stronger vortices and higher viscous resistance;
however, the propeller inflow is more uniform with better cavitation characteristics and lower noise. In
720
addition to conventional tank tests, hull form designers have demanded for reliable design tools to
support their decision making, in which an optimized hull form is determined so that various design
requirements are simultaneously satisfied (Tahara et aI., 1998, 1999a, I 999b, 2000).
The present work is related to development of a simulation-based design tool, i.e., it concerns tanker
stem form optimization using CFD-based optimization method. The main focus is placed on
minimization of delivered horsepower (DHP) in conjunction with application of self-propulsion
simulator, which is based on extension of a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RaNS) equation solver
including propeller effects evaluated by the infinite-bladed propeller theory (Nakatake, 1981). The
overall numerical method follows that developed in earlier work of the authors, i.e., coupling ofRaNS
equation solver and successive quadratic programming (SQP). In the following, an overview of the
numerical method is given, and discussion of the results includes identification of salient differences of
forms and integral parameters between for the original and optimized hull forms.
COMPUTATIONAL METHOD
The present numerical method is based on coupling of the recently developed self-propulsion simulator
and SQP module implemented in the authors' earlier work (Tahara et aI., 1998, 1999a, 1999b, 2000).
The self-propulsion simulator consists of three parts, i.e., a RaNS solver, a propeller performance
program, and a root finder module to determine propeller rotational speed np so that the hull resistance
R balances with the propeller thrust T. The present RaNS solver solves the unsteady RaNS and
continuity equations (written in Cartesian coordinates defined in Fig.l) for mean velocity, pressure,
and eddy viscosity, by using the algebraic turbulence model, finite-analytic discretization, PISO-type
velocity-pressure coupling algorithm, and a numerically generated body conforming grid. In the
present work, free-surface effects are not considered. Propeller effects are included in RaNS equations
by the body force approach. The body force distribution is interactively and iteratively determined by
propeller performance calculation based on infmitely-bladed propeller theory (Nakatake, 1981), by
using bound vortex distribution on the propeller disk, which is divided into 36><5=180 panels in the
present work. Fig.2 illustrates the overall computational procedure of the present self-propulsion
simulator. On the other hand, the present initial computational grid for the original hull form was
generated by an elliptic-algebraic method developed by the authors. During the optimization, the grid
is updated at every optimization cycle as the hull form is modified, that is accomplished by the use of
algebraic scheme to increase the computational efficiency.
Figure I: Definition sketch of coordinate system

721
In the present optimization, the design parameters are used to express modified body geometry through
the use of a 6-design-parameter modification function developed by the authors (Tahara et a!., 1998,
1999a, 1999b, 2000), where the values of the parameters are solutions of the present optimization
problem. Constraints considered are geometrical requirements of optimized hull form, such that
displacement, profile, maximum beam and depth of the optimized hull form are same as those of the
original hull form, and stern frame line at a control section (S.S.7/8) secures enough space for a-priori
designed engine room. The objective function to be minimized is DHP directly evaluated by the
present self-propulsion simulator. Hence, the present optimization problem is nonlinear, since the
constraint functions as well as the objective function are nonlinear functions ofthe design parameters.
As the earlier-mentioned, a SQP algorithm was used to solve the nonlinear optimization problem.
RESULTS
Prior to application of the present method to tanker stern form optimization, accuracy of the present
self-propulsion simulator was evaluated through comparison of the results with experimental data for
Case-A tanker hull form. The computational condition simulates the measurements, i.e., Rn=8x106•
The computational grid is C-O-type, whose number is 200x40x60 (in longitudinal x radial x girthwise
directions, .espectively)=480,000, where the domain includes both port and starboard sides of the hull
to compute asymmetric flow fields due to influences of propeller action. The first grid points off the
body surface are located in the range y +< 1, in order to correctly resolve the flow in near wall region.
Fig.3 provides comparison of computed surface pressure contours between for the towing and
self-propulsion conditions. The pressure contours for the latter clearly show expected decrease due to
the action of the propeller, which is especially evident in the region the boundary layer is thick, i.e., the
region near the stern bulb and near the propeller. It is also shown that the influences of the propeller are
restricted to the stern region. The trends agree well with those displayed in the measurements. Fig.4
shows comparison of effective wake coefficient l-w" propeller efficiency ratio 1/r, and thrust deduction
coefficient l-t between for the computational and experimental results, where satisfactory agreement
between the two results is indicated.
Next, the present optimization method was applied to tanker stern form optimization for minimum
DHP. For comparison, precursory results for minimum viscous resistance (Rv) (Tahara et a!. 1999a)
are also included in the following discussion. Hereafter, those results are referred to as DHP-Min. and
VR-Min., respectively. The original hull form is Case-X, which is one of the modern tanker hull forms
selected by the domestic Japan research project. The computational condition is Rn=1.9x106, which
follows that used in the authors' precursory work (Tahara et a!. 1999a), and number of the
computational grid (C-O-type) is 170x40x60 (in longitudinal x radial x girthwise directions,
respectively) = 408,000. The modification region is between S.S.4 and the stern end; and only
transverse modification is considered.
The optimized solution was obtained in 8 optimization cycles. Fig.S shows comparison of geometry
(bodyplan) between for the original and DHP-Min. hull forms, and Fig.6 for the original and VR-Min.
hull forms. In addition, Figs.7 and 8 compare cross-sectional area distribution (CP curve) and the
computed integral variables for those hull forms, respectively. Differences in stern frame lines are
obvious between for the original and optimized hull forms, in which clear differences between for
DHP-Min. and VR-Min. are also indicated, i.e., frame line modification from U to V types is
722
significant for the latter, in contrast, the trend is somewhat reduced for the former. From U to V frame
line modification ofVR-Min. results in lower viscous resistance; however, also larger effective wake
I-wI coefficient which causes lower propeller efficiency and larger DHP. This implies an important
fact that hull form optimization for minimum viscous resistance does not yield minimum
delivered-horsepower hull form. The volume distribution is moved backward for both DHP-Min. and
VR-Min.; however, the trend of the former is slightly reduced, which leads to better thrust deduction
coefficient I-t for the former. The present DHP-Min. indicates the lowest DHP among the three hull
forms, which supports a conclusion that the present method successfully optimized the original hull
form for minimum DHP. All of the above-mentioned modification trends agree well with those
commonly in use in traditional tanker hull form design.
CONCLUSIONS
The present work concerns tanker stern form optimization using CFD-based optimization method. The
main focus is placed on minimization of delivered horsepower in conjunction with application of
self-propulsion simulator, which is based on extension of a RaNS equation solver including propeller
effects evaluated by the infinite-bladed propeller theory. In conclusion, the present method appeared to
successfu!ly optimize the given tanker stern form, and the modification trends automatically
demonstrated in the present work agree well with those commonly in use in traditional tanker hull form
design. Further modification and extension of the present self-propulsion simulator are currently in
progress, in association with inclusion of tree surface effects and extension of the RaNS solver for
full-scale Rn.
REFERENCES
Nakatake, K. (1981). A Practical Method to Calculate Propulsive Performance of Ships. Memoirs of

the Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University, Vol. 41, No.1, pp.87-122.
Tahara, Y., Himeno, Y., and Tsukahara, T. (1998). An Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics
to Tanker Hull Form Optimization Problem. Proceedings 3rd Osaka Colloquium on Advanced CFD
Applications to Ship Flow and Hull Form Design, Osaka, Japan, May 25-27, pp. 515-531.
Tahara, Y., Saitoh, Y. and Himeno, Y. (1999a). CFD-Aided Optimization of Tanker Stern Form (1st
Report) - Minimization of Viscous Resistance -. J. Kansai Society of Naval Architects, No. 231, pp.
29-36.
Tahara, Y., Saitoh, Y. and Himeno, Y. (1999b). CFD-Aided Optimization of Tanker Stern Form (2nd
Report) - Minimization of Delivered Horsepower -. J. Kansai Society of Naval Architects, No. 232, pp.
9-18.
Tahara, Y., Nishida, R., Ando, J. and Himeno Y. (2000). CFD-Aided Optimization of Tanker Stern
Form (3rd Report) - Minimization of Delivered Horsepower Using Self-Propulsion Simulator -. J.
Kansai Society of Naval Architects, No. 234, pp.41-50.
NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF

DUCTED PROPELLER
Rong Zhao
MARINTEK, P.O.Box 4125 Valentinlyst, Trondheim, Norway
ABSTRACT
Numerical approaches for steady and unsteady analysis of ducted propeller in combination of an
experimental study of two duct propellers are carried out in this paper.
KEYWORDS
Ducted propeller, Propulsion, Model test, Thrust, Torque, Numerical analysis
1 INTRODUCTION
A numerical method to predict steady and unsteady performance of ducted propeller is developed. A
vortex lattice method is used for the propeller and a surface panel method is used for the duct. In the
lifting surface theory, the lifting effect is simulated by a bound vortex system, free vortex system, and
the influence of the blade thickness by source distribution. The hydrodynamic interaction between the
propeller and the duct is done by an iterative method in the steady analysis. The generalized image
method is used for unsteady analysis of ducted propeller. The flow around the duct is calculated by
using a three dimensional boundary element method. The surface of the duct is approximated with
quadrilateral panels, and the boundary condition is satisfied at the center of each panel. An
equal-pressure Kutta condition is used at trailing edge of the duct. The velocities induced by the
propeller are circumferentially averaged in the steady analysis, so that the physically periodical flow
around the duct is simplified as a steady, axis-symmetrical flow. The total thrust and torque
coefficients of ducted propeller and the thrust coefficient of duct are predicted by the program. In
addition the pressure distribution on the propeller blade and duct is calculated.
In order to validate the theory, model tests has been carried out at MARINTEK. One duct and two
propellers have been tested. For each condition two to four tests are carried out. The tip clearance
between the duct and propeller is investigated by model test for the propeller model P1287 with tip
clearance 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% of the propeller diameter. It is found that the tip clearance is not very
important for the total thrust and torque. The theoretical results are compared with experimental data.
Both steady and unsteady analysis are used. The comparison are presented in this paper. Good
agreement is obtained.
726
2 THEORY
Theory to predict steady and unsteady performance of ducted propeller is based on vortex lattice
method for the propeller and a boundary element method for the duct. The velocities induced by
propeller is taken into account in predicting the flow around the duct and the velocity induced by the
duct is included in the inflow to the propeller. The hydrodynamic interaction between the propeller and
the duct is solved by an iterative method in the steady analysis. In the unsteady analysis, a generalized
image method is used which is based on an approach of Kinnas et al. (I 990).
2.1 Theory to Predict Steady Performance of Propeller
A numerical method based on a lifting-surface theory of Wang and Hu(I988) is used to predict the
steady and unsteady performance of propeller. A brief description about the theory will be given here.
A vortex lattice method was developed by Wang and Hu(I988). The propeller loading and blade
thickness are represented by vortex and source distribution respectively. The method provide suitable
results for moderately loaded propellers.
A trailing vortex wake model based on a modification of the methods by Kerwin and Lee(l978) and
Greely and Kerwin(l982) is used. The numerical results show that this wake model gives better
agreement with experiments for highly skewed propeller.
The duct is calculated by using a potential-based panel method. A detail description of theory is given
here.
2.2 Boundary Element Method to Predict Flow around a Duct

2.3 Details 011 Numerical Method
In the steady analysis an iteration method is used to calculate interaction between the propeller and the
duct. It is found out 6 iterations are always enough to get convergence results. The generalized image
method is used in the unsteady analysis. The total inflow velocity to the duct includes two parts. One is
from inflow without propeller induced velocity. The other is from propeller induced velocity. The
velocities induced from the propeller are solved by using a generalized image method. For each unit
strength vortex loop on the propeller blade and its trailing wake, a generalized image flow which
satisfies the body boundary condition on the duct is calculated. This flow will introduce an additional
velocity on the propeller blade. This has been taken in the total inflow velocity to the propeller. An
unsteady analysis method of propeller in combination of an generalized image approach is used to
solved unsteady problem of ducted propeller.
3 VALIDA nON
In order to validate the theory, model test of ducted propellers has been carried out at MARlNTEK
for "open water" condition. One duct(D20) which is similar to 19A is used. Two propellers(P790 and
P1287) with diameter 300 mm have been tested. For the propeller model P790, three pitch values
(p/D=0.7, 0.86 and 1.0) are tested. For the propeller model P1287 four pitch values(P/D=0.9, 1.10,
1.30 and 1.50) are tested. Both propellers have four blades. The duct thrust, propeller thrust and torque
are measured. For each conditions two rotational speed of propeller were tested. For some conditions
two tests were done for each rotational 3 speed. The main propeller geometry data for P790 and P1287
is given in table 1. The geometry of duct is given in table 2.
The comparison between the theoretical predictions(steady analysis) and experimental data are
presented in figure (1) and (2). Figure (1) presents the results for the propeller model P790. Figure (2)
is the results for the propeller model P 1287. The experimental data is for tip clearance of 1%.
Generally speaking the steady program predicted well the total thrust and torque, as well as efficiency.
The program underestimates the duct thrust for high pitch ratio and overestimates the duct thrust for
low pitch ratio. The program can predict the steady performance when the advance coefficient J going
to zero. The model test has some difficulties at low advance coefficient J. At small J-values the duct
has large vibration, that means the propeller may touch the duct. It seems that the theory predict less
good results for small values of advance coefficient J. This may be due to nonlinear effects of propeller
characteristics and the unsteady effect of the duct.
An unsteady analysis of ducted propeller is used to study the effect of unsteady flow on the duct. The
results have been compared with experimental data and the results of steady analysis. Figure (3) shows
the comparison of the results of steady and unsteady analysis, and the experimental results. It seems
that the unsteady analysis give improvement of numerical results compared with experimental data,
specially for the duct thrust.
The importance of tip clearance between the propeller blade and duct is studied by choosing the values
of 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% of the diameter of the propeller model P1287. This is achieved by chopping
off the propeller tip. In figure (4) the results from experimental data are compared with the theoretical
results. The pitch ratio(P/D) is 1.3. It seems that there is almost no difference between the
experimental results of tip clearance of 1.0% and 1.5%.
But there is some difference between tip clearance of 0.5% and 1.0% (or 1.5%). The experimental
results of tip clearance of 0.5% are based on two rotational speeds of propeller. The difference in
experimental results is large for these two rotational speeds. One may expect that the largest difference
should be between the tip clearances 1.0% and 1.5%, since the area of propeller blade changes most.
728
Based on the experimental data one may conclude that the tip clearance may be not so important for
the total thrust and torque of duct propeller.
4 CONCLUSIONS
A numerical program to predict steady and unsteady performance of ducted propeller is developed.
The theories are validated by model test which has been carried out at MARINTEK.
The agreement between the theories and experimental results are satisfactory for duct thrust, propeller
thrust and torque, specially for the results of unsteady analysis.
TABLE I
MAIN GEOMETRY DATA OF p790 AND pl287
a) Number of chord length, thickness and ...
b} Nondimensional radius (r/R), where chord length and thickness are input
c) Pi tch ratio (P /O) (D-propeller diameter)
d) Skew angle of the blade sections along the radial direction (degree)
e) Rake distribution in radial direction (x_mID)
f) Chord length distribution (c/O)
gJ Max. thickness of blade section in percentage of propeller diarneter{t/D)
h) Camber distribution along radial direction (f/c)
Main geometry data of P790
al 10
b) 0.28 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 0.95 1.00
c) 0.603 0.633 0.743 0.803 0.840 0.860 0.867 0.857 0.85 0.84
dl 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
el 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
f) 0.190 0.203 0.250 0.293 0.330 0.347 0.347 0.307 0.253 0.000
g) 0.040 0.040 0.033 0.030 0.023 0.017 0.013 0.010 0.007 0.005
hi 0.0 0.0148 0.0267 0.0238 0.0222 0.0202 0.0192 0.0196 0.0197 0.000
Main geometry data of P1287
14
0.269 0.30 0.325 0.35 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 0.95 0.975 0.99 1.00
.827 .884 .927 .966 1.038 1.148 1.214 1.236 1.220 1.152 1.092 1.055 1.031 1.013
.0 -2.15 -3.57 -4.75 -6.48 -6.79 -5.66 -2.83 1.93 8.50 12.31 14.10 15.35 16.48
.0 .0043 .0057 .0064 .0076 .0097 .0117 .0132 .0135 .0118 .0092 .0068 .0044 0.0
.157 .182 .203 .223 .261 .320 .374 .416 .436 .417 .373 .326 .261 .051
.064 .042 .034 .031 .027 .0207 .0154 .0112 .0081 .0060 .0054 .0053 .0052 0.0051
0.0 .0236 .0287 .0286 .0292 .0302 .0313 .0317 .0310 .0283 .0247 .0210 .0170 0.0
TABLE 2
GEOMETRY OF THE DUCT
! length of duct (rom) = 300.0 rom

! coordinates of propeller center in the coordinate system of duct (mm)
, (xl , r1)~ (150.0 nun, -302.0 nun)
! xr-coordinate on the inside of xr-coordinate on the outside side
! an axis-symmetric duct. of an axis-symmetric duct
! The length of the duct is unit(l.O mm) The length of the duct is unit (I. Omm)
The points start from trailing The points start from leading edge
! edge of the duct. of the duct
! X-coor. r-coor. x-coor. r-coor.
1.000000 0.0400 0.000000 0.1825
0.950000 0.0186 0.012500 0.2072
0.900000 0.0145 0.025000 0.2107
0.800000 0.0082 0.050000 0.2080
0.700000 0.0029 0.075000 0.2042
0.600000 0.0033 0.100000 0.2004
0.500000 0.0038 0.150000 0.1928
0.400000 0.0043 0.200000 0.1852
0.300000 0.0048 0.250000 0.1776
0.250000 0.0110 0.300000 0.1700
0.200000 0.0217 0.400000 0.1548
0.150000 0.0387 0.500000 0.1396
0.100000 0.0634 0.6000000.1244
0.075000 0.0800 0.700000 0.1092
0.050000 0.1014 0.800000 0.0940
0.025000 0.1285 0.900000 0.0788
0.012500 0.1465 0.950000 0.0712
0.000000 0.1825 1. 000000 0.0400
Figure 1: Comparison of numerical and experimenl.a..l results of duct thrust, total thrust, torque and efficiency coefficients in "open
waler" condition. P790<propeller) and D20(duct) are used. a) Pilch ratio PID is 0.70. b) Pitch ratio PID is 0.86 c) Pilch ratio PID is 1.0. The
horizonlal axis is J;::.V/(nO). Steady analysis is used in the theoreticaJ prediction. The Kq values presented in the figure are multiplied by a
factor 10.
References
Greely,D.S. and Kerwin, J.E.(1982). Numerical methods for propeller design and analysis in steady
flow, Trans. SMAME, 90.
Kerwin, J.E. and Lee,C.S.(1978). Prediction of steady and unsteady marine propeller performance
by numerical lifting-surface theory, Trans. SNAME, 86.
Kinnas, S.A., Hsin, C.Y., and Keenan, D.P.(1990). A potential based method for the unsteady flow
around open and ducted propeller, 18th ONR.
Minsaas, K. (1967). Propellteori, Shipsmodelltankens Meddeldse no.96.
Wang, G.Q. and Hu, S.G.(1988). Improvement of Prediction Method for Propeller Characteristics
and Blade Pressure Distridution, Shipbuilding of China, Tot. No.1 00.
Zhao, R.(1999). Ducted Propeller Computer Program Development, Verification Tests in Open
Water Condition, MARINTEK REPORTMT60 F99-421, 603526.00.01
Figure 2: Comparison of numerical and experimental results of duct thrus~ total thrus~ torque and efficiency coefficients in "open
water" condition. Pl287(propeUer) and D20(duct) are used. a) Pitch ratio PID is 0.90. b) Pitch ratio PID is I. 10. c) Pitch ratio PID is 1.30.
d) Pitch ratio PID is 1.50. Steady analysis is used in the theoretical prediction. The horizontal axis is J=V/(nD). The Kq values presented in
the figure are muJtiplied by a factor 10.
Figure 3: Comparison of numerical and experimental results of duct thrus~ to<aIthrus~ torque and efficiency coefficients in "opeo
water" condition. PI287(propeUer) and D20(duct) are used. Pitch ratio PID is 1.50. Both steady(-theory) and unsteady(-theory.un)
programs are used. The horizontal axis is J=V/(nD). The Kq values presented in the figure are multiplied by a factor 10.
Figure 4: ComparisoD of Dumerical and experimeDtal results of duct thrus~ total thrus~ torque and efficieDCYcoefficients in "opeD
water" coDdi~on. PI287(propeller) and D20(duct) are used. Pitch ratio PID is 1.30. The tip clearance is a) 0.5%, b) 1.0% and c) 1.5% iD
the experimental data... Steady an.a.Iysis is used in the theoretical prediction. The horizontal axis is J=V/(nD). The Kq values presented in !.he
figur~ are mwliplied by a factor 10.
DESIGN OF CAVITATING PROPELLERS

BY LIFTING SURFACE THEORY
Guo-Qiang Wang, Chen-Jun Yang
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030 China
ABSTRACT
The paper presents a theoretical method for the design of supercavitating propellers or trans-cavitating
propellers (a type of hybrid of the supercavitating propeller) by using the lifting surface theory. Based
on performances of the 2-D supercavitating hydrofoil obtained by linear vortex panel method, the
Lerbs' induction factor method is adopted in the preliminary stage. The geometry of the propeller, such
as blade outline, section profiles and circulation and pitch radial distribution etc., is determined. The
final pitch radial distribution and detailed off-sets of section profiles of the blades are then obtained by
lifting surface theory for the cavitating propeller to meet with design requirements.
KEYWORDS
Panel method, Lifting surface theory, Propeller, Cavitation, Supercavitating propeller
1 INTRODUCTION
Choosing a supercavitating propeller as a propulsive device for high speed ships is a wise decision to
meet successfully a demand for high thrust while simultaneously lessening the erosion effects of
cavitation. SSPA of Sweden published a series of supercavitating propellers in 1979.[1]Corresponding
charts were provided, which can be easily employed by designers. Early in 1962, DTMB design
method was developed finally by Venning, in which the Goldstein's lifting line theo~ and Tulin's
linearized cavity flow theory together with some sophisticated corrections were applied. 4] Systematic
investigations upon the design method of supercavitating propeller have been made by Ukon of SRI in
Japan. Several papers related to this topic have been published since 1994y,3] In this paper, a linear
vortex panel method is adopted for the calculation of hydrodynamic characteristics of 2-D
supercavitating hydrofoils. Based on the cavity geometry and hydrodynamic characteristics of 2-D
supercavitating hydrofoils, the lifting line theory together with the lifting surface corrections is
employed for the design of supercavitating propellers or the trans-cavitating propellers. The
preliminary blade outline, section profiles, and load and pitch radial distribution can be determined in
this stage. Then a vortex lattice method for the performance prediction of partial cavitating and
supercavitating propeller is applied to compute the cavity geometry and hydrodynamic performance of
the designed propeller. Section profiles and pitch distribution of the blade of the designed cavitating
734
propeller are modified until all the design requirements are fulfilled.
2 LINEAR VORTEX PANEL METHOD FOR THE HYDRODYNAMIC

CHARACTERISTICS OF 2-D SUPERCAVITATING HYDROFOILS
In this method the supercavitating hydrofoil is represented by a set of singularities. Vortices with the
strength of linear distribution are arranged on the wetted surface of the hydrofoil. Vortices of equal
density with opposite sign are distributed on the upper and lower surfaces of the cavity respectively. At
the leading edge of the foil and in the small region in front of the cavity, vortices with singularity are
specified. Upon arranging all the singularities, the strength of vortex distribution and cavity geometry
can be evaluated by using the dynamic and kinematic conditions on the wetted surface of the hydrofoil
and cavity surface. The hydrodynamic characteristics are calculated finally.
Fig.! shows a 2-D supercavitating hydrofoil. The lower wetted surface of the hydrofoil is composed of
three parts. A small region sle2 with nf12 elements and a small region ste with nj3 elements are chosen
near the leading and trailing edges respectively, on which vortices with singularity are distributed. The
middle large part of the lower surface is divided into nj2 elements, on which vortices with the strength
of linear distribution are arranged. The upper surface is consists of two part. A small region slel with
nlll elements is near the leading edge, on which vortices with singularity are distributed. Other large
part of the upper surface is covered by cavity totally. The cavity starts from the end points of slel on
the upper side and the end point of ste on the lower side respectively. As mentioned above, vortices of
equal density with opposite sign are distributed on the upper and lower surfaces of the cavity
respectively. Upper surface of the cavity is divided into nc2 elements and lower surface ncl. The
control point is located in the middle of each element. It should be noticed that at the end of the cavity
the Riabouchinsky model is used for the closure condition of the cavity. A small circular arc of length
send with ne elements is put at the end of cavity. Vortices with the strength of linear distribution are
arranged on this circular arc. The strength of the vortex is specified to be zero at the middle point of
the circular arc due to the opposite sign of the vortices on the upper and lower cavity surfaces.
3 DESIGN OF CAVITATING PROPELLER BY LIFTING LINE THEORY
At first, conventional lifting line theory together with lifting surface corrections is applied. The only
difference from the method for the sub-cavitating propeller is that the supercavitating sections are used
for the blade instead of conventional airfoil sections. Hydrodynamic characteristics of supercavitating
sections are obtained ITomthe linear vortex panel method as mention above. However, conventional
airfoil sections are still used for sections not operating under the condition of supercavitation. The
design procedure is similar to what given in reference [4].
3.1 Design Procedure
The well known induction factor method of Lerbs is employed to determine the radial distribution of
nondimensional circulation, hydrodynamic pitch angle and (C L • L / D) ratio under the design
condition of given power or thrust first. Then the lifting coefficient CL and cavitation number can be
evaluated by known radial distribution of blade chord length. A set of lift coefficient CL, drag
coefficient CD and cavity length Le at different CLO and obtained section cavitation number can
be determined from Fig.4 through 6, which are derived ITom figures similar to Fig.3. The lift
coefficient CLO due to camber, drag coefficient CD and cavity length Le for each section are
determined by interpolation from the section lift coefficient CL obtained above.
Upon having C LO' face ordinates and thickness distribution of the 2-term supercavitating section can
be computed. [4]
4 PREDICTION OF HYDRODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF PROPELLER CAVITY
A theoretical method for prediction of cavity geometry and hydrodynamic forces of 3-D cavitating
hydrofoil and cavitating propeller was developed.[5,6,7]
References [5, 6] presented an effective unified numerical method for the calculations of steady and
unsteady cavity extent and shape on 3-D partial cavitating, supercavitating hydrofoils or those with
mixed planforms consisting of partial and supercavitation, without the need of separate algorithms or
separate discretizations, The problem of partial cavitation and supercavitation on 3-D hydrofoils were
investigated systematically. This method was extended to the case of cavitating propeller.[7] The
singularities representing loading, section thickness and cavity on the propeller blades, and control
points, where boundary conditions should be fulfilled, are all located on the camber surface and the
wake vortex sheets of blades, In unsteady flow, the wake vortex sheet contains trailing vortices and
shed vortices. A conical helicoid to describe the deformed trailing vortex sheet in the transitional wake
region and a semi-closure cavity model at the cavity end are employed in the calculation. The cavity
extent and shape and hydrodynamic performances of the propeller operating in the uniform or non-
unioform flow field were studied.
For the cavitating propeller in an unbound, incompressible fluid, the solution of the problem must
740
TABLE 2
COMPARISON OF RESULTS BY LIFTING LINE AND PRESENT METHOD
Lifting Line Present Method

Kr 0.1571 0.1417
lOKQ 0.4040 0.3729
170 0.6811 0.6651
It is found that both the thrust and torque coefficients obtained by the present method are lower than
those from lifting line theory. It might be that the lifting surface corrections for the sub-cavitating
propeller seem not enough to consider the 3-D effect. Of course, further study is necessary.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions can be drawn:

1. The method for the design of supercavitating propellers or trans-cavitating propellers (a type of
hybrid of the supercavitating propeller) by using the vortex lattice method proposed in this paper is
validated. This method will be a useful tool for the design of cavitating propellers for the purpose
of practical application.
2. The flow-curvature corrections used in the design of conventional propellers are not completely
applicable to the design of supercavitating propellers.
3. Future study is necessary to improve the present method. In order to accumulate experience, more
practice is needed.
References
[1] Rutgersson 0.(1979). Supercavitating Propeller Performance, Influence of Propeller Geometry

and Interaction between Propeller, Rudder and Hull. SSPA No.82
[2] Ukon Y., Kudo T., Kurobe Y., Hoshino T.(1994). Design and Evaluation of New Supercavitating
Propellers. The Second International Symposium on Cavitation, 395-402.
[3] Ukon Y., Kudo T., Kurobe Y., Matsuda N., Kato H.(1995). Design of High Performance
Supercavitating Propellers Based on a Vortex Lattice Method. PROPCAV'95, 151-162.
[4] Venning E., Haberman W. L.(1962). Supercavitating Propeller Performance. Trans. SNAME, 354-
417.
[5] Wang G.-Q., Huang Y., Yang C.-J., Yang J.-M.(1996). Investigations on the Stability of Cavity on
3-D Hydrofoil. Proceedings of Sixth Symposium of Propulsor and Cavitation, CSNAME, 145-152.
[6] Wang, G.-Q., Huang, Y., Yang C.-J.(1997). Analysis of the Flow around 3-D Cavitating
Hydrofoil by a Vortex Lattice Method. Proceedings of China-Korea Marine Hydrodynamics
Meeting, 286-294.
[7] Wang G.-Q., Huang Y., Yang J.-M., Yang C.-J.(1996). Prediction of Propeller Unsteady
Cavitation. Proceedings of Sixth Symposium of Propulsor and Cavitation, CSNAME, 137-144.
Crown Copyright © 200 I Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
PREDICTION OF TRANSIENT LOADING ON A PROPELLER

FROM AN APPROACHING ICE BLOCK
P. Liu', B. Colboume2 and Chin Shin'
12·'National Research Council Canada, Institute for Marine Dynamics, Box 12093, Station "A"
I Kerwin Place, S1. John's, Newfoundland, AlB 3T5, Canada,
ABSTRACT
An unsteady 3D surface panel method has been developed to predict hydrodynamic load fluctuations
on an ice class propeller induced by continuous variation of proximity to an ice block. The low order,
time domain, combined doublet and source panel method approximates the doublet and source
distribution uniformly over each panel on the propeller blades. For non-lifting bodies, i.e., the hub and
ice block, only sources are distributed over the body surfaces. The simulation model is contrived in
such a manner that the ice block and surrounding fluid remain stationary; and at each time step, the
propeller rotates and advances forward in the inertial reference frame. This numerical model is
validated with previous fixed-proximity experimental measurements and good agreement is obtained.
Prediction of the fluctuating hydrodynamic load is carried out as a full dynamic interaction between
the ice block and the propeller. Results for this study are compared with previous fixed-proximity
numerical models and experiments. The new dynamic model establishes a basis for analysis of a more
realistic fluid-structure interaction, which could, in the future, include ice block acceleration due to
suction force and ice block impact loading on the propeller blade and shaft.
KEYWORDS
Marine Propulsion, Panel Methods, Unsteady Loading, Ice-Propeller Interaction
1 INTRODUCTION
Ice class propeller performance evaluation is a relatively new topic in marine hydrodynamics. A 3-D
panel method was presented by Shih & Zheng (1993) to examine the thrust and torque jump for a
propeller interfacing with a rectangular ice block under a fixed proximity condition. Both physical and
numerical models in two-dimensional space were established by Newbury et al. (1993). These models
are all for non-contacting ice-propeller interaction. Veitch (1995) established a physical model for ice-
contact load on a propeller blade to simulate an ice-milling process. A numerical structural load
simulation was also implemented (Veitch et al. 1997). Bose (1996) used a 3-D panel method to
evaluate the induced hydrodynamic load fluctuation between a milled ice block and the propeller blade
leading edge profile. A propeller performance evaluation software, PROPELLA, was developed based
742
on Uu (1996) and used to evaluate 6 different propellers for induced load under fixed proximity
conditions (Liu et al. 2000). The ice-contact load model by Veitch (1995) was modified by
reformulating the pressure regimes and by incorporating the hydrodynamic and structural loads into an
ice/propeller blockage impact model. These changes were implemented to PROPELLA to predict ice-
propeller contact load (Doucet et al. 1998). In all the above-mentioned studies, the gaps between the
propeller leading edge and the ice-blockage are fixed. The next logical development is to determine the
hydrodynamic loading fluctuation as a propeller approaches an ice-blockage, i.e., the gap is a function
of time. The current study was initialized for this investigation.
2 ABOUT THE METHOD
A time-domain, low order panel method is developed in the computer code PROPELLA.
Fundamentals of the panel method can be found in the work by Katz and Plotkin (1991). The current
method, however, has the following features:
1. The formulation of the method is in the time domain. The propeller progresses with time steps and
so does the shed wake. This enables both multi-body and multi-path treatment. The fluid is static
so it allows objects in the flow domain to move in different paths (Uu 1996).
2. A fast yet stable iterative matrix solver, the Bi-Conjugate Gradient Stability method is
implemented in the code. An earlier version of the code has an option to store the matrix and solve
the unknowns row by row (Uu 1996).
3. A stable and suitable Kutta condition for multi-body and multi-path flow was established by
implementing the Broyden iterative pressure procedure (Liu & Bose 1998).
4. The code design and implementation take flexibility of the object surface into account so that the
solid boundary varies with time when required (Liu 1996).
5. Both hyperboloidal and flat quadrilateral panel formulations are implemented in the code to handle
hyperboloidal (see Morino & Kuo 1974 for formulation and Uu & Bose 2000 for an
implementation note), flat quadrilateral and triangular panels (Newman 1986) by giving
appropriate doublet and source influence coefficient matrices as required.
6. An optional prediction of the load and pressure distribution on blades of a propeller with sheet
cavitation by a novel and simple model may also be considered. (to be published).
In the ice-propeller induced load model, the ice blockage is fixed in space. Exact simulation of a static
object in the flow domain gives a singularity of the pressure coefficient on the ice-blockage surface
since the velocity of the blockage is zero. To prevent the singularity, a close-to-zero velocity such as
0.0001 m/sec is taken for the motion of the ice block. Water head is also taken into account so the
pressure coefficient value at corresponding points on each blade are then different, even if the flow is
steady in nature.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
There are 20 chordwise panel intervals and 14 equal radial intervals on each blade. Chordwise
intervals are arranged by using a semi-cosine function. When a sinusoidal function to control the panel
intervals is used, the leading edge panels often have a very large length to width ratio for a dense grid.
This affects the accuracy of the results and gives a poor grid connection between the blade root and the
hub at the leading edges of a propeller. A remedy was taken to limit the lowest length in the chordwise
direction to no less than a predefined value such as 2.5% of the local chord. The semi-cosine function
for the chordwise panel arrangement is used for a better resolution when the prediction of the cavity
detachment point is required in the cavitation simulation model.
743
The blade sectional shape, panel arrangement on an expanded blade plan, face side and right side
views of the R-class propeller are shown in figure I. The geometry details of the propeller may be
found in Walker (1996).
Figure I: Sectional shape panel layout of the ice class propeller in

expanded plan and the rear and side views of this propeller. The pitch
ratio at r=0.7R is 0.78 and the hub to diameter ratio is 0.30. This
propeller has a rake angle of 10° and minor skew
Figure 2: Initial position of the ice-class propeller relative to the blade-

leading-edge contoured ice wall. The ice wall is fixed and the propeller
is approaching the wall at a forward speed of 0.8 m/sec
Figure 2 shows the ice-class propeller and the ice blockage contour-fitted to the blade leading edge.
The ice blockage width is the same as the propeller diameter and its height is Y. of the diameter. The
top of the ice block is aligned with the maximum height of the blade tip. The rotational speed of the
200-mm propeller model is 10 revolutions per second and the forward speed is 0.8 m/sec so the
advance coefficient J is 0.4.
Figure 3 shows the model validation for open water calculations and measurements (Walker 1996) of
the thrust and torque coefficients.
In the current method, a numerical Kutta condition is applied. For such a relatively small pitch ratio
propeller, implementing the numerical Kutta condition to the current panel method gives a good
overall load prediction in a wide range of J values. Results agree well with the experimental data.
Figure 4 shows a comparison of the predicted and measured thrust coefficient in an open water
condition and the fixed proximity condition. Experimental data is taken from Doucet et al. (1998). All
data are computed at J=O.4. The normalized gap values are based on the radius of the propeller model
(100mm). Therefore the real distance from the ice to the propeller is 1 rom at a gap value of l%R. The
predicted thrust under the proximity condition is slightly lower than the measurement. At a very small
gap value, the predicted results are closer to the second set of experimental data than the first.
Figure 5 shows a torque coefficient comparison with experimental values also taken from also Doucet
et al. (1988). For open water flows, the current method gives a slight under prediction on torque.
Under the proximity flow condition, the predicted torque agrees well with the first set of experiments
until the gap becomes very small, where the prediction agrees well with the second set of experiments.
Comparison of the thrust coefficient under fixed proximity and variable proximity conditions is shown
in figure 6. At large gap values, where the propeller is relatively far from the ice blockage, the two
thrust coefficients are close. When the gap values decrease, predicted thrust under the variable
proximity condition is substantially lower. This indicates that the fixed proximity gives a more
conservative estimation of the load fluctuation.
Load fluctuations on the key blade in tenns of thrust and torque coefficient at the last two revolutions
(revolution two and three) are presented in figure 8. The last time step of the first revolution
corresponds to a gap value of 81. 32%R (with an absolute value of 0.074818 m) at which value the key
blade is pointing upward. At the last time step of the first revolution, i.e., the II 9th time step, the key
blade is fully blocked by the ice wall so both torque and thrust are higher than that of the adjacent steps
even though the propeller was closer to the ice wall. At the 17dh time step corresponding to
gap=13.31%R, the key blade entered the ice blockage domain and at the 18dh time step the propeller
is at the center of the ice wall with a gap values of about O%R. In this range of interaction, both the
thrust and torque coefficients increase dramatically.
Figure 9 shows the pressure distribution at r=O. 7287R of the key blade at the 179'h time step with a
gap value of 1.31%R. The Cp values at the trailing edge could be closer if the pressure difference
allowance was set smaller (0.05 in the current computation) for the iterative Kutta condition. However,
too small a value of the target value would make the iteration divergence-prone.
In computations for the variable proximity case, three revolutions with 60 time steps for each
revolution were set. The numerical Kutta condition was used, and for a 500 MHz Xeon Intel processor
with 2 GB of RAM on a DELL workstation, a computation took about 36 hours. This run with the
above motion and geometry parameters took about 400 MB of RAM, with each additional revolution
adding 50 MB. The real time for the model in this simulation is about 0.33 seconds.
4 CONCLUSIONS
A transient model for ice-propeller induced hydrodynamic load fluctuation is established. The model is
validated with experimental data for open water and fixed proximity conditions and comparisons of
results give good agreement. The model is extended to predict load fluctuations with varying
proximity and the results indicate a lower load fluctuation compared to the fixed proximity model. At
very small gap values, both models give a very high load jump at about the same magnitude.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the National Research Council Canada for its supports.
References
1. Bose N. (1996). Ice Blocked Propeller Performance Predictions Using a Panel Method.
Transactions of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects 138, 213-226.
2. Doucet I.M., Liu P., Bose N. and Veitch B. (1998). Numerical Prediction ofIce-Induced Loads
on Ice-Class Screw Propellers Using a Synthesized ContactlHydrodynamics Code. OERC
Report of Ocean Engineering Research Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland OERC-
1998-004
3. Katz 1. and Plotkin A. (1991). Low-Speed Aerodynamics, McGraw-Hill, New York
747
4. Liu P. (1996). A Time-Domain Panel Method for Oscillating Propulsors with both Chordwise
and Spanwise Flexibility. Doctoral Thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
5. Liu P. and Bose N. (1998). An Unsteady Panel Method for Highly Skewed Propellers in Non-
Uniform Inflow. 22nd lTTC Propulsion Committee Propeller RANSIPanel Method Workshop,
5-6 April, Grenoble, France, 343-349.
6. Liu P, Doucet J.M., Veitch B., Robbins 1. and Bose N. (2000). Numerical Prediction of Ice
Induced Hydrodynamic Loads on Propellers Due to Blockage. Oceanic Engineering
International 4:1, 31-38.
7. Liu P. and Bose N. (2000). Hydrodynamic Characteristics of a Screw-Nozzle-Rudder
Assembly. Journal of Computational Fluid Dynamics of Japan 9:1
8. Morino, L. and Kuo, C.-c. (1974). Subsonic Potential Aerodynamics for Complex
Configurations: A General Theory. AIM Journal 12:2, 191-197.
9. Newbury S., Shih, Y.L., Browne R.P., Revill C.R., Kenny S. and Zheng Y. (1993).
Experimental and Theoretical Evaluation of Hydrodynamic Pressure during Non-Contact
Propeller/Ice Interaction. Institute Report of Institute for Marine Dynamics, National Research
Council Canada IR-1993-15
10. Newman, J.N. (1986). Distributions of sources and normal dipoles over a quadrilateral panel.
Journal of Engineering Mathematics 20,113-126.
i I. Shih L.Y. and Zheng Y. (1993). Application of 3-D BEM to Time-Dependent Potential Flow
Over a Propeller with Ice Blockage at Proximity Condition. Proceedings of the inaugural
Coyiference of the CFD Society of Canada, PQ, Canada.
i2. Veitch B. (1995). Prediction of Ice Contact Forces on a Marine Screw Propeller during the
Propeller-Ice Cutting Process. Acta Polytechnica Scandinavica, Mechanical Engineering Series,
Espoo, Finland 118
13. Veitch 8., Bose N., Meade C. and Liu P. (1997). Prediction of Hydrodynamic and Ice Contact
Loads on Ice-Class Screw Propellers, Proceedings of the i ~h International Conference on
OjJshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, American Society of Mechanicai Engineers 4,
119-125.
14. Walker D. (1996). The Influence of Blockage and Cavitation on the Hydrodynamic
Performance ofIce Class Propellers in Blocked Flow, Doctoral Thesis, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, Canada
INVESTIGA TIONS OF PODDED DRIVES

IN A LARGE CA VITA TION TUNNEL
J. Friesch
Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSV A), Hamburg, Germany
ABSTRACT
Podded propulsion is increasingly being recognised by ship owners and ship yards as a perfect solution
for a broader range of applications. More and more powerful podded propulsion systems - mainly for
large cruise liners - have been developed in the last years. Outputs range from 5 to 30 MW per unit.
Primary benefits of pod propulsion systems are space saving design, improved efficiency, optimised
manoeuvrability and distinctly lower levels of vibration and noise compared with conventional marine
propulsion systems. An efficiency higher than with a conventional system is reported to be achieved.
The improved noise behaviour is mainly the result of more homogenous inflow conditions to the pro-
peller and of the possibility of using a reduced propeller diameter. Especially for cruise ships the high-
est level of comfort on board must be guaranteed. Therefore normally extensive model tests are carried
out not only for the propulsion behaviour but also for the cavitation and noise behaviour of the pod and
its propeller(s).
Figurel: Different Types of Podded Drives in the Test Section of the Cavitation Tunnel HYKAT
In the paper results of wake field measurements and of cavitation observations combined with pressure
fluctuation and noise measurements in HSVA's large cavitation tunnel HYKAT for different pod ar-
rangements are presented. The test arrangement, mainly the dynamometers used and the test proce-
dures are described. The tests were performed with large propeller models (up to 250 mm in diameter)
and with high rotational speeds (up to 35 revs per second) behind whole ship models of 8 to 11 meters
in length. The results are compared with data of cruise ships with conventional propeller-shaft ar-
750
rangements. The data show the excellent possibilities of pod propulsion systems mainly from the cavi-
tation and noise point of view.
KEYWORDS
Model test techniques, Cavitation, Pressure pulses, Noise, Podded drives, HYKA T
1 INTRODUCTION
Propeller induced vibration can cause passenger discomfort or operational restrictions. The modern
design trend for cruise liners is to place important public areas near the aft end of the ship, where they
are particularly vulnerable to excitation by the propeller. High vibration can cause crew fatigue in war-
ships like frigates or even aircraft carriers, where high power and lightweight structure are needed to
deliver operational requirements. One of the largest problems in the design of commercial and naval
vessels is to predict the vibration and noise behavior at low frequencies. Twin screw vessels have been
build for many decades, years ago the shaft supports have been enclosed in bossings, which produced
pronounced wake distributions and were therefore not desirable for high speed vessels. Nowadays
many modern RolRo ships, cruise liners, fast ferries and navy ships have an open shaft arrangement.
Large brackets, the struts, support the shafting and are located in front of the propeller and very often
V -shaped. But still there is a change in the inflow velocity distribution because of these struts which is
influencing the cavitation behavior of the propeller. Also the danger of cavitation on the struts them-
selves and the related noise needs to be considered.
The aim of this paper is to show, how the use of podded propulsors will improve the cavitation, vibra-
tion and noise behavior offast and highly sophisticated ships. Since the launching of the 14 MW pod
units for the two Elation Class cruise liners, podded propulsion became accepted in the commercial
shipbuilding world. From the hydrodynamic point of view, the primary advantages are:
power savings
low levels of propeller induced vibration and noise
improvements of the manoeuvring behaviour.
Figure 2: Normal Shaft Arrangement with an Additional Contra Rotating Pod Drive
Podded propulsion is an advanced ship concept which represents a radical departure from the above
mentioned traditional design philosophy of propulsion arrangements. For the podded propulsion the
propeller is normally fitted at the fore end of a gondola, the pod, which can rotate by 360 deg, located
very close to the ship stern with the electrical engine located inside the shell of the gondola. Since the
751
beginning in the late eighties, starting with the application on single screw supply vessels, artic tankers
and icebreakers, the system proved to be efficient and reliable. The success followed in the nineties
with the application on a lot of twin screw cruise ships with better hydrodynamic performance concern-
ing propulsion efficiency, manoeuvering behavior, propeller cavitation, vibrations and noise compared
to a conventional twin screw ship propeller arrangement. Fitting of podded drives can have significant
impact on the aftward ship arrangements and influence on the hydrodynamic design of the stem of the
vessel. In the former years, hull forms were usually those of an existing ship design, designed to be
fitted with shaft lines, rudders, struts and stem thrusters. But hull form optimization work shows that
even more improvements can be reached by a complete new design of the ships' aftbody.
Depending on the mission profile of the ship, the demand for passenger/crew comfort and for the spe-
cific requirements of the different pod manufacturers, a wide variety of arrangements are possible (Ku-
rimo et aI., 1997), ranging from single via multiple pure pods to combinations with conventional shafts
which can create a contra-rotating set-up. Propellers are arranged in a pulling or/and pushing position.
This presentation will consider the cavitation behavior of different pod arrangements (Fig. I, 2 and 3).
2 MODEL TESTS
Figure 3: Pod Arrangement in HYKAT for a Modem Cruise Vessel
For model tests with podded propulsors use is made of an advanced measuring device developed spe-
cifically for those tests. The shape of the gondola and the streamlined strut are build around the me-
chanical, fully azimuthing z-drive unit with an integrated torque and thrust meter and a revolution
pick-up. The pod total unit thrust is measured additionally with a force balance mounted on the verti-
cal shaft. The reproducibility of the data lies within the range of 1% - 1.5%. The units will be fitted to
an adjustable frame which allows to tilt and shift them within the models, such allowing to find the
optimum "rudder" angle, the best lateral position and the optimum fore-aft tilt angle of the pod unit.
The units can be used for both, tests in the towing tank and in the large cavitation tunnel HYKAT.
Model tests in the towing tank include both, open water test and self propulsion tests. Open water tests
need to be performed with the propellers alone and with the propeller/pod unit (Mewis, 1998). In the
cavitation tunnel HYKAT the cavitation behavior and the vibration and noise behavior of the units are
tested behind the whole ship model which is used in the towing tank self propulsion tests. The drive
units allow high rotational speeds up to 35 revs per second which together with the large model pro-
pellers (diameters between 210 and 260 mm) allow to reach as high Reynoldsnumbers as for compa-
rable conventional propeller shaft arrangements, thus fulfilling the recommendations of the ITTC for
cavitation tests and pressure fluctuation measurements. A detailed description of the test facility
HYKAT and the test procedures used, is given by Friesch, 1998 and 2000.
752
3 PROPELLER OUTLINE
One significant aspect of pod propulsion is directly connected to the working environment of the pro-
peller. Propeller-hull clearance is often about 35% of the propeller diameter. For the pulling type pod,
the velocity distribution in the propeller plane is very uniform, the propeller works nearly in open wa-
ter condition which means that the change in angle of attack for the blade profiles varies less, com-
pared to a conventional shaft arrangement (see Fig. 4a). It is therefore possible to reduce for example
propeller skew and bring more loading to the propeller tip. Therefore redesign of a propeller my in-
volve some economic benefits. For a propeller design task, always two opposite aspects have to be
taken into account: efficiency on one side and cavitation and pressure pulses on the other. For a mod-
em cruise vessel or a fast ferry with high comfort levels the second aspect is the most important one.
In order to reduce the amount of cavitation and the related pressure levels it is necessary to act on
both, the inflow conditions to the propeller (the wake) and the propeller geometry itself.
Figure 4b: Pod Arrangement

3.1 The Wake
The wake on a conventional twin screw ship
is mainly affected by two factors, the hull
form and the appendages. In the design of a
conventional twin screw vessel the stem lines
design is strongly influenced by the need of
fitting the bossings for the shafts and keeping
a certain required hull- propeller clearance.
Dealing with a ship with podded propulsion,
bossings are no longer necessary, clearance
can be increased by moving the pod propeller
as aft as possible since there are no restric-
tions in combination with the shaft length.
The limitation concerning the pod position is strongly related to the possibility to rotate the pod by
360 and no part should protrude aft of the transom. In addition thick skegs to locate thrusters are no
0
longer necessary and therefore an additional improvement of the wake distribution can be achieved. It
is well known that for a twin screw vessel the strongest influence on the wake field comes from
brackets, bossings and shafts, and efforts are always made to optimize their positions and orientations
in order to reduce the wake peaks and irregularities. Fig. 4a shows the typical wake distribution on a
specific radius for a conventional twin screw shaft arrangement. The peaks in the axial component of
the velocity and the changes in radial and tangential components influence the angle of attack alpha of
the propeller profiles dramatically. Getting rid of all parts in front of the propeller reduces the changes
in angle of attack (Fig. 4b) and when additionally the propeller and gondola can be installed with a
shaft inclination which is orientated to the direction of the flow lines the wake characteristics are
753
clearly improved (Fig. 4c).
3.2 Propeller Design
The design of propellers for pushing pods is comparable to the design of propellers for conventional
propulsion systems, with shafts, struts and bossings in front of the propeller. On the contrary, the pull-
ing type pod requires to carry out the propeller design with particular emphasis to the interaction of pod
body and strut, located behind the propeller plane. Therefore the design of pulling propellers has a
strong need for a standard design procedure taking into account the interaction between pod housing,
strut and propeller. This can be done by use of CFD - methods. Fig. 5 shows the pressure distribution
on a pod housing and the flow around the housings due to the working propeller (right side ofFig.5) by
use of particle tracing.
Figure 5: Pressure Distribution and Flow Around and Behind the Pod Housing
The most significant difference for the hydrodynamic design of a pulling podded propeller consist in
the need to consider the influence on the pressure field of the pod rudder (strut) and the pod housing.
Due to the reduced clearance between propeller and strut it can be seen with a CFD calculation that the
pressure fields created in front of the leading edge of the strut and the pod housing are superimposed to
the pressure field of the propeller blades. This leads to a change of the characteristic curves ofkt and k:q
of a propeller in open water conditions. If we compare the kt and k:qcurves measured in open water for
the propeller alone and those obtained with the propeller attached to the pod housing and strut like on
the HSV A "propeller boat" (Mewis, 1998)) we see that at the same J value these data are higher. As
the influence of the pod is not easily calculated the problem of a proper calculation of the right kt and
k:qcurves can be solved by experimental results of suitable stock propeller tests (Mewis, 1998). Addi-
tionally this pressure field will influence the cavitation behavior of the propeller blades on the face side
and should therefore be taken into account when designing the propeller. During the propeller design it
is possible to act on a series of geometrical parameters in order to find the right loading distribution.
When the propeller is working in a nearly homogeneous wake field with smooth gradients and low
peaks the right choice of blade geometry and load distribution can achieve an optimized cavitation be-
havior with an improved behavior of the exciting forces. The selection of the radial pitch distribution,
the skew, the chord length (blade area) together with the number of blades is the basis to reduce the
cavity volume, and based on that, the hull pressures and also the bearing forces will be minimized. For
pushing propellers the movement of the pod during manoeuvering conditions implies higher variations
of the angle of attack on the propeller blade profiles and therefore thicker sections with wider cavita-
tion buckets should be used.
4 CAVITATION BEHAVIOUR, INDUCED VIBRATIONS AND NOISE
For a pod driven vessel different factors contribute simultaneously to the improvement of the propel-
ler- hull excitation: a new designed hull geometry, a more homogeneous wake field and the possibility
754
to increase the tip clearance. All these factors allow to design a propeller with reduced skew, smaller
blade area and less tip unloading and therefore better efficiency without disadvantages from the cavi-
tation and vibration excitation point of view, therefore overcoming the larger resistance of the pod,
compared to V -brackets.
Experimental facilities allow the observation of cavitation phenomena and the measurements of fluctu-
ating pressures on the surface of full length ship models. The principal focus is on narrowband excita-
tion at low multiples of propeller blade passing frequency (the blade rate), which lies normally be-
tween 8 and 15 Hz on a large twin-screw ship having a length and beam of about 250 and 30 meters
respectively, and on the effect of broadband excitation in the range up to 50 Hz. The frequencies are
low enough to affect a large part of the ship structure. Current numerical models for the prediction of
the cavitation behavior are only capable of predicting excitation at multiples of propeller blade passing
frequency, empirical data from model tests are needed to estimate the broadband excitation that results
from different types of cavitation like clouds, bursting tip vortices and fluctuating sheet cavities. The
achievable correlation between numerical predictions of fluctuating hull pressure near the propeller and
experiments, and the correlation between experimental data at model and full scale, is encouraging at
blade rate and higher harmonics (Friesch, 2000). It becomes progressively poorer at much higher mul-
tiples of blade passing frequencies and broad banded excitation where the excitation is very sensitive to
small errors in changes of the cavity volume with time.
The good cavitation, vibration and noise behavior of mainly pulling (tractor) pods was proven in ex-
tensive test series for large cruise liners with different pod arrangements in HSV A's large cavitation
tunnel HYKAT. In this tunnel, the whole ship models used in the towing tank tests, equipped with
azimuthing drives and additional conventional single propellers (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) were installed. For
the described tests, the torque and the number of revolutions were measured directly at the propeller
shaft, while net force and side force were measured by use of a force balance mounted watertight in the
ship model. The reproducibility of the measured data was in the range of 1% to 1.5 %.
4.1 Results for Pulling Pod Arrangements
For all pulling propellers tested in the cavitation tunnel HYKA T the blade surface is nearly free from
any kind of cavitation. As a consequence of the very good wake field the cavitation pattern consists in
a very small area of sheet cavitation along the suction side leading edge merging smoothly and gradu-
ally to a very often rather thin cavitating tip vortex only visible few revolutions downstream (Fig. 6).
From an erosion point of view the blades are free from any risk of erosion damage even for higher val-
ues of the pod rudder angle. In general, the cavitation phenomena as observed in all tested conditions
are quite satisfactory. They show less fluctuations and very stable behavior. In some cases also a small
stripe of stable sheet cavitation on the face of the propeller blades could be observed.
Figure 6: Cavitation Phenomena on the Propeller of a Pulling Pod Drive

Vs = 25 kts kT = 0.164 O"n = 0.169
In the case of podded ships the possibility is given to fit the pod in the most convenient position related
to the hydrodynamic aspects. Fitting the propeller as far aft as possible allows to improve the total hull
efficiency and to increase the tip clearance between propeller and hull. For a conventional twin screw
755
ship the standard tip clearance varies between 0.25 and 0.30. For a podded ship these values can be
increased till 0.35-0.38 with a corresponding reduction of the pressure pulses. In Figs. 2 and 3 the typi-
cal arrangement of up to 25 pressure transducers in the ship model can be seen. For every tested condi-
tion the harmonic analysis of the pressure pulse signals has shown that the main contribution is due to
blade rate decreasing to very low values for the second and the further harmonic orders. These pressure
pulses are mainly related to the dynamic displacement effect of propeller rotation, which is characteristic
if very less energy comes trom the growing and collapsing of the sheet cavities. This is in good accor-
dance with the observed cavitation phenomena. For all tested ships with pulling pods very low levels of
hull pressure fluctuations were predicted. As an average values between 0.6 and 1.3 kPa were measured
in the worst condition in the most excited area which is in most cases represented by the pressure pick
up just above the propeller in the pod center line. According to the calculated forces, the pod propeller
develops a vertical total force which is rather small and which should guarantee an acceptable vibration
behavior of the vessels. Fig. 7 shows the improvement in blade rate pressures of a pulling pod arrange-
ment versus a comparable twin screw ship with conventional shaft arrangements at 24 knots. Fig 8
shows the improvement in broadband excitation for the same configurations and ship speed.
Figure 7: Comparison of Blade Rate Pressures Figure 8: Comparison of Broadband Excitation
4.2 Results/or SSP and Contra-Rotating Arrangement
For the SSP arrangement (Siemens-Schottel, 1997) shown in the right picture in Fig. I a quite compa-
rable cavitation behavior as reported above, could be found for different loading conditions. Both pro-
pellers showed mainly tip vortex cavitation and only some small patches of sheet cavitation on the suc-
tion side. On the face of the blades no sign of cavitation could be detected (Fig. 9).
The CR-Arrangement in Fig. 2 represents the propulsor arrangement for a high speed research project
with cruising speeds of up to 32 kts. For the high speed condition on both propellers sheet cavitation
could be observed which covered the blade between 0.8R and the tip. Especially on the aft ward propel-
ler this cavitation was more fluctuating and the tip vortex was quite strong with a tendency to bursting.
No face side cavitation was observed on both propellers. Concerning the pressure fluctuations, mainly
the transducers above the aft ward propeller showed a rather chaotic behavior. This is related to the fact,
that they were hit by pulses created not only by the cavitation of the aft ward propeller but also at the
same time by the cavitating tip vortex of the forward propeller. This resulted in an increase of mainly
756
at the same time by the cavitating tip vortex of the forward propeller. This resulted in an increase of
mainly the higher harmonics which were higher by a factor of two compared with the values known
for conventional twin screw vessels. This behavior is not only related to the higher loading but also to
the worse inflow conditions to the propellers, compared with a twin screw ship.
Figure 9: Cavitation Behavior of an SSP on Back and Face Side at Vs = 22,5 kts
5 CONCLUSIONS
From the large series of model tests ( cavitation observations, pressure fluctuation and noise measure-
ments) carried out on a series of cruise liners with different types of podded drives in HYKA T the
following considerations can be made: As the wake field for at least the twin screw podded vessels
proved to be very smooth and nearly uniform which results in low excitations induced by the propellers
- both in terms of hull pressure fluctuations and shaft forces - an advantage for podded propulsion con-
cerning the vibration and noise behavior can be stated. This may lead to a reduction of steel manufac-
turing problems and therefore even sometimes to an improvement in production cost. But is has to be
mentioned, that podded propulsion by itself will not reduce automatically all vibration problems and
the cases were a pod should be applied should carefully be considered before the final decision is made.
This holds mainly true for propulsion arrangements which are combinations of podded drives with
conventional propeller shaft arrangements.
References
Friesch J. (2000). Ten Years of Research in the Hydrodynamics- and Cavitation Tunnel HYKAT of
HSV A. NCT'50 International Conference on Propeller Cavitation.
Friesch J. (1998). Correlation Investigations for Higher Order Pressure Fluctuations and Noise for Ship
Propellers. Third International Symposium on Cavitation, Grenoble.
Kurimo R, Poustoshniy A. and Syrkin E. (1997). Azipod Propulsion for Passenger Cruisers: Details of
the hydrodynamic development and experience on the propeller design for "Fantasy"-class cruise liners.
Kvaerner Masa-Yards.
Mewis F. (1998). Podded drives im Vormarsch - Hydrodynamische Aspekte. Schiff & Hafen 11/98,
50-53.
Siemens-Schottel (1997). New Podded Propulsive Drive. HANSA No. 11,64-68.

© 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
TRIPLE POD PROPULSION IN THE WORLD'S

LARGEST EVER CRUISE LINER
Raimo Hiimiiliiinen1 and Jaap van Heerd2
IKvaerner Masa- Yards Inc., Turku New Shipyard

P.O. Box 666, FIN-20101 TURKU, Finland
2 Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN)
P.O. Box 28, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
Passenger comfort, operational safety and efficiency were the main targets in the hydrodynamic design
of the world's largest ever Cruise Liner for Royal Caribbean International. The Shipyard made
extensive design studies for several pod alternatives from twin pod to triple pod arrangements before
contract. The paper describes the hydrodynamic advantages and disadvantages between several
propulsion arrangements. Several CL skeg alternatives were studied in order to reach an excellent wake
field for the pusher type Fixed Pod configuration.
The revolutionise Wave Damping Afterbody was designed for the first time on a large Cruise Liner by
using the Shipyard's Shipflow and Model Basin's Rapid CFD-programs. The earlier experiences from
fast ferries has shown big power level improvements for this new aftbody form. The paper describes
this optimisation process and compares calculations for model and full scale.
Several thruster configurations with scallops and grids inside the bow thrusters were tested, and the
selected solution resulted in a remarkable reduction in resistance.
Cavitation observations and hull pressure measurements were performed for two loading conditions
and for various setting angles of the pods.
A lot of different types of turnable and fixed skegs were studied to find the optimal combination
between manoeuvrability and heeling angles.
758
The extensive full-scale measurements were made to verifY the calculations and tests made during the
design and construction phase of the vessel.
The scaling of model test results are investigated. The interesting comparison between model test
results and full-scale measurements are shown.
1 INTRODUCTION
The world largest Cruise Liner, rrom which we are discussing in this paper, has a maximum passenger
capacity of 3,840 and a crew of 1,180. It has a length of 311 m, a maximum beam of 47.4 m, and a
height from keel to funnel top of72.3 m.
The whole vessel is a big entertainment centre with multiple options where passengers can spend their
time. There is the Royal Promenade rrom deck 5 up to deck 9 with an artificial lit ceiling, a wide
selection of shops, restaurants and entertainment areas rronting on street. Studio B shows lounge with
its ice skating rink for public performance, as well as passenger use. Furthermore, a lot of sporting
activities are present, such as a nine-hole golf putting course, a roller-blade track, a full size volley ball
court, a rock climbing wall.
The vessel has two Azipod azimuthing drive units and a central fixed pod. Pod propulsion gives a lot
of additional benefits to diesel-electric system and it makes a new comfort class possible to reach with
good design.
2 POD CONCEPT
An AZIPOD (AZImuthing POdded Drive) is a

360-deg. azimuthing main propulsion unit for
use in ships, which have an electric power plant
(R. Kurimo, A. Poustoshniy, E. Syrkin). The
unit incorporates an electric AC motor, which is
located inside the pod. The motor directly drives
a fixed pitch propeller, which can be at either
end of the pod. Both pusher and tractor versions
of the Azipod are possible. In the world largest
Cruise Liner, the Voyager of the Seas, one
Fixipod pushing unit amidships is flanked by two steerable Azipod pulling units. The simple principle
of the Azipod is shown in figure 1.
The power and control data are transferred rrom the non-rotating part to the rotating part via slip rings.
The air cooling system provides cooling air to the motor rrom the aft compartments. The steering
system consists of two to four hydraulic motors, which activate the steel evolvement tiller ring. The
Azipod control system includes an electric control subsystem on the bridge including all necessary
main panels.
In addition to the basic advantages of diesel-electric drives the Pod propulsion gives additional benefits:
• the space for conventional propulsion motors can be saved
• the steering capacity in the aftbody is significantly greater than for conventional rudder stern
thruster system
• reversing capacity and steering during astern navigation are excellent
• there is more freedom to the ship designer in the machinery arrangement
• reduced number of main components
• late installation possibility, only a few weeks before launching
• the units are environmentally clean and there is practically no risk for oil leakage
• excellent manoeuvrability, specially at low speed and berthing operations
759
• fuel saving through good hydrodynamic efficiency

propeller hull excitations are very low due to the pulling propellers working in an excellent wake
field, resulting in low noise and vibration levels
3 RULES OF THUMB IN HYDRO-DYNAMIC DESIGN OF A CRUISE LINER
The rules of thumb related to different hydrodynamic questions are a very useful starting point for a
project, because they give a rough idea of the critical points and help the designer to concentrate
carefully on the correct and most important critical subjects (R. Hamiiliiinen & J.v. Heerd).
In the world largest Cruise Liner project a lot of critical hydrodynamic items have to be taken into
account so that the whole ship behaves well and can compete well with other smaller Cruise Liners.
Some of these requirements are:
• low resistance behaviour (optimum lines),
• propeller hull excitations (vibration, noise, new harder Comfort-class, etc.),
redundancy (2 or 3 propellers, etc.),
good seakeeping ability (slamming behaviour, motions, etc.), and
• good manoeuvrability (course stability, harbour crabbing, etc.)
Special attention has to be paid to aft ship slamming. A pram-type aft ship with or without semi-tunnel
is a generally applied aft hull form for all kinds of vessels today, owing a good resistance behaviour
and hard stability requirements of this form. Vertical buttock angles are typically from 8 to 15 deg and
close to the transom almost zero or negative (= wedge form) is quite normal. The height of the transom
with regard to the construction waterline also depends on the design speed, but it is recommended to
adopt a value between 0.5 to 1.0 m above the CWL for this type of vessels. Typical values for the
radius between aftship buttocks and flat bottom vary from 0.4 of Lpp to 1.2 of Lpp. A larger radius is
generally recommended to ensure that pressure field changes fluently into the transition location. A
zero flare angle and tunnel shape ("pocket shape") in the aftship are sensitive to slamming and noise at
zero and under 5 knots forward speed in following sea conditions.
A big overhang with large flat form close to the construction waterline is very sensitive for aftship
slamming and whipping behaviour. One should pay a lot of attention to the construction and damping
in that kind of situation. In figure 2 is presented a review of vertical forces for "Panamax-size" cruise
liners with different aftbody form at zero speed in following sea condition.
Recommendation for aftbody frame section and buttock angles are .equal to or more than 5 degrees
with continuously varied (increased, convex form) angles from aft to fore direction. Anyway it is not
possible to totally avoid aftship slamming in following seas at low speed or in stationary waves from
all directions.
4 TARGET IN VOYAGER'S HYDRO-DYNAMIC DESIGN
The Shipyard's earlier experience of fitting Pod drives to nine vessels gave a good platform for the
development work. Passenger comfort, operational safety and efficiency were the main targets in the
hydrodynamic design of the vessel. The various items to consider were hull form design, resistance,
cavitation, propeller excitation, manoeuvring and seakeeping.
4.1 Several Aftbody Alternatives Before Order

The Shipyard made extensive design studies for several pod alternatives from twin pod to triple pod
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arrangements before the contract. In the table I hydrodynamic advantages and disadvantages between
several propulsion arrangement alternatives are described.
Figure 2: Review ofslarnming forces for "Panamax-size" cruise liners.

Alternative 1: Two turnable pulling Pods, one fixed pushing Pod in gondola and one small course
keeping rudder at the CL. The Fixed pod is integrated into a gondola. See figure 3.
Alternative 2: Two turnable pulling Pods, one fixed pushing Pod and one small course-keeping rudder
at the in CL.
The Fixed Pod is separately placed at the CL and a simple CL skeg is located ahead of it. See figure 4.
Alternative 3: Two turnable pulling Pods, one fixed pulling Pod and one small course-keeping rudder
at the CL. The Fixed Pod is separately at the CL and a simple CL skeg ahead of it. See figure 5.
Alternative 4: Two turnable pulling Pods and a normal simple CL skeg. See figure 6.
Alternative 5: Two fixed pitch propellers in an open shaft arrangement, two flap type rudders behind
the propellers and a normal simple CL skeg. See figure 7.
In table I a short comparison is given between the alternatives.
764
low excitation forces on the hull. Azipod propulsion units are a good choice for vessels with very high
demands regarding low noise and vibration levels.
6 MANOEUVRING BEHAVIOUR
Comfort and safety of passengers during different manoeuvring cases was the most important aspect in
the tests. That is why the Shipyard concentrated much to heeling angles of the ship during several
manoeuvring cases. The heeling angle should be less than 4 degrees or this large vessel. Several
alternatives were tested to find the most optimum combination. In figure 16 a turning circle is shown in
the model basin.
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The emergency steering was tested extensively to confirm the highest safety of vessel in different
situations in archipelago manoeuvres.
7 SEAKEEPING BEHAVIOUR
Many calculations and tests were carried out to ensure a good comfort for the passengers. The main
purpose of seakeeping performance tests and calculations were to document ship operability
characteristics and limitations related to: passenger comfort and safety onboard related to motions and
accelerations; speed loss in waves; ship safety related to extreme motions, i.e. large parametric
resonance roll motions and handling features local structural loads related to slamming; bigger bilge
keels than normally were installed according to test results.
8 FULL-SCALE TRIALS
During the ten-day sea trial extensive full-scale measurements were conducted to verifY the
calculations and tests made during the design and construction phase of the vessel. Typical
manoeuvring tests were carried out including turning circles, zigzags, pull out, spiral tests, turning tests
with side thrusters, coasting stop, astern trial, thruster efficiency tests, crabbing tests etc. The best way
to stop the vessel at high and low speed was looked systematically. Cavitation of propellers and Pods
were observed through ten windows and hull pressures by several pressure transducers.
• the manoeuvring behaviour of vessel was excellent:
• very good steerable, especially at low speeds
• the stopping distance is much smaller than in conventional cases
• 360 degrees directed thrust makes the vessel easy to handle
• harbour manoeuvring should be easy
Some differences between model and full scale were observed: The vessel was "stiffer" than expected
(figures 17 and 18). That was against earlier observations and expectations. Normally you can expect
similar or worse course stability.
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Different kind of explanations were studied from big bow thruster openings to resistance differences.
Main reason for the differences are more likely related to the small 5 m model (scale 1/55) for such a
large cruise liner. The speed of the triple screw vessel was higher than expected after model tests
(figure 19). The reasons for higher speed could be: excellent hull surface quality of the Shipyard, the
scale effect corrections on Pods used during that time were rather old fashioned, and the scale effects
due to the interaction between Azipods and Fixipod for this triple screw were not known. The
correlation allowance from model tank power to trial power for such big vessel has to be carefully
investigated.
However, the pressure pulse measurements showed the same low excitations from propellers than in
model scale. The pressure pulse level stays low level at normal steering Azipod angles.
9 CONCLUSIONS
The Pod propulsion concept gives many additional benefits to classical diesel-electric system.
Podded propulsion makes new comfort class of classification societies easier to reach.
The rules of thumb are very useful for prototype builder.
R&D works before final hydrodynamic design makes succession easier.
A combination of experience, numerical tool data and good co-operation give good possibilities for
success story, as was the case in the Voyager-class vessels.
There is a lot of work in Pod propulsion project scaling to reach same accurate level with conventional
cases.
The Wave Damping Aftbody revolutionises the aftbody design for all types of vessels.
References
R. Kurimo, A. Poustoshniy, E. Syrkin. (1997). Azipod propulsion for passenger Cruiser. NA V & HSMV
International Conference.
R. HiimiHiiinen and J.v. Heerd. (1998). Hydrodynamic development for a large fast
monohull passenger ferry. The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
R. Hiimiiliiinen, J. v. Heerd. (2000). Wave Damping Aftbody revolutionize aftbody design for all types of
vessels, IMAM 2000 conference.
CJ 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. Ali rights reserved
HYDRODYNAMIC TRENDS IN HULL LINES OF PODDED DRIVEN

LARGE CRUISE VESSELS
Roger Lepeix
Chantiers de l'Atlantique, France
ABSTRACT
The propulsion of the large cruise vessels is under rapid change, in many aspects. One of the most
important one is the present regular use of azimuthing pods, where the electric propulsion motors are
installed outside the hull, in a kind of torpedo, suspended under the main hull. There are many
advantages in using such pods, including better power/speed curve and manoeuvring qualities,
improvements in building process, and room release in the general arrangement. This last aspect,
combined with the absence of aft appendages, give to the ship designer new freedom in selecting the
hull lines. There are no clear solution yet to optimise these new possibilities, and progressive
modification of the afterbody lines will take place in the next years. The present experience with the
newly delivered large cruise ships propelled by pods can already give ideas on the trend to follow for
these ships. They also show the new limits, and where we cannot go. The first elements of this know
how in development are presented here, on basis of the two first series of large cruise vessels with
pods under building at Chantiers de l'Atlantique, in France.
KEYWORDS
Hull lines, Cruise vessel, Pods, Hydrodynamics, Propulsion, Slamming.
1 INTRODUCTION
The number of large cruise vessels propelled by azimuthing pods is rapidly increasing. Most of the
cruise vessels presently delivered by all the european shipyards specialized in such ships are now
equipped with pods, and it will continue as well in the next years. The ships already delivered in the
last two years have now given some experience to the designers, and we can start discussing the new
trends, in particular regarding the hull lines.
The market of cruise vessels is very sensitive, due to the special cargo these ships are transporting. The
technical innovation is a permanent objective, and new lines and new ship types are presented each
year, to attract new people, and to propose renewed entertainment. Also, new technics are needed to
improve operability of these ships: entrance in new harbours, improved manoeuvrability, higher speeds,
increase in size, in protection of environment, and finally in benefits for the owners and operators.
768
The pod propulsion is now under rapid development. Of course this propulsion have been used for
decades on many ship types, but the application to large cruise ships is only possible since the last
years. The first ones have been delivered with two azimuthing pods, which is now the classical
solution, but the largest ones have now three pods, including one fixed pod in the centerline, and the
largest project in order book will have two fixed and two azimuthing pods.
All problems concerning this new propulsion type are not yet solved, and many studies are on the way;
it is then time to present and discuss the first results, and the comparisons between conventional and
podded-driven cruise ships
1.1 The Azimuthing Podsfor Cruise Ships
Most of the aspects are not really new in the azimuthing pods presently installed on large ships; all the
elements were already existing. What is now new is the possibility to install the electric engines
outside the vessel, in a limited volume, for power levels up to about 20 MW, at least. The knowledge
and experience coming from azimuthing propellers, electric tranmission, and the progress in electric
engines have been combined and are now giving commercial products.
Several main pod suppliers can propose industrial solutions, using similar basic principles. The
comparisons between them is still open, but elements are available.
The main interest for using azimuthing pods lies in the following aspects:
the power/speed curve is improved, due to the absence of appendages: rudders, shafts, brackets,
and aft lateral thrusters. The additional power coming from the pod volume is only a part of the
saved one due to removing of the conventional appendages. The final improvement is not yet easy
to predict, but is sufficient for considering pods as an attractive solution
improvement of the manoeuvring qualities of the ships, both in open seas and in crabbing
situations, both close to the quay or in dynamic positioning. This is coming from the possibility to
use the propeller thrust in any direction
freedom in the general arrangement of the ship, in utilization of the volume left by the electric
engines pushed outside. The cruise ship designer is able to install additional cabins, by
reorganizing the internal layout
reduction of assembling works ans delay, by installation of the pod as a whole later in the building
process of the ship. Also replacement of pods is made easy by their external position.
These gains by using pods have been considered large enough for arousing interest in shipbuilding
industry and also in operating business. What is important is now to study the other consequences of
this choice, and how to design ships equipped with pods.
1.2 New Trends in Hull Lines
The problem of selecting the best lines for a ship with pod propulsion is very important, both for
industrial reasons, in a very competitive market, and for a good estimation of the gains which can be
reached with pods. The main questions to be solved are :
how to use the new freedom coming from the absence of shafts and the new location of electric
engines, for the improvement of the hull lines ? These engines were already installed in
conventional ships with electric transmission, but the removing of appendages is totally new, and
nobody can at that stage give optimised solutions
how to install the pods themselves, for a good combination with the hull, the best possible
efficiency, and with a full 360 rotation?
0
are the manoeuvring qualities really improved ? How to operate the pods for using this
improvement, and is it leading to installation requirements? What will happen with course-keeping
and crabbing capacities, and how to handle them?
769
are we decreasing the propeller-induced pressure fluctuations on the hull, and have we to change
the propeller design ?
do we expect modifications in seakeeping, and have we to take care of them in hull design?
how to control the optimisation process of the hull lines, including technical and economical
aspects, for a special ship and for the ships to be designed in the future, and how to integrate
industrial and economic considerations?
Of course the answers have to be found both in research studies, and in real design work. We are only
at the beginning of this process, and we can only give general tendancies.
1.3 Present Research Studies
There are many ongoing research studies on pods. We will mention only the projects where our
shipyard Chantiers de l'Atiantique (Alstom Marine) is involved in, and where hull design is a large part
of the work :
OPTIPOD is a large project organised at european level, and supported by the European
Commission. It brings together 14 partners from 7 countries; Chantiers de l'Atiantique is the
provided coordinator, and the swedish model basin SSPA the technical manager. The main part of
this project is devoted to the improvements of hull lines in introducing pod propulsion, and to all
hydrodynamic performances. Other aspects are also included, as the optimisation of the general
arrangement, the operation of the vessels, the environment aspects, and the economic ones. Four
ships are used as reference vessels: a cruise liner, a ropax, a supply ship, and a general cargo. The
last one has only one pod. First results will be available in the next months, and will be distilled in
specialized conferences
Pods in Service is another large project, organized as a Joint Industry Project It is coordinated by
MARIN, and also supported by the European Commission. The aim of this study is to understand
and measure the forces and moments on the pods in service conditions, and the stresses in the
seating and in the structure around. Another objective is to determine in which conditions the
forces and moments on the moments are maximum, and to reproduce these conditions at model
scale. This will help the designers of the pods and ofthe podded driven ships by giving them some
guidelines, and reference values
The Cooperative Research club, managed by MARIN, settled down also a specialized Working
Group for pod study. The chairman of this group is Masa Yards, and the objectives are to assess
the hydrodynamic qualities of the ships propelled by pods, compared to conventional ones, and to
give indications on the design trends
an open cooperation has also been organized under Euroyards, between the 5 shipyards members,
all involved in building or designing ships with pods. The exchange of results is needed to check
the predictions in hydrodynamic performances, which needs enough different vessels. These
informations are confidential and only for mutual benefit
All these studies, and others not mentionned, are often overlapping, which is good for redundancy.
They cover the main new domains open by the pod propulsion, and are very useful for the
developments of ship design. Of course many other aspects are covered by ongoing studies on pods,
not indicated here: electrical engines, vibrations, mechanical aspects, etc ...
1.4 Shipyard Experience
Chantiers de l'Atiantique are now regularly delivering large cruise ships with pod propulsion. Two
main series must be identified: the Radisson/Festival series, derived from the conventional ship Mistral,
propelled by 2 pods in the range of 7 to 10 MW each, and the Millennium series with 2 pods of about
20 MW each. These two series are coming from different histories, and have different aftbody lines.
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The conventional lines of the Mistral have been only slightly modified by introducing a small flat part
at the pod location, and a fairing on the lines. With this minimum change, we are not progressing in
using the new tTeedom in hull lines, but we get in power/speed curve the improvements coming from
the removal of the appendages, and the full use of pods for manoeuvring.
At the opposite, the Millennium series is not coming from corresponding conventional form, and then
the afterbody lines are new. This form has been obtained by extrapolating the previous tendancies in
pram direction, and we tried to open the aftbody as much as possible to take advantage in speed. This
excursion outside usual aftbody lines has not been fully successfull; the extension of the flat part led to
some aft slamming at low speed and small sea waves.
This is explained in more detail in the seakeeping part hereunder. Our shipyard is now working on
intermediate trends, combining the hydrodynamic qualities of the conventional aftbodies and the gains
in power and manoeuvrability.
2 HYDRODYNAMIC PERFORMANCES OF THE LARGE PODDED DRIVEN CRUISE

SHIPS
2.1 Power/Speed Curve
As indicated above, the main gain on power/speed curve, coming from the use of pods, is due to the
removing of all appendages, only partly compensated by the possible additional resistance of the pod
itself.
The present possibilities of predictions are limited, due to the small number of ships in service. Many
people are presently working on this question, including the model basins and the ITTC. Extrapolation
procedures are under development for pods, and empirical coefficients will be prepared after enough
speed tests will have been performed during sea trials of newbuildings. We will also have to identify
the new types of disturbances directly connected to pod propulsion. For instance, we have to evaluate
the importance on the measured speed of the fluctuations of the pod angle; this could give more
additional resistance than the corresponding values for rudders.
The main new geometrical parameters influencing the power/speed curve are presented hereunder.
The location of the pod under the afterbody can influence the performance. It seems that the best
location is the maximum aft, which is in general the more aft until the pod tails reach the transom
position; in lateral direction, it is less clear.
One important point is the local form of the afterbody, allowing the full rotation of the pod. As
discussed above, there are two main situations:
installation of pods on a conventional hull form, using previously propellers with normal shafts. In
this case, the solution is to flatten locally the afterbody lines, to allow the pod rotation; not
flattening is also possible if the pod is designed with enough space at top edges for allowing the
rotation. Our shipyard choose the local flattening for the Radisson/Festival series. An important
parameter is the angle of the pod axis with the vertical. If inclined axis is possible, the integration
of the flat part in the conventional afterbody is quite simple. Ifnot, there must be a kind of head box,
which will give additional resistance
design of a new afterbody, directly for a propulsion with pods. The temptation is here to
extrapolate the flat part needed for the pods all around, to improve the power/speed curve. In case
the afterbody becomes very horizontal, like in our original "Millennium", this could lead to stern
slamming on low waves (see hereunder). It is possible to keep this solution if the slamming remain
moderate, or if it can be solved by limited modifications.
Regarding the pod parameters, we can provisionally say that:
the pod itself must be studied in details by the pod supplier, for minimum resistance, optimum
interaction between the propeller(s) and the pod, and to decrease the risk of cavitation on the part
of stay behind the pulling propeller. Taking into account the rotation of the propeller, this could
lead to an asymmetric geometry on this part
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the alignment of the propeller axis with the flow is often necessary. On large cruise ships, the
optimum angles are defined on model tests; current angles are about 3 to 5 degrees in vertical
direction and I degree in lateral one.
2.2 Ship Wake and Pressure Fluctuations
The absence of aft appendages, and the use of pulling propellers, have a very positive action on the
wake around the propeller. The only contribution giving small disturbance in the wake pattern is
coming from the boundary layer of the vessel (see figures I & Ibis). With the influence of Reynolds
number, the disturbed part of the wake pattern is further decreased in full scale compared to model
scale. The propeller-induced pressure fluctuations on the hull are also improved, leading to reduced
noise and vibrations on board .. This have been confirmed on Millennium series during sea trials, where
maximum levels of about La to 1.5 kPa have been recorded at 23 knots, for the first harmonic.
Observation of cavitation on the propeller blades on the first Millennium has also shown a large
improvement compared to conventional vessels, for pod angles up to about 5 degrees, which is
generally enough for course keeping. Of course the cavitation is increasing for larger angles. Other
observations are scheduled on the third vessel of the series, in connection with the european project
"Pods in Service".
2.3 Manoeuvring Performances
The interest of using azimuthing pods is very clear in manoeuvring domain. The performances of the
vessel in open sea manoeuvring or in crabbing in harbours are improved, even if the captains have to
operate the ship in a different way.
2.3.1 Course-keeping
There are many possibilities in course keeping for podded driven ships. They have to be studied and
decided at design stage: use of one pod, of two pods in parallel, of additional flaps or small rudders on
the pods or behind the central skeg, etc ... For safety reasons, the most common way is to use the two
pods like rudders. The performance of the pod, in comparaison with rudders, is connected to the lift
772
force generated on the connecting arm and on the torpedo of the pod. This is very dependant on the
pod type and design. It is important to have enough lift at small angles, to avoid the cavitation on the
propeller blades. The main difficulty is coming trom this huge mass of more than 200 tons, in
permanent rotation offew degrees. Technical solutions have been found by the main pod suppliers.
2.3.2 Manoeuvrability in open sea
The large cruise vessels have generally no manoeuvring problems in open sea, in particular those of
Panamax size, due to the large LIB ratio. Moreover, they often have large central skegs, for building
and drydocking reasons. Then, these vessels are stable, or marginally unstable. These good
manoeuvring qualities are still increased by the use of azymuthing pods, thanks to the possibility to
choose the propeller thrust direction. The performances in standard manceuvres are then much better
than the IMO criteria.
These performances have been compared at model scale for the Festival/Radisson series, between
conventional flapped rudders and azimuthing pods. The results for the tactical diameter are given in
Figure 2. They show that the same diameter is reached with the rudder option at 35 degrees angle, and
for the pods at only 26 degrees.
We must add that an eventual drawback of this low diameter could be a non acceptable heel angle in
turning; in fact, this has not been observed in model or ship scale. Reasonable maximum angles have
been recorded, probably due to the drop of speed during the first part of the turning manoeuvre, the
added resistance of the turned pod being much higher than for the rudders. The first comparisons show
a lower maximum heel angle for pods compared to rudders, but this must be confirmed on more
vessels.
3 AFT SLAMMING ON "MILLENNIUM"
3.1 Hull Lines
The afterbody hull lines of the "Millennium" have been selected according to:
- modern trends of lines, leading to improved power/speed performances, with a nice flow around
the afterbody and transom, and enough stability margin
- operation of the azimuthing pods (360° turning), inside ship geometrical limits, and with
manoeuvring qualities much improved, compared to conventional propulsion
773
possibility to remove the pod afloat if needed.
To check hydrodynamic performances of the ship, model tests have been performed in 1998, during
the design phase of the ship:
in MARIN basin (Wageningen) for propulsion, cavitation, and crabbing
in MARINTEK basin (Trondheim) for manoeuvring and seakeeping.
In the seakeeping program, pressure panels were installed on the model, both on forebody and
afterbody, to check the slamming risks. These tests showed the good performances of the vessel at
service speeds, including slamming aspects.
3.2 Aft Slamming on Ships
The slamming is defined as an interaction between the ship hull and the water waves, able to create
local or global efforts in the ship, which must be taken into account in the design or scantling. The
slamming phenomena must be studied if both the relative velocity between hull and water, and the
total concerned area, can be large.
There are different levels of phenomena involved, with corresponding variables:
local pressures, which can be recorded by transducers at model or ship scales; they are mainly
dependant on the relative local speed between hull and water
total force on forebody or afterbody, not easily measured at ship scale. They can be measured at
model scale by using a segmented model and recording of vertical strains between the different
parts. Of course, the total force on model is influenced by the vibration of the model itself, which
can be globally reproduced
In a slamming event, the total force increases with the local pressure and with the total concerned
area, at each moment
- ship vibration excitation (whipping). A brief and large shock on the hull can excite the
vibration modes of the ship structure. This can be easily measured on board ship if it occurs, by
using a number of accelerometers, or strain gauges. It is also possible at model scale
The ship response depends on the total force and on the variation of this force with time (duration
of signal, total time over a limit) ; this relation is generally not simple. The phase differences
between the local impacts on the afterbody have a strong influence on the total duration of the
signal, and then on the whipping amplitude
local vibration in the ship, connected to comfort on board. The vibration levels are easily measured
by accelerometers, and the results can be compared to admissible limits, if any.
These levels depend on the ship whipping vibration, the location of the point in the ship, and the
local environment (dampers ...).
3.3 Aft Slamming on "Millennium"
The application to the Millennium of the above considerations gave the following:
due to flat afterbody, the waves for which both the total slamming area (at the same time) is
maximum, and the phase differences between local pressures are minimum were the very small
waves, with a flat sea. This flat sea can then hit the flat ship afterbody on a large area at the same
time. This is then the most defavorable situation. Fortunately, the relative speed between the hull
and the water must be in such cases generally small
only when very long waves, mainly from bow, can create a pitch motion, we could have some
relative speed with a quasi flat water; this relative speed was small
if the wave height increased, the local pressures also increased, due to increase of relative speed;
the total slamming area had to be generally reduced, and the phasing scattered; the water cannot
remain flat, for higher waves
774
more generally, we can say that strong slamming can occur when a wave with the same form than
the hull can hit the hull with a large speed. The corresponding waves can be different trom one
ship to another.
3.4 Observations on "Millennium"
The sea trials of the "Millennium" confirmed that aft slamming could occur at low wave heights, in
special conditions. Tests with different kinds of measurements have been organized, to estimate the
values of the variables (pressures, vibrations, noise, stresses), and to study the influence of operational
and environmental parameters.
These measurements showed that :

aft slamming can occur only at low ship speeds. The excitations and responses decrease with speed
mcrease
whipping responses were mainly limited to the 2-node global vibration, with a trequency around I
Hz. The vibration levels in worst cases were under the limits in most common criteria
no real noise was present in connection to slamming, and no questions were raised there
the most spectacular aspect of the aft slamming was the lateral jets of water on both sides of the
afterbody. These jets have not been considered as dangerous.
The measurements carried out at model scale (with original lines of Millennium) have been compared
to corresponding ones coming from other vessels of similar size or commercial profile. Many
alternative afterbodies have also been tested in segmented models, with local changes of the original
afterbody, or with large modifications.
The objectives were directed towards two directions:
to improve comfort onboard at zero or low ship speeds, for limited waves (up to about 3 meters
significat height)
to explore the maximum bending moments values in the vessel, in slamming conditions, with a
combination of the wave part and the whipping part.
The general conclusion is that the slamming of "Millennium" was not really higher than the other
vessels, if we consider all conditions, including forebody slamming at high ship speeds. Finally, the
comfort aspects have been solved by welding additional volumes on the flat afterbody: two side skegs,
one trim wedge, and one central wedge (trom the second ship only) (see figure 3). The quality of the
modified vessel in total bending moment has been certified by the classification society; after many
full scale measurements in all kinds of waves, all possible limitations of operation were removed.
These full scale measurements culminated in the Atlantic crossing of the "Infinity", second ship of the
series, where stresses were recorded in the most sensible points on waves up to about 9 or 10 meters
significant height, corresponding to individual waves up to about 18 meters.
On this special ship, where the original afterbody was very flat, the additional volumes led to large
improvements :
the central wedge is very effective when the afterbody is entering the water with high relative
speed, the positive effect on the slamming impacts being different, depending on the heading of the
waves
the aft trim wedge can improve the power/speed curve, and also the slamming aspects for the stern
waves. The angle of this trim wedge is very sensible; for economic reasons, the optimisation has
been done mainly for powering aspects
the lateral skegs can help to increase the duration of the impact; some air is trapped below the
afterbody, smoothening the impact. This effect is amplified by horizontal holes drilled in the skegs,
which can act as a pierced cushion, and then increase artificially the air compressibility.
775
Figure 3 : Millenium -Additional volumes
4 CONCLUSIONS
The first studies of azimuthing pod propulsion applied on large cruise vessels, and the experience
gained in building and delivering such vessels, show that the pod propulsion can be a very attractive
solution. The improvement of performance is important, even if it is yet to be precised, with the future
ships.
The hull lines selected for the two actual series of concerned ships built in our shipyard have followed
different ways, and the new possibilities and limits have been explored. In particular, partly due to the
evolution of the hull structures, special attention must be given to interaction of the ships with the sea,
in moderate and high waves.
New developments are needed to clarify all the open questions. Many studies are presently running at
all levels, and will give complementary design guidelines in the next years.
SIMULATING THE SELF-PROPULSION TEST BY A

COUPLED VISCOUS/POTENTIAL FLOW COMPUTATION
I United Ship Design and Development Center, Taiwan, China

2 Department of System Engineering and Naval Architecture,
National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan, China
ABSTRACT
A coupled viscous/potential flow computation for simulating the self-propulsion test will be presented
in this paper. The flow around ship is first calculated by using a viscous flow approach, and the calcu-
lated viscous wake is used as the propeller inflow. The propeller forces are computed using a potential
flow method. The rotating speed of propeller blade is determined by balancing the propeller thrust and
ship resistance. The viscous flow around ship is then calculated by treating propeller forces as body
force terms. The flow computation is performed iteratively until convergent results are obtained. The
interaction between ship hull and propeller thus can be predicted for the simulation of self-propulsion
test. The present results for a container hull form have been validated by a proper comparison with
experimental data. It is demonstrated that the present method is quite promising in evaluating the
self-propulsion characteristics of ships for practical use.
KEYWORDS
Self-propulsion test, Propeller-hull interaction, RANS calculation, Equivalent body force, Composite
grid, Nominal wake, Effective wake.
1 INTRODUCTION
Currently, the determination of effective wake and thrust deduction coefficient is mainly derived from
model experiment, namely, open water test and self-propulsion test. The propeller open water test has
been successfully simulated by various computational methods such as vortex lattice method or
boundary element method. However, the simulation of self-propulsion test has not been fully estab-
lished yet. The reason is due to the difficulty of calculating the effective wake. The effective wake re-
sulted from the interaction between propeller and ship hull has been studied by many naval hydrody-
namic researchers. Huang and Groves(1976), Schetzr and Favin(1977) pioneered the work, and Stem
and his colleagues (1988) first coupled the potential and viscous methods to calculate the effective
wake. Kerwin and his colleagues (1994) decomposed the flow field into axisymmetric and
non-axisymmetric parts, and developed the "equivalent body force" concept.
778
At the United Ship Design & Development Center (USDDC), great effort has been put on the devel-
opment and application of CFD technology for long. The computational code presented in this paper,
UVW (.!lSDDC Yiscous~ave flow code), is based on an explicit finite volume method (Jaw & Chou,
1994) to calculate the viscous flow around a ship and the free surface effect is also considered, Chou
(1998). The composite grid technique is incorporated to handle complex geometries, Chau & Chou
(1998), and has been applied to the computation of flow around ship with appendage, Chau et al.
(2000). The UVW code has become a feasible tool for improving the hydrodynamic characteristics of
hull forms developed at USDDC. Furthermore, the coupled viscous/potential flow scheme, Hsin et al.
(2000) and Chou et al.(2000), has been adopted to investigate the effective inflow in the propelled ship
problem. In this research, the interaction between the hull, the rudder and the propeller for a container
hull form is first investigated. Application of the proposed method for simulating self-propulsion test is
then performed and validated by comparison with experimental data. It is shown that most features of
the wake field can be captured by the present approach, which provides important information for the
propeller design process.
2 COMPUTATIONAL METHOD
The 3-D RANS equations with pseudo-compressibility (Chorin, 1967) are employed to analyze the
flow field of a ship moving at constant forward speed in calm water. The application of finite volume
method to discretize the governing equations in a curvilinear coordinate space leads to the transformed
equations in the computational domain. The convective terms are evaluated by central difference ap-
proximation and a 4-th order background dissipation term is added for the numerical stability of
scheme and the elimination of non-physical oscillations, Jameson and Turkel (1981). The multi-stage
Runge-Kutta explicit scheme is adopted to calculate the time integration. Local time step and residual
smoothing technique are also employed for acceleration of convergence. The algebraic eddy-viscosity
model proposed by Baldwin and Lomax (1978) is used to evaluate the turbulent viscosity. The modi-
fication for adverse pressure gradient is introduced for stem flow calculations, Johnson and King
(1985).
2.1 Propeller Effect
The propeller effect is simulated by a coupled viscous/potential flow method. The propeller flow is
calculated by a potential flow code, MIT-PSF-2 (Greeley and Kerwin, 1982), and then coupled with
the viscous flow calculation described above to couple the propeller effect into the ship flow.
MIT-PSF-2 is a vortex lattice method based on the lifting surface theory, and it has been widely used
by the ship industry to calculate the steady propeller hydrodynamic characteristics.
The coupled viscous/potential method used here is mainly based on the "equivalent body force" con-
cept developed by Kerwin (Kerwin et aI, 1994), and this method has a very important assumption such
that the flow due to the propeller-hull interaction is assumed to be axisymmetric. This assumption is
made because that the coupling of viscous and potential calculations can be carried out consistently
only under the condition of taking circumferential mean value, and this assumption is valid because
that the induced velocity upstream of a propeller is usually dominated by the circumferential mean
value. Therefore, when considering the propeller-hull interaction, the total velocity, V, can be de-
composed into two parts, namely, the circumferential mean of the effective inflow, Ve, and the circum-
ferential mean value of the propeller induced velocity, Ui :
(I)
In the coupling calculation, the propeller-induced velocity and loading are calculated by the potential
779
flow code, and the "equivalent body force" is calculated by the total velocity and the propeller loading.
With the "equivalent body force", the total velocity is obtained by the viscous flow code. The detailed
description of the theory is discussed by Hsin (2000) and Chou et al. (2000). Since the equation (1) is a
nonlinear equation, and an iterative calculation is necessary.
2.2 Free Suiface Effect
Although the UVW solver is capable to calculate the viscous flow field with free surface effect, the
complexity and computational resource involved in such calculation are not yet feasible for daily de-
sign work. In this research, the wave-making
resistance is evaluated by an in-house potential code
USDDC-WAVE, which is based on a Dawson-type
high-order Rankine panel method (Lu & Chou, 1994).
The resistance related to viscous effect is calculated
by UVW in double-model flow. These two resistances
are summed to represent the total resistance. Fig.l
shows the predicted total resistance coefficient CT and
corresponding towing tank result. At the design speed
(18 knots), the prediction error is smaller than 0.5%,
while large prediction error up to 10% occurs at low
ship speed (12 knots).
2.3 Composite Grid Approach Figure 1: Predicted and measures CT val-
In order to incorporate body forces at propeller plane and rudder effect into viscous ship flow, the
composite grid approach is adopted, Chau and Chou (1998). The propeller and rudder are treated in
two different foreground grids, while the bare hull without any appendages is constructed in a single
background grid. All these grids are separately generated, but similar grid point distribution is applied
in overlapping regions. The body forces are defined at the computational cells, which are located at the
mid-chord of propeller blade in the propeller block. In this way, body forces are more precisely allo-
cated and good grid quality is easily achieved to reduce numerical errors and difficulties. For different
propeller and rudder arrangement, only geometrical transformation of original grids is necessary.
2.4 Self-Propulsion Simulation
Following the "equivalent body force" theory and the numerical procedure to calculate the effective
inflow, a numerical procedure to simulate the self-propulsion test is developed as follow:
1. The viscous flow around a ship hull without the propeller in operation is first calculated by the
RANS code UVW, and the hull resistance is also obtained;
2. The circumferential mean value of the flow velocity at the propeller plane is calculated from the
solution ofUVW, and then used as the inflow of the propeller analysis program MIT-PSF-2.
3. With the calculated hull resistance, the propeller loading can be determined by a modified version
of MIT-PSF-2, such that the rotational speed of the propeller is adjusted to obtain the
self-propulsion point;
4. The circumferential mean values of the propeller induced velocity and the propeller force is cal-
culated, and the "equivalent body force" is then computed and transferred into UVW;
5. The flow field and the hull resistance are calculated by UVW including the propeller effect again;
6. The flow velocity at the propeller plane is extracted and the circumferential mean is computed, i.e.
the total velocity V. The circumferential mean of the effective inflow, v: ' can be calculated by
subtracting the circumferential mean of the propeller induced velocity, U" calculated in the last
iteration (equation (1));
780
7. The calculated effective inflow is then used in the modified MIT-PSF-2 for the propeller flow
computation as in 3.
8. Step 4 to 7 are then repeated until the convergence of the hull resistance is reached, and the
self-propulsion point is thus obtained.
3 RESUL TS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1 Hull-Propeller-Rudder Interaction
The hull-propeller-rudder interaction of the model for a 145m long container ship is first investigated.
The numerical computation is first performed for bare hull condition without propeller and rudder. The
ship is forward advancing at design speed, and the propeller rotation speed is given at a fixed value.
Therefore, the ship total resistance and propeller thrust are not in balance. This calculation only serves
as a preliminary study of the effect of propeller and rudder on ship hull, especially from the resistance
aspect. Table I summarizes the resistance and side force change for different rudder angles and pro-
peller effect. All values in table are normalized with the bare hull resistance. This shows that the inter-
action among hull, propeller and rudder is strong, and should be considered as an integrated system for
the prediction of the self-propulsion characteristics.
3.2 Numerical Self-Propulsion Test
The numerical simulation of self-propulsion test at design speed 18 knots (corresponding to 1.956 mls
in model scale) for the previously described ship is discussed in the section. The calculated wake at
propeller plane of bare hull is given in Fig.2. Good visual agreement is observed, but some difference
still occurs in wake fraction, Table 2. Fig.3 depicts the grid arrangement for flow field calculation of
hull-propeller-rudder configuration.
TABLE 2
MEASURED AND CALCULA TED WAKE FRACTION OF THE STUDIED SHIP
The self-propulsion point of ship is reached through balancing the propeller thrust and the ship resis-
tance. Therefore an iterative process is performed until the difference between the propeller thrust and
the ship resistance is smaller than a given tolerance. In this case, 10 times of global iterations for
RANS computation is necessary for a converged result. Fig.4 and Fig.5 show the predicted wake and
cross flow vectors at propeller plane. Due to the propeller effect, axial velocity is obviously accelerated
inside the propeller diameter. Besides, the cross flow rotates clockwise, which is corresponding to the
propeller rotation direction. In reality, the flow at propeller with low axial velocity obtains more flow
acceleration through rotating propeller. But it does not reflected in the numerical computation because
of the axisymmetric assumption adopted in the present "equivalent body force" theory. Fig.6 shows the
axial velocity distribution at propeller plane for different radius. Except the region close to the hub,
axial velocity is larger than 80% ship speed for most propeller disk region. Table 3 summarizes the
measured and calculated self-propulsion characteristics. Because the potential propeller code PSF2 can
give quite good hydrodynamic characteristics prediction for propeller performance, the quality of
self-propulsion prediction mainly depends on the prediction of ship total resistance with propeller and
rudder installed and the effective wake. Although UVW gives quite accurate resistance prediction
without propeller effect, it gives 4% resistance over-prediction than the measurement for propeller in-
stalled. After the force balance process, it leads to a smaller advance coefficient J , based on model
ship speed, and hence larger thrust coefficient KT and torque coefficient KQ. Besides UVW seems too
diffusive for wake prediction including propeller effect, and a larger effective wake fraction is obtained.
The prediction of self-propulsion characteristics for propeller (i.e. t, J, KT and KQ) is relatively large,
but the prediction accuracy of global system characteristics (i.e. 11H and 110) is almost not influenced.
The improvements of prediction accuracy for the effective wake (not only the wake fraction value but
also the velocity distribution) and the total resistance are all necessary for obtaining more precise re-
sults for model scale simulation, and finally for the full scale prediction.
4 CONCLUDING REMARK
A computational method for simulating the self-propulsion test has been presented in this paper. The
scheme is based on the balance of propeller thrust obtained by a potential flow method, and ship resis-
tance calculated by a viscous flow approach. Through the validation of calculated results for a container
hull form, the interaction between the hull, the rudder and the propeller is investigated and most fea-
tures of wake field are captured by the present approach. Although there are rooms for further im-
provements, this initial work has demonstrated some encouraging results and shown to be a promising
method in evaluating the self-propulsion characteristics of ships for providing important information
for the propeller design process.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs under Grant Number 90EC2A- 170221.
References
Baldwin, B.S., Lomax, H. (1978). Thin-layer Approximation and Algebraic Model for Separated Tur-
bulent Flows, AIAA Paper. No.78-257
Chau, S.W, Chou, S.K. (1998). Composite Grid Approach for Solving N-S Equations: Part 2, Pro-
ceeding of the 12th National Conference on Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, 605-614.
Chau, S.W, Chou, S.K., Lu, C.Y.(2000). Application of Composite Grid Approach in Computing Flow
around Ship with Appendage, Trans. of the Aeronautical and Astronautical Society of the Republic of
China. 32:1,81-87
Chou, S.K. (1998). Computation of Ship Flow by Free Surface RANS Code, Proceeding of 11'h Nation-
al Conference on Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, 274-284
Chou, S.W, Chau, S.K., Chen, WC., Hsin, C.Y. (2000). Computations of Viscous Flow around Com-
mercial Hull Forms with Free Surface or Propeller Effect, Proceeding of Gothenburg 2000 - A Work-
shop on Numerical Ship Hydrodynamics
Chorin, A.J. (1967). A Numerical Method for Solving Incompressible Viscous Flow. Journal ofCom-
putational Physics. 2, 12-26
Greeley, D.S. and Kerwin, J .E. (1982). Numerical Methods for Propeller Design and Analysis in Steady
Flow, SNAME Transactions. 90
Jameson, W S., Turkel, E. (1981). Numerical Solution of the Euler Equations by Finite Volume
Methods Using Runge-Kutta Time Stepping Schemes. AIAA paper. No.81-1259
Hsin, c.Y., Tzeng, r.W, Chang, c.Y. (2000). Propeller Analysis and Design Using a Coupled Vis-
cous/Potential Flow Method. Proceeding of the 4th International Conference on Hydrodynamics
Huang, T. T., Wang, H.T., Santelli, N., Groves, N.C.(1976). Propeller/Stem Boundary Layer Interaction
on Axisymmetric Bodies:Theory and Experiment. Technical Report DTNSRDC 76-0113
Jaw, S.Y., Chou, S.K. (1994). Prediction of An Uniform Flow past HSVA Tanker with Two-layer k-E
turbulence Model, Proceeding ofCFD Workshop TOKYO 19941,304-310
Johnson, D.A., King, L.S. (1985). A Mathematically Simple Turbulence Closure Model for Attached
and Separated Turbulent Boundary Layer. AIAA J 23, 1684-1692.
783
Kerwin, J.E., Keenan, D.P, Black, S.D.B (1994). A coupled viscous/potential flow design method for
wake-adapted, multi-stage, ducted propulsors using generalized geometry. SNAME Transactions. 102,
23-56.
Lu, c.Y, Chou, S.K. (1994). A Computational Method for Calculating Ship Wave Resistance, Pro-
ceedingofCFD Workshop TOKYO 1994.1,135-139
Schetz, J.A., Favin, S. (1977). Numerical solution for the near wake of a body with Propeller. Journal of
Hydronautics. 11 :4, 136-141
Stern F.S., Kim H.T., Patel v.c. and Chen H.C. (1988). A viscous flow approach to the computation of
propeller-hull interaction, Journal of Ship Research. 32:4, 246 - 262
Stern, F.S., Kim, H.T., Patel, v.c. and Chen, H.C. (1988). Computation of Viscous Flow Around Pro-
peller-Shaft Configuration, Journal o(Ship Research. 32:4, 263 - 284
Stern, F.S., Kim, H.T., Zhang, D.H., Toda, Y, Kerwin, J.E., Jessup, S. Jessup. (1994). Computation of
Viscous Flow Around Propeller-Body Configurations: Series 60 Cb=0.6 Ship Model. Journal of Ship
Research.38:2,137-157
NUMERICAL COMPUTATION OF SHIP'S EFFECTIVE WAKE

AND ITS VALIDATION IN LARGE CAVITATION TUNNEL
'J.w. Park, 'J.J. Kim, 'D.S. Kong, "J.M. Lew
'Samsung Heavy Industries, Shipbuilding & Plant research institute

"Chungnam National University, Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Korea
ABSTRACT
To presume more accurate stem flow field at propeller working condition for practical hull form, a
series of velocity filed measurements were performed in large cavitation tunnel with LDV. Stem wake
field around propeller plane was scanned in propeller working/not working condition about the two
large container vessel. Additionally, tunnel wall effect and Reynolds number effect on velocity field
were also investigated. To verify the possibility of application currently proposed theory to actual
design of propeller & hull form design, computation results of potential solver with simple vortex ring
theory and RANS solver with body force distribution method were compared with experimental results.
The computational result of simplified vortex ring theory showed good agreement with experimental
data and computation with RANS equation also showed reasonable agreement with measurement.
KEYWORD
Ship, Propeller, Wake, Interaction, Effective velocity, LDV, Vortex ring, RANS, Body force,
INTRODUCTION
The accurate prediction of effective velocity distribution around propeller is a crucial factor for the
design of wake-adaptive propeller and stem hull form to obtain good propulsive performance. And
total velocity data around propeller is the essential part in prediction of effective wake. Because it is
the only practicable data in experiments, total velocity is used as verification of computational
approach. But experimental data in propeller working condition are very few [2], especially for
practical hull form. In this paper showed the experimental measurement results of practical container
hull form. And with that, verified two computational approach which can be used in initial
propellerlhull design stage.
2 EXPERIMENTS
Two models for large size container vessels were used. As the body plans shown in Figure I, hull
786
forms were similar to each other. Each hull had unique designed propeller. Except expanded area ratio,
those propellers were also alike. Principle dimension of hull and propeller were shown in TABLE I.
The stem wake field was measured in large cavitation tunnel SCAT (Samsung CAvitation Tunnel) by
LDV (Laser Doppler Velocimetor). On two forward plane (-0.40R, -0.28R) and two backward plane
(+0.28R, +0.40R) from propeller plane, axial velocity was scanned. Each plane has 7 radial positions
and 35 angular positions, hence a total of 255 measuring points. The measurement was performed in
four setting condition (with and without propeller, rudder), But the rudder effect on wake filed was out
of this paper scope, test results related with rudder were omitted. Since the laser beam radiated from
bottom of the tunnel wall, there was a blank zone in the shadow of shaft. Simplified system diagram
was showed in Figure 2. All measurement was performed in non-cavitating condition and the same
tunnel velocity (6.5mJs) except the test for comparison with that of towing tank. Details were tabulated
as TABLE2.
TABLE I
PRINCIPLE DIMENSION OF HULL & PROPELLER
Container A Container B
LIB 6.916 6.671
BIT 3.170 3.170
Cb 0.663 0.656
(P/D)mean 0.948 0.935
Ael Ao 0.943 1.005
TABLE 2
TEST CONSITION & MEASURING POSITION
Position
Hull Propeller Vr (m/s)
- 0.40R' -0.28R O.OOR + 0.28R + 0.40R
Container - 0 0 0 0 0 6.50
A 0 0 0 - 0 0 6.50
Container
- - - 0 - - 2.10
- 0 0 0 0 0 6.50
B
0 0 0 - 0 0 6.50
Stem dIrectIOn posItIve
..
3 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To verify the tunnel wall effect, nominal velocity in cavitation tunnel was compared with towing tank
result measured at same speed. The flow acceleration by the rigid plate as a substitution for free
surface, appeared in the upper part of wake plane, but they showed good similarity, This comparison
was shown in Figure 3. Reynolds number effect due to velocity difference, as compared in Figure 4
showed the same tendency with that performed in other large cavitation tunnel [I].
Figure 5 displayed wake field with and without propeller. It was looking upstream direction. Figures
were non-dimensionalized value by reference tunnel velocity and dashed line stood for propeller
diameter. Acquiring velocity information of one point needed 40-60 seconds, so all of data were fully
time-averaged. Some of measured data were printed in Figure 5. The results of ship A and B were very
similar, so this paper showed only results for ship B.
In propeller not working condition, (first row in Figure 5) the flow passing by ship showed gradually
increased velocity in lower part. In propeller working condition (second row in Figure 5) due to
propeller operating, velocity was accelerated at propeller upstream region. The difference between
787
portside and starboard existed but that was not so much. However at propeller downstream velocity
was accelerated about O.3~0.4 and difference between portside and starboard is clearly showed within
propeller disc. Further more, It showed more circumferencial smoothness in slipstream region. And, as
expected, there was relatively small deceleration in outside of propeller disc.
789
And Fb ,Re and VI means body force, Reynolds number and eddy viscosity, respectively.
The present method employed the O-H type non-staggered grid system and used second order finite
differences for the spatial and four-stage Runge-Kutta time stepping scheme for the temporal
discretizations. The numerical analysis of propeller-hull interaction was carried out for two practical
container ships. The corresponding Reynolds number was I.Oe7, which was similar that of towing tank
test. The computational domain extended one ship length L downstream and 0.6L in both depth and
width. Then, the inlet of computation domain located mid ship.
5 NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Total velocity computed with two methods compared experiment at propeller upstream and down
stream position. Results of simple vortex ring method were based on steady computation with
circumferencial mean values. For the brief introduction of numerical modeling example, discrete
vortex ring in transition area and propeller induced velocity with consideration of interaction effect
were shown in Figure 6. Total velocity comparison at propeller upstream and down stream condition
with/without propeller shown in Figure 7,8. Although simplified vortex ring theory was applied, the
computation results showed good agreement with measured results even in propeller working
condition. Figure 10 shows axial body force distributions which were obtained propeller performance
code with computed nominal wake. In RANS solver, effective velocity was converged with four
iterations. Velocity contours were shown Figure II and 12 for two locations. Size and location of axial
total velocity contours were reasonable compared with measured data in Figure 5. In Figure 13,
circumferencial mean axial velocity profiles were compared with experimental data at two difference
locations ..
The LDV measurement around propeller in propeller working condition provided valuable information
to study hull-propeller interaction and more accurate wake-adapted propeller design. Since all
measured data were averaged value, that could not show phase or velocity fluctuation caused by
rotation of propeller blades. Tangential and radial velocity field measurement and phase measurement
would be further study topic. It would be also important to the study of unsteady behavior in
interaction study. Although simplified vortex ring theory has critical limitation of proceeding
measured or predicted nominal velocity, it's results showed good agreement with measured data. As
alternative approach at initial design stage, viscous approach with body force showed reasonable
agreement with experiment. If it calculated in more high Reynolds number such as cavitation tunnel
condition, the accuracy would be improved but it need more computation time.
References
[I] Report of Propeller Committee. (1984). Proceedings of 1 ih International Towing Tank Conference.
[2] Cordier S., Briancon-marjollet L., Laurens J.M., Raulo J. (1995). Effect of wake scaling on the
prediction of propeller cavitation. DCN Bassin d'Essais des Carenes VAL DE REUIL. International
Symposium on Cavitation. CAV95
[3] Lee C. S., Kim Y. G. and Ahn. J. w., Interaction Between a Propeller and the Stem Shear Flow The
Proceeding of Korea-Japan Joint Workshop On Hydrodynamic In Ship Design. Seoul
[4] Kong D. S., Kim Y. G. and Lew L.M. (1998). On the Practical Computation of Propulsion Factors
of Ships. Practical Design of Ships and Mobile Units.
[5] Stem F., Kim H.T., Zhang D.H., Toda Y., Kerwin 1. and S. Jessup. (1994). Computation of
Viscous Flow Around Propeller Body Configurations: Series 60 Cs = 0.6 Ship model. Journal of Ship
Research. 38:2, 137~ 157
WAKE FIELDS PREDICTION ON THE PROPELLER PLANE

BY NEURAL NETWORK
H. J. Shin and S. M. Hwangbo
Hyundai Maritime Research Institute, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.,

I JeonHa-dong, Dong-ku, Ulsan, Korea
ABSTRACT
Neural network technique that is emerging as a new knowledge over a wide range of fields nowadays
is tried to estimate the wake fields on propeller plane. Neural network is well known as one of
prospective and representative analysis method for prediction, classification, diagnosis of real
complicated world problem, and it is widely applied even in the engineering fields. Further to its stable
and effective system structure, generalization of input training patterns into different classification or
categorization in training can offer more systematic treatments of input part and more reliable result.
There is no necessity to use logical programming and it can flexibly handle the incomplete information
that is not easy to make a definition clear, because neural network has an ability to learn the knowledge
through the external information.
For this study three-dimensional stem hull forms and nominal wake values from a model test are
structured as processing elements of input and output layer respectively and Back-Propagation method
is used for error correction.
KEYWORDS
Norminal wake, Propeller plane, Neural network, Back-propagation, Statistical analysis
1 INTRODUCTION
Afterbody shape of a merchant vessel has a big influence on the flow fields on the propeller plane and
consequently on the self propulsion factors such as wake factor, thrust deduction factor, relative
rotative efficiency as well as resistance characteristics. And this flow field on the propeller plane is
directly connected with propeller design and governs its cavitation behavior and propulsive efficiency.
So high wake peak or inhomogeneous wake patterns should be avoided by a good qualified hull form
design. Every hull form designer try to image or infer flow patterns of his designing hull forms in the
course of all design procedure because they want to keep a certain limitation of homogeneity of the
flow fields within the given restriction.
Of course, CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) is one of good candidates to carry out this kind of
estimation and simulation, another emerging approach to predict the flow fields or hydrodynamic
behavior is based on the previous experimental experience and systematically accumulated data.
792
Neural network is today expanding it's application ranges and capabilities by adopting new
technologies such as fuzzy theory, neural network technique and genetic algorithm in comparison with
a previous rigid regression method. Even in ship design fields, new advanced techniques are already
being introduced, but they are just in the limited ranges so far. They normally employ artificially
formulated parameters (such as LIB ratio, Bid ratio, etc) as input variables and simply draw outputs for
the estimation and optimization.
However, we carried out a study to use offset data themselves as input variables that are similar to the
input hull form data of CFD computation to predict the wake fields on the propeller plane as output
results. The offset datum at a certain point is simply converted to the angle value at the point
converged on the vertical line of the propeller plane. By this simple treatment it is evaluated that all
desired output points on the propeller plane and input offset points over hull surface are well connected
to have physical meaning and it is one of the important factors to get better results.
Input and desired output data are constructed from 57 vessels built actually in HHI and measured wake
data in Hyundai Maritime Research Institute including the various kinds and ranges from very large
full VLCC to high speed slender container carrier.
2 BACK PROPAGATION
The neural network technique is structured to attempt artificial modeling of the human brain's problem
solving capabilities such as calculation, recognition and training. The physical networking transfers a
proper signal or stimulus by interaction between biological neurons, which will be referred as a
processing element in the artificial system. The processing element(PE) has many input paths and
combines, usually by a simple summation. The combined input is then modified by a transfer function.
This transfer function can consist of special kinds of mathematical functions like sigmoid, hyperbolic
tangent or sine. When input values are connected to each other, the proper weights that correspond to
the synaptic strength of neural connection is multiplied and added to reach the desired output
processing elements. The output value manipulated by the transfer function is generally passed to the
output layer, but some hidden layers can be added between the input and output layer for the
improvement of the network accuracy in a certain complex case.
The weights are modified continuously through a number of iteration to have appropriate correlation
between input and output processing elements.
Back propagation network, which is also sometimes referred to as a multi-layer perceptron, is currently
used as a common neural network paradigm. Back propagation network achieves its generality by the
gradient-descent technique that is analogous to an error-minimization process. Error minimization is
an attempt to fit a closed-form solution to a set of empirical data points.
But there is still one difficulty to make the network system recognize effectively the three-dimensional
offset data even if they mean wideness at a certain point. To overcome this problem, lengthwise and
breadthwise values of offset data are converted to an angular value converged horizontally into one
vertical line at the propeller plane shown in Figure2. It gives physical meaning that two-dimensional
value is expressed by one implicative value.
Furthermore, entire input data are obtained at the particular x and z position because each vessel has
different dimensions respectively such as propeller diameter, ship length and breadth. When it is
considered wake value is defined as the flow velocity induced on propeller plane, it is a highly
meaningful approach to generate newly non-dimensional section and water line by propeller diameter
size.
Stem hull form near the propeller plane is sliced up in order to reflect the affect of stem profile shape.
Eleven new stations (0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4,0.5,0.75,1,2,3,4,5 x Diameter) and twelve new waterlines (from
0.1 times propeller dia. level to 1.2 times propeller dia. level by each 0.1 times propeller dia.
increment) are generated and crossed to get the input data values, and it is good enough to represent
afterbody of the hull which affect wake field on the propeller plane. Figure 3 shows a typical division
of the stem part.
Measured wake values on the propeller plane are set as a desired output of the system, they are divided
by every 10 degrees over a half side of propeller plane and 19 divisions in clockwise direction
according to each angular position and radial direction. In addition, five radial divisions from 0.4 rlR
to 1.0 rlR by 0.15 rlR steps are added and in consequence total 19 x 5 points of wake values are
795
adopted as output parameters. The wake velocity is of cause non-dimensional value by ship's speed.
The 60 hull forms are used for this prediction, and they are widely dispersed by block coefficient, LIB,
Bid, and Froude number, which may cover the whole range of merchant vessel.
In general the reliability of the trained neural network system is quite dependent on the number of data
group because the correlation between input and output data are more enhanced if more cases are
shown to network.
The commercial program "Neural Works Professional II/PLUS" developed by "Neural Ware, Inc." is
used for prediction of the wake field on the propeller plane in this paper.
4 TRAINING RESULTS
The neural network by back propagation results in 86.5% correlation and 0.056 RMS (Root Mean
Square) errors during 50,000 the training number. After the system training, the additional 4 stern hull
forms with various kind of dimensions are tested for the confirmation of the level of network learning.
An axial wake velocity and it's harmonic wake distribution of a VLCC are shown as one example in
the Figure 4, the harmonic wake distribution of a slender high speed large container carrier are shown
in the Figure5. The wake field of the stern hull form with skeg under stern bulb is well predicted as
shown in the figure 6. It is estimated that the predicted results are so analogous to measured original
wake fields that it is good enough to be applied in the design stage before the model tests. Moreover, a
very precise depiction of local vortices on the full afterbody hull forms can be stated very prospective
application in the stern hull form design. To make a comparison with the wake predictions by CFD,
very recent CFD results by KRISO(Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering), which
have simulated relatively realistic hook-like vortex shape, is introduced here in Figure 7.
It is not easy to be directly stated which one is better or worse, but Figure 7 show that the present study
is unlikely inferior to the CFD in the prediction of wake fields on the propeller plane for stern hull
form design quantitatively as well as qualitatively.
Figure 7: The measured and The predicted by Neural network(left) vs The measured and
The calculated by CFD(right)
5 CONCLUSIONS
Simulation of the wake fields by neural network is carried out and prospective results are obtained.
Many methods such as fuzzy or genetic algorithm have been applied in a very limited fields of the ship
design, the flow fields prediction by back-propagation method of neural network in this paper may
797
give advanced information to hull form designer for evaluation and optimization of stern hull form by
prediction of a ship's wake distribution at the initial design stage.
Just offset data is enough to get the available information, and it is not needed to take a lot of time-
consuming processing for obtaining target values because once the learning of system is finished
additional time consumption is not necessary for the wake field predictions of another new vessels.
Furthermore, if the learning data are conglomerated more, the reliability of the system will be
upgraded.
Even though the training and basic theory of the system itself have no physical sense of the flow
pattern but the simulation results after the training indicate that flow pattern is physically connected
with the stern hull form as good as imagination. Particularly, stem hull form near the propeller plane is
sliced up in order to reflect the affect of stem profile shape.
If further additional reinforcement through precise adjustment of hidden layer and processing elements
can be done, the neural network may produce the much-enhanced results.
This study can be extended to predict and simulate all kinds of hydrodynamic matters. The form factor,
wave resistance and all self-propulsion factors can be predicted through the neural network system
with basic input parameters of offset data. It is regarded this system will be further developed to the
entire optimization routine for the hull form design, which will be contributed to anyone who wants to
approach optimization problem.
References
I. S.M.Hwangbo, H.J.Shin and H.J.Kim. (2000). The statistical prediction of wake fields on the
propeller plane by neural network using back propagation. IMCD 2000 Proceeding, 593-603
2. Neural Ware, Inc. (1996). Neural Computing, Technical Publications Group of Neural Ware,lnc.
3. Skpura, D. M. (1996). Building Neural Networks, the ACM press
4. Kim. D. S. (1997). Neural Networks Theory and Applications(I), Hi-tech Information
5. Kim. S. Y,(1998). Neuro-Fuzzy Modeling for Initial Hull Form Design, Asian Fuzzy Systems
Symposium, proceeding, 585-590
6. Kim: S. Y,(1995). Hull Form Generation by Using TSK Fuzzy Model, Fuzzy Logic and its
Application, iriformation, 197
7. Kim. W. J., Kim. D. H. and Van. S. H. (1999). Comparison of turbulence models for the prediction
of stern wake of VLCCs with different stern shape, Proc. of the Annual Autumn Meeting, SNAK,
Teajon, 304-307
© 200 1 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
EFFECT OF VERTICAL PRE-SWIRL STATOR VANES ON THE

PROPULSION PERFORMANCE OF A 300K CLASS VLCC
Jiman Yangl, Kihyun Park1, Kwang Kim1, Jungchun Suh\ Hyochul Kim1,
Seunghee Lee2, Jungjoong Kim3 and Hyoungtae Kim3
IDept. of Naval Architecture and Ocean Eng., RlMSE, Seoul National Univ., Republic of Korea
2Dept. of Naval Architecture and Ocean Eng., Inha Univ., Republic of Korea
3Dept. of Naval Architecture and Ocean Eng., Chungnam National Univ., Republic of Korea
ABSTRACT
In the present study, computational investigations are carried out to look at the effects of the two-
bladed, pre-swirl, stator vane in simple vertical arrangement, on the propeller-hull interaction of the
low speed full ship. Pre-swirl stator vanes were designed for a 300K class VLCC using the surface
panel method based on the potential flow theory. In order to design an optimum stator vane, it is
essential to know the flow around the vane, which is mainly influenced by the hull wake under the
propeller action. A comprehensive viscous-flow method for the computation of propeller-hull
interaction could be used to predict the total and effective flows around the stator vane. The stern flow
of the model in self-propulsion condition was calculated by the viscous-flow method based on the
Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, in which the body-force distribution was used to
represent the propeller action. The present study provided useful information about the effectiveness of
the two-bladed, pre-swirl, stator vane for the improvement of the propulsive efficiency of the low
speed full ship and may lead to a practical method for designing optimum pre-swirl vanes when it were
combined with experimental methods for validating hydrodynamic performances of the vane-propeller
system.
KEYWORDS
Two-bladed vertical pre-swirl stator vane, VLCC, Propeller-hull interaction, computational methods
1 INTRODUCTION
Most of pre-swirl propulsor systems normally comprise some 6-8 bladed stator vanes with a ring duct
[Takekuma (1981); Van (1993); Lee (1994); Kim (1994)]. In order to achieve fully the advantage of
the systems over other propulsion systems, it is necessary to know in detail local stern flows in design
stage in the viewpoint that the inflow angles relative to the stator vanes are different for each radial
station. As a consequence, their design is highly dependent on ships to be fitted with the system.
Furthermore, the diameters of the stator vanes as well as the ring duct are usually of the order of
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10-15% greater than the propeller diameter. The initial investment and operation costs for
manufacturing and maintenance are compatible, even more than, with those of single propellers. In the
Seoul National University Towing Tank(SNUTT), a research program is under progress for a pre-swirl
stator vane propulsor system which can be more easily designed and manufactured than the pre-swirl
stator vanes used until now[Yang (2000)]. In this work, we consider a relatively simple pre-swirl stator
vane system comprising only two vertically located stator blades of rectangular wing type.
2 POTENTIAL FLOW ANALYSIS OF THE PROPULSOR SYSTEM
The flow analysis for the system was performed by the potential-based panel method [Pyo (1998)].
The interactions between the stator vane and the propeller are addressed by including the induced
velocity on inflow velocity in an iterative manner. The potential flow analysis for the propeller can be
directly applied for the stator analysis with the onset flow velocity plus the propeller induced velocity
at the stator vane plane, since the stator vane can be regarded as a propeller without a rotational speed.
The induced velocity is taken in a circumferentially averaged sense. This process is repeated until both
the stator and the propeller loadings are converged within an allowance limit. In the loading
calculations, the empirical formulas for the drag coefficient were used to take account into viscous
effects [Hoerner (1965)].
Due to its initial development, the stator vane was designed for fitting to the propeller of an existing
vessel of 'KTTC 300K class VLCC' (see Table 1 and 2 for their principal particulars), although it is
necessary to perform the propeller redesign to prevent the propeller RPM-mismatching. The diameter
(span) and the inflow angle of the stator vane were determined in such a way that the propulsion
efficiency in open-water condition is increased as much as possible. This condition would be
reasonable for the present stator vane because it is vertically located at the symmetrical center plane of
ships. The propulsion efficiency is predicted with varying the inflow angle trom 5° to 15°. Figure 1
shows that the efficiency gain is obtained by compensating the increase of the stator drag with the
decrease of the rotational energy losses. Additional gain does not appear furthermore when the angle is
too large (say over 12° in this case). Eventually, we take 12° as the inflow angle (pitch angle) of pre-
swirl stator vane relative to onset flow. The computed results shown in Figure 2 imply that the
effective diameter of the stator vanes will be of order of 0.9D(90% propeller diameter). A similar
feature is also found in literature [Yang (2000)], in which the effective diameter of 0.85D is proposed.
Neglecting the small difference in efficiency between such two choices, we take 0.85D as the stator
diameter with our preference for a smaller one.
For the non-uniform flow (either measured by model tests or calculated by CFD method), we follow
the corresponding iterative process used in the open-water condition. The predicted thrust and torque
are used as the body force term in Navier-Stokes equations for the CFD calculation. Presumably
predicted effective flow is then used as an upgraded onset flow in the potential flow analysis for the
propulsor system.
TABLE I
PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS OF KITC 300K CLASS VLCC
Scale Design LBP LWL Breadth Depth Draft WSA Volume

CB
Ratio Speed (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (m2) (m3)
15.5
Ship 1 320.0 325.5 58.0 30.0 20.8 27320.0 312737.5 0.8101
(knots)
0.7973
Model 100 3.200 3.255 0.580 0.300 0.208 2.7320 0.3127 0.8101
(m/s)
3 VISCOUS-FLOW COMPUTATION OF PROPELLER-HULL SYSTEM
3.1 Overview of Computational Method
A comprehensive viscous-flow approach [Stem et al. (1988)], in which a numerical method for
calculating the viscous flow around the ship's stem had been coupled with a potential flow method for
calculating the propeller-performance in an interactive and iterative manner to predict the propeller-
hull interaction, was used in the present study. However, there were number of changes in the detailed
computational method. The finite analytic method [Patel et al. (1988)] for solutions of the Reynolds-
averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) Equations was replaced with the finite difference method
[Sotiropoulos and Abdallah (1992)]. The governing equations are written in Cartesian coordinates and
the modified Balwin-Lomax turbulence model [Kim and Kim (1997)] are used with the no-slip wall
condition. The RANS equations are discretized using a non-staggered grid and the high-order finite
difference method, and solved using a four-stage Runge-Kutta scheme. The constraint of a divergence-
free velocity filed is enforced by solving a discretized pressure-Poisson equation to compute the
pressure with eliminating the checkerboard problem associated with the use of a non-staggered grid
and a MAC-type algorithm is used for velocity-pressure coupling. The equations are solved in
unsteady form. However, for present steady-flow applications, time simply serves as an iteration
parameter. The computational grid is generated by the use of the three-dimensional GRAPE method
[Sorenson (1982)]. In order to locate the grid points over the propeller disk, the grid is generated in
two blocks, so that the interface of which becomes the boundary with fixed grid points in the propeller
plane. In towing condition, only the half of the whole domain is taken for the computation of the flow
around a ship model using the center-plane as the symmetry boundary, while the whole domain is
taken for the computation of the flow around the model in self-propulsion condition. For the
802
computation of the viscous flow around a ship model in self-propulsion condition, a body-force
distribution is used to represent the propeller action through the addition of body-force terms in the
source functions of the momentum equations. The body force is obtained from a propeller-
performance program for specified propeller geometry and operating conditions including the effective
inflow. Since the body force depends on the effective inflow, which in turn depends on the body force,
the complete solution must be obtained iteratively. However, iterative calculations were not performed
in the present study, because the computed nominal wake was not accurate enough to justify such
iterative calculation procedure to obtain the effective inflow.
3.2 Computational Results
Computations were carried out for predicting the stern and wake flows of a 300K VLCC model in
towing as well as in self-propulsion conditions. Calculations were performed for the conditions
corresponding to the experiments of the model tests in the towing tank, Le., Re = 4.6x 106 and JA =
0.47. Figure 3 shows a partial view of the computational grid used for the viscous-flow calculations.
The inlet, exit, and outer boundaries are located at the mid-ship, the ship length downstream from the
stern, and 0.6 times the ship length outward in radial direction, respectively. The first grid points off
the hull surface are located at about l = 10 and 66 axial, 35 radial, and 31 circumferential grid points
for the towing condition, or 61 circumferential grid points for self-propulsion condition, were used.
The grid for the interpolation of the body-force is also shown in the figure. The inlet boundary
conditions were specified using the flat-plate turbulent boundary layer profiles. In Figure 4, the
velocity distributions are shown over the propeller disk at the cross plane just upstream of the propeller
for the towing and self-propulsion conditions, respectively. The influence of the propeller action was
relatively weak at the upstream position. The axial velocity was generally under-predicted so that its
volumetric mean value becomes smaller than the experimental one. The cross plane velocity was not
predicted well either, especially for the bilge vortices. Therefore, the propeller-performance and
consequently the propeller-hull interaction would not be analyzed correctly in the viscous-flow
approach of Stern et al. [Stern et al. (1988)] if the computed nominal velocity were used. Figure 5
shows the velocity distributions at the cross plane just downstream of the propeller, respectively, for
the towing and self-propulsion conditions. The influence of the propeller action became strong at this
downstream location and the resultant propeller slipstream was developed more at further downstream.
Figure 6 shows the surface pressure distributions of the ship model for the towing and self-propulsion
conditions. The influence of the propeller action appears locally only at the stern region close to the
propeller. A little discrepancy is found in the pressure distribution on the starboard and port sides of
the hull surface. But presently it is not clear whether the cause of the discrepancy is due to the different
propeller effects on each side or just numerical errors.
Figure 6 : Pressure distributions on the hull surface
4 PRELIMINARY TEST RESULTS
The preliminary resistance and self-propulsion tests were performed for another 300K class VLCC
with the same arrangement of the pre-swirl stator vane [Yang (2000)], (see Table 3). The model
propeller of diameter 170mm was used, whose geometry is given in Table 2. The hull form is slightly
different from that of the VLCC mentioned in section 2 and 3, but the beneficial effect of the stator
vane on the performance was expected to occur. Resistance and self-propulsion tests were carried out
at Seoul National University towing tank. Propulsion performance is estimated by the 1978 IITC
performance prediction method and the modified method (B-1 method) proposed by Van [Van (1996)].
Comparison of self-propulsion factors with and without pre-swirl stator vane is given in Table 4. The
predicted factors remarkably depend on the prediction method taken. A rigorous method for precise
prediction is needed to capture this feature. Meanwhile, due to the pre-swirl stator, the hull resistance
leads to about 0.02% increase in EHP and the preswirl flow created by its reaction can be expected to
reduce DHP by about 1%.
Computational investigations were carried out to look at the effects of the two-bladed, vertical pre-
swirl stator vane on the propeller-hull interaction of the low speed full ship. Pre-swirl stator vanes
were designed for a 300K class VLCC using the surface panel method based on the potential flow
theory. In addition, the stern flow of the model in self-propulsion condition was calculated by the
viscous-flow method based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The present study
provided useful information about the effectiveness of the two-bladed, vertical pre-swirl stator vane for
the improvement of the propulsive efficiency of the low speed full ship and may lead to a practical
method for designing optimum pre-swirl vanes when it is combined with experimental methods for
validating hydrodynamic performances of the vane-propeller system. This work was supported by the
BK21 Project.
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TABLE 3
PRINCIPALPARTICULARS
OFKOMAC300K CLASSVLCC
Scale Design LBP LWL Breadth Depth Draft WSA Volume

Cs
Ratio Speed (m) (m) (m) (m) (m) (m2) (m3)
15
Ship 1 320.0 325.5 58.0 31.0 20.8 27784 314200 0.814
(knots)
0.9961
Model 60 5.3333 5.425 0.9667 0.5167 0.3467 7.7177 1.4546 0.814
(m/s)
TABLE 4
COMPARISON
OF SELF-PROPULSION
FACTORSATDESIGNSPEED
t WM Ws 17R 170 17H 17D DHP(HP)

wlo vane
0.206 0.383 0.303 0.975 0.662 1.138 0.735 17514
ITTC '78
wi vane
0.214 0.419 0.323 0.984 0.648 1.160 0.740 17409
ITTC '78
wi vane
0.214 0.419 0.359 0.984 0.623 1.226 0.751 17144
ITTC 21 sl B-1
References
Hoerner S. (1965). Fluid Dynamics Drag, Brictown, N.l

Kim Ki-Sup et al. (1994). A Pre-swirl Stator-Propeller System as a Reliable Energy-Saving Device,
Propeller/Shafting '94 Symposium, 9.1-9.16.
Kim J.J. and Kim H.T. (1997). Application of Modified Baldwin-Lomax Model to Turbulent Flow of a
Double Body Tanker Model, Proceedings of Annual Spring Meeting SNAK, 316-319.
Lee Jin-Tae et al. (1994). Development of a Pre-swirl Stator Propulsion System for a 300K VLCC,
Journal ofSNAK31:1, 1-13.
Patel V.C. et al. (1988). Ship Stem and Wake Flows: Solutions of Fully-Elliptic Reynolds-averaged
Navier-Stokes Equations and Comparisons with Experiments, Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research,
The University of Iowa, IIHR Report No. 323.
Pyo S.- w., Kim K. and Suh l-C. (1998). Steady/Unsteady Analysis of Ducted Propellers by Using a
Surface Panel Method, 3rd International Conference on Hydrodynamics.
Sorenson R.L. (1982). Grid Generation by Elliptic Partial Differential Equations for a Tri-Element
Augmentor- Wing Airfoil, Numerical Grid Generation (ed Thomson. JF)
Sotiropoulos F. and Abdallah S. (1992). A Primitive Variable Method for the Solution of Three-
Dimensional Incompressible Viscous Flows, Journal of Computational Physics 103.
Stem F. et al. (1988). A Viscous Flow Approach to the Computation of Propeller-Hull Interaction,
Journal of Ship Research, 32:4, 246-262.
Takekuma et al. (1981). Development of Reaction Fin as a Device for Improvement of Propulsive
Performance of High Block Coefficient Ships, Journal of SNAJ 150.
Van Suak-Ho et al. (1993). Some Remarks on the Powering Performance Prediction Method for a Ship
Equipped with a Preswirl Stator-Propeller System, 20th International Towing Tank Conference 2, 81-
84.
Van Suak-Ho et al. (1996). A Powering Performance Extrapolation Method for a Preswirl Stator-
Propeller System, 21st International Towing Tank Conference 2, 192-198.
Yang Jiman et al. (2000). Effect of Pre-swirl Stator Vane on the Propeller Hull Interaction of a Full
Ship, Proceedings of Annual Autumn Meeting SNAK, 188-191.
DEVELOPMENT AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF A NOVEL

SUBMARINE GUIDE VANE PROPELLER SYSTEM
Hui-Zhi Yao Hong-Cui Shen
China Ship Scientific Research Center, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214082 China
ABSTRACT
Submarine Guide Vane Propeller is a new device developed by CSSRC to improve powering
performance and reduce propeller-radiated noise of submarine. It is composed of propeller and guide
vane, the latter is installed at an appropriate position between stem appendages and propeller. By
interactions among stem appendages, main hull and the guide vane, the inflow of propeller is adjusted,
so that the energy losses in propeller and the unsteady forces and radiated noise can be reduced. In the
research it is shown that the new device can increase submarine maximum speed by 0.3~0.5 knot and
reduce propeller radiated noise by 2~4 dB.
KEYWORDS
Submarine, Guide vane, Powering performance, Noise, Propeller, Propulsion
1 INTRODUCTION
In comparison with the total cost of a submarine, the hydrodynamic part is very small, however it
plays an important role for the total performance of the submarine. For example, the resistance must be
as small as possible, which is important for the endurance of the submarine. It must be manoeuvrable,
the propeller must be as silent as possible and have a high efficiency, and the radiated noise must be as
small as possible etc.
The development of submarine indicates increased maximum speed in submerged condition on the one
hand and strong demands for low noise levels at operating speed on the other hand. From
hydrodynamic point of view, these two demands call for a more careful design of the submarine hull
form and propeller.
With the research of submarine design and performance, improvements have been made in propulsion
devices and in hull form refinements. At the same time, several kinds of stem arrangements and
unconventional propulsors have been investigated all over the world, such as the "X" type stem wings
and pumpjet propulsion system and so on.
808
As simple to construct, easy to manufacture, convenient to install, Guide vane (pre-swirl stator) has
been considered as a promising energy saving device for ships during the last decade, this energy
saveing device has also been used to prevent cavitation erosion.
In 1991, CSSRC investigated the potential gain in propulsive efficiency by adopting such a device in
submarine design, energy saving rates over 6.5 percent were achieved. However, it required a new
propeller designed for the proper horsepower/rpm relationship. In addition, noise radiation reduction
has become more and more important for up-to-date submarines. In 1995, CSSRC initiated research to
develop a new efficiency improving as well as noise reducing device that is suitable for submarine
application. This resulted in the new concept of integrated Submarine Guide Vane Propeller(SGVP)
system. The SGVP is a novel submarine stern arrangement in which the guide vane is fitted into the
submarine hull at a proper position between the stern wings and propeller. It is expected to improve the
propulsive performance of full form submarine and to reduce the radiated noise of the propeller.
Then CSSRC carried out long term systematic research in the following years, which consisted of the
following contents:
(I) hydrodynamic mechanism of SGVP
(2) flow structure investigation around the guide vane
(3) interaction between the guide vane and the propeller
(4) hydrodynamic performance and radiated noise investigation
(5) hydrodynamic design optimization
Two typical imaginary submarines were selected as the original hull forms on which the research of
the SGVP was to be conducted, since they had been intensively investigated and provide very good
hydrodynamic performance. After extensive investigations, including a series of model tank tests, a
series of cavitation and noise experiments, a series of flow field measurements, as well as a series of
physical analyses, an important hydrodynamic breakthrough came in the form of a larger diameter of
guide vane and a smaller diameter of propeller system which showed very encouraging performance
characteristics. Figure I shows the stern arrangement of SGVP.
Figure I: Layout of an imaginary submarine with guide vane

In this paper, the design concept and hydrodynamic features of SGVP are described, followed by the
mechanism analyses of this novel system, some conclusions are presented in the end of the paper as
well.
2 BASIC DESIGN CONCEPT
As is well-known, guide vane (pre-swirl stator) used as an energy saving device for surface ships has
been widely investigated in many ship hydrodynamics institutes. From these researches we can find
809
that it is very difficult to make the stator adapt to the complicated wake of surface ships. And even in
this case, energy saving rates of about 4-12 percent could be gained. Then, for an axisymmetric body
with appendages as a submarine, the wake is relatively simple, one may think it is easier to achieve
improved performance. This is not true of course, in particular when we take low radiated noise of
propeller into consideration at the same time.
In our research, in order to improve the powering performance of a submarine, we choose proper
section form, suitable size, appropriate pitch angle and blade number of the guide vane. The basic
purpose of such arrangement is to produce a swirling flow opposed to the direction of rotation of the
propeller, thereby annulling the swirl induced by the propeller and at the same time increasing the
relative tangential velocity of the propeller blades. In such a way the rotational kinetic energy losses in
the propeller slipstream can be cancelled. Of course, the drag increment due to guide vane must be
remained rationally small.
For low radiated noise of propeller, we should consider the interactions among the submarine hull,
stem appendages, guide vane and propeller as a whole. Following measures have been taken into
account: First, the diameter of guide vane should be larger than that of the propeller so that the tip
vortices generated by the guide vane can be moved off the propeller disc. Then the number of guide
vane blades should be chosen so that the least common multiples of the number of propeller blades and
guide vane blades as well as that of the number of propeller blades and guide vane blades plus stem
appendages are large. In our research, 4-blade guide vane was used commonly. Also we must consider
the circumferentially relative position between guide vane and stem appendages and guide vane pitch
angle. Even more important consideration is to select the proper guide vane longitudinal position
between stem appendages and propeller. By suitable arrangement of these parameters the inflow
uniformities of the propeller can be improved thus the unsteady blade force and radiated noise can be
reduced.
3 INVESTIGATIONS OF THE WAKE CHARACTERISTICS
In order to understand the hydrodynamic mechanism of the SGVP and to optimize its design, a series
of wake measurements were conducted in the wind tunnel ofCSSRC.
The wakes of a typical submarine with and without guide vane are given here. Figure 2 shows the
wake contour at the propeller plane of a full form submarine without guide vane, from it we can find
that the flow field at the propeller plane is circumferentially non-uniform, which results in spatial and
temporal fluctuations of propeller blade angle of attack. These angle-of-attack fluctuations result in
unsteady blade loadings and the generation of noise.
The flow non-uniformities are caused by upstream appendages and the interaction between them and
the hull boundary layer. Also this phenomena has been intensively investigated by many researchers in
recent years, the flow behind an appendage or appendages is characterized by a complex velocity field
having velocity excesses at the inner radii where the propeller operates and velocity deficits at the
outer radii.
Figure 3 shows the wake contour at the propeller plane for a full form submarine with guide vane. The
flow nonuniformities are significantly decreased in the upper region of the propeller disc compared
with the case without the guide vane.
We also investigated the evolution of the flow structure along the aft portion of the model. Figure 4
shows axial velocity contour in a plane before propeller disc. The differences between it and that of the
propeller disc can be easily found, these might be caused by the strong viscous effect and the pressure
distribution there. So we can adjust the relative position among appendages, guide vane and propeller
and other parameters to improve the uniformities of propeller inflow.
Figure 5 Transverse vectors and axial velocity contour in the propeller plane
3.1 Powering Performance Investigations
As mentioned above, CSSRC carried out SGVP studies on two basic hull forms. For form A with high
hull diameter to length radio, we developed 3 guide vanes, then experiments were conducted in the
towing tank of CSSRC, which included resistance tests with and without guide vane, open water tests
for the propeller and self-propulsion tests with and without guide vane. The geometrical parameters of
guide vane and experimental results are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.
Another series of model experiment of SGVP were conducted on the basis of form B with a low
diameter to length ratio of the hull. Also 3 guide vanes were design for the given hull form. The
geometrical characteristics of the Guide Vanes and experimental results are also shown in Table 1 and
Table 2 .
Figure 5 presents the flow vectors as well as the axial velocity contour in the propeller plane.
Obviously guide vane creates circumferential flow in the propeller disc, also we can see the tip
vortices in the outer radii region. So in the later design the diameter of the stator was about 10 to 15
percent greater than the propeller.
4 DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SGVP
The investigations consisted of the following stages:

(I) hydrodynamic design and powering performance experiments
(2) low noise design and acoustic performance investigations
(3) final design and experimental verification
We are going to describe each of them briefly here.

812
TABLE]
GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS OF GUIDE VANES
Number of blades Angle Wetted area
No. of Guide Vane (Zg) (a g) (l+Sg/So)
A+No.1 4 9.2 0
1.003637
A+No.2 4 6.7" 1.003473
A+No.3 6 6.7" 1.005348
B+NoA 4 5.00
1.002700
B+No.5 4 11.0 0
1.002706
B+No.6 4 15.0 0
1.002708
Table 3 shows the increment rates of resistance coefficients and propulsion factors. From these data it
can be found that the increment of form drag coefficient with guide vane is small, for NOA guide vane
there was even a negative increment, the causes of this resistance decrease are the viscous interactions
between the guide vane and main body.
It is also clear that guide vane makes the wake fraction increase, whereas the thrust deduction fraction
and the relative rotation efficiency varies a little.
TABLE 2
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF GUIDE VANES
f\.CrX 103 f\.Wg f\.tg f\. fj,
No. of Guide Vane
A+No.1 0.198 0.136 0.020 0.012
A+No.2 0.]53 0.099 -0.005 0.0]3
A+No.3 0.193 0.136 -0.004 0.007
B+NoA -0.02 0.062 0.00] -0.005
B+No.5 0.02 0.]10 0.0]0 -0.005
B+No.6 0.03 0.165 0.012 -0.005
TABLE 3
RELATIVE VALUES OF RESISTANCE COEFFICIENTS AND PROPULSION FACTORS
No. of 1+ f\. Cr/Cr 1+f\.Wg/Wo 1+ f\.t g/to 1+ f\. fj r glfj ro K%
Guide Vane
A+No.l 1.2750 1.447 1.164 1.012 4.2
A+No.2 1.2125 1.326 0.960 1.013 6.7
A+No.3 1.2681 1.447 0.967 1.007 8.1
B+NoA 0.9961 1.181 0.993 0.995 2.3
B+No.5 1.0339 1.322 1.073 0.995 5.6
B+No.6 1.0508 1.483 1.087 0.995 11.7
From the experimental results we can find that above 4 to 11 percent of efficiency increases can be
gained by the SGVP, the increases of efficiency are produced by the cancellation of the swirl flow of
the propeller and change of direction and distribution of the force on the propeller.
3.2 Acoustic Performance Investigations

Since guide vane was found to be very effective for the improvement of propulsive performance of the
body of revolution with appendages, investigations were made to cover various hydrodynamic aspects,
especially the hydroacoustic performance.
The acoustic tests were carried out in the cavitation tunnel of CSSRC . In the first stage, only guide
813
vane NO.5 was selected, and the same propeller with and without guide gane No.5 was operated in the
non-uniform flow simulated to that of the form B. As shown in Figure 6, the difference between the
two conditions is small, and the noise with the guide vane is even higher than that without it.
Certainly this is not desirable.
Then some refinements were made. First according to velocity measurement research, guide vane tip
vortices impinged on the propeller blades, it certainly causes noise. In order to avoid its occurrence
we decided to increase the diameter of guide vane to 10 percent greater than that of the propeller, so
that we can move the tip vortices off the propeller disc to reduce the velocity fluctuations in the
propeller disc.
On the other hand, from experimental results of the first phase, the propeller designed according to the
inflow condition without guide vane, would produce the required thrust at a different advance
coefficient when it operates behind Guide Vane. Therefore a new propeller was designed according to
the propeller/guide vane combination effects. The new system obtained remarkable noise reduction.
The experimental results are shown in Figure 7.
814
3.3 Final Design and Experimental Verification
Maintaining the original horsepower/rpm relationship, a new guide vane No.7 and a new propeller for
form B were designed on the above knowledge. In these case the diameter of guide vane was 12
percent greater than that of the propeller and the angle between guide vane and flow was 8 degree.
Experimental results show that the increments of speed are about 0.4-0.6 knots and the radiated noise
reductions are about 3dB.Table 4 and Table 5 show the experimental results.
4 CONCLUSIONS
A novel submarine stem arrangement called submarine guide vane propeller(SGVP) system was
developed for improving powering performance and reducing radiated noise of the propeller. Based on
the model experiment results, about 5-10 percent saving of DHP and 2-4dB noise reduction are
expected. Moreover, guide vane can be regarded as an appendage of the submarine,which is simple to
construc, convenient to install, and has remarkable energy saving rate and low noise level, it should be
regarded as a promising practical device for submarines.
References
Shen Hongcui et al.(l997). Submarine Guide Vane Propeller for Increasing Efficiency and Reducing
noise. J Ship Mechanics. 1:1,1-7.
Neely et al.(l99l). Asymmetric pre-swirl stator for US Coast Guard island class patrol boats. DTRC
report /SHD-1335-02.
Smith et al.(l992). Propeller Erosion Reductions with an Asymmetric Preswirl Stator. 23rd AITC.
Ukon et al.(l992). Prevention of Root Erosion by Pre-swirl Propeller Fin. Proc. ISPC
Cui Jigang et al.(l995). Experimental Research on Powering Performance of Submarine with Guide
Vane. CSSRC Technical Report No. 95318.
Ye Yongxing et al.( 1996). Experimental Research on the Acoustic Performance of a Submarine
model with Guide Vane. CSSRC Technical Report No. 96010.
Zhu Xiqing et al.(l995). Experimental Study of Acoustic Performance of a Submarine Model with
Guide Vane. CSSRC Technical Report No. 95404.
Shen Hongcui et al.(l997). Development of Guide Vane as a Device for Inproving Powering
Performance and Reducing Noise for Body of Revolution with Appendages, Proc. China-Korea
Marine Hydrodynamics Meeting, 1997
Shen Hongcui et al. (2000) Hydrodynamic Study ofSGVP, CSSRC Technical Report No.00413
C. M. Lee.(l999) Final Report of the 22nd ITTC Specialist Committee on Unconventional Propellers.
Final Report of the 22nd IITC
DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF A HIGH SPEED VIDEO

SYSTEM IN HSVA'S LARGE CAVITATION TUNNEL HYKA T
C. Johannsen
Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSV A), Hamburg, Germany
ABSTRACT
Cavitation tests in model scale are still the most reliable tool to avoid subsequent problems concerning
cavitation erosion or propeller induced hull vibrations in full scale. The latest generation of large cavi-
tation tunnels allows the performance of those tests in the realistic three-dimensional wake field of
complete ship models at high Reynolds Numbers. In opposite to this very advanced testing technique
the procedure for cavitation observations did basically not change over the last hundred years: The
movement of the propeller blades is frozen by flash light synchronized with the propeller shaft speed,
resulting in one picture of the cavitation pattern per revolution. The temporal development of the cavi-
tation, which is responsible for vibration excitation and propeller erosion damages, can not accurately
be studied by this conventional technique. To overcome this shortcoming, a High Speed Video (HSV)
system has been established at HSV A for the large cavitation tunnel HYKA T. After years of develop-
ment this system became easy to handle and is now suitable as a valuable addition to standard cavita-
tion tests. It provides 4,500 high quality pictures per second, i.e. about 180 pictures of the cavitation
development per propeller revolution. By simultaneous monitoring of the actual hull pressure values
deep insight into the hydrodynamic phenomena can be achieved, which are responsible for vibration
excitation and erosion. The paper presents both a detailed description of the recording system as well
as first results and video records obtained by the new technique.
KEYWORDS
Testing Technique, Cavitation Tests, Pressure Pulse Measurements, High Speed Video Recording
1 INTRODUCTION
For more than hundred years the performance of model tests in a cavitation tunnel has been an indis-
pensable tool for the prediction of cavitation erosion and propeller induced vibration excitation. This
holds more than ever since fast and highly powered passenger vessels, ferries and container ships are
demanded worldwide.
The performance of cavitation tests with complete ship models in large facilities like HSV A's Hydro-
816
dynamics and Cavitation Tunnel HYKA T (Fig. I) was a considerable step forward to increase the reli-
ability of those tests. Friesch, Johannsen, Payer (1992). The closed test section of HYKAT allows cavi-
tation observations at high tunnel water speeds, i.e. high Reynolds Numbers, in the realistic three-
dimensional wake field generated by the ship model itself. Propeller induced hull pressure pulses can
be measured directly in the spatially curved after body contour of the model. In this regard the cavita-
tion testing technique has reached a level, where further improvements are hardly imaginable within
the next years. However, this does not hold true for the commonly used evaluation techniques. World-
wide it is still normal procedure to perform cavitation observations under stroboscopic light and to
judge propeller induced hull pressure variations just by consideration of the amplitudes resulting from
the Harmonic Analysis of the hull pressure time function. This is a pity since a large amount of addi-
tional information is hidden in the relation between particularities of the hull pressure time function
and the corresponding cavitation development. Especially for the judgement of cavitation aggressive-
ness with respect to erosion, for the elaboration of remedies against too high pressure pulses or for
deeper insight into phenomena like tip vortex bursting this information would be valuable.
To make this additional information available in future, a High Speed Video observation technique has
recently been established at HSV A within a research project sponsored by the German Ministry of Re-
search. The certain challenges in this development resulted from the high rotational model propeller
speed normally used in HYKA T (around 25 revs per second) and especially from the fact that - to
achieve closest possible observation distances - the whole system had to operate from inside the ship
model, i.e. inside the water filled model trunk above the test section.
2 INSUFFICIENCIES OF THE CONVENTIONAL CAVITATION TESTING TECHNIQUE
Basically the technique for the observation of cavitating model propellers didn't change during the last
hundred years: The general idea was to freeze the movement of the propeller blades by a flash light
synchronized with the propeller shaft speed. While at the beginning this had been achieved by constant
light reflected from a revolving mirror, Burrill (195 I), nowadays stroboscopic lights are applied for
this purpose.
For documentation tasks hand made sketches, conventional video recording with 25 frames per second
and/or photographs are in use worldwide. The strobe light control system additionally allows to release
a flash not exactly once per revolution but every 361 for example, resulting in the illusion of a slowly
0
817
turning propeller. This illusion can be further improved by subsequent edition of the video record with
a digital video editor, eliminating all the dark pictures between the strobe light flashes and this way
removing the flicker nom the record. Nevertheless, the result is just an illusion of slow motion. In real-
ity these records still provide only one picture of the cavitation behavior per revolution in a certain an-
gular position of the propeller blade. Often the sheet cavitation behavior looks rather unstable under
stroboscopic light. The blade area covered by cavitation grows, shrinks and even jumps rapidly in a
constant propeller blade position, leading to a very restless cavitation appearance. Indeed, the amount
of cavitation grows and shrinks when the propeller blade enters and leaves the ship's 12 o'clock wake
peak. But this is a continuous and rather periodic process reappearing every propeller revolution again.
What can be seen in the strobe light observation is just one distinct moment of always new periods of
this process. Consequently the so called intermittent character of a sheet cavitation results nom a non-
periodicity of the cavitation process and not nom a restless behavior within one period as it may look
like. It is known that propeller blades can be damaged by cavitation collapsing heavily or with cloudy
or bubbly character in a certain phase of the propeller revolution. This collapse, which has to be judged
by the experimentalist, is illuminated by one strobe light flash if at all. For a serious judgement this is
poor indeed.
It is normal procedure to perform measure-

10
ments of the propeller induced hull pressure
variations simultaneous to the cavitation ob-
servation. Therefore the actual hull pressure
value is monitored by pressure pick-ups in the
tunnel wall or in the model hull with a sam-
pling rate high enough to provide proper hull
pressure time functions as shown in Fig. 2 for
one revolution of a five bladed propeller.
These time functions can be analyzed by Fast
Fourier Transformations (FFT) or Harmonic
Figure 2: Hull Pressure Time Function for One
Analysis to provide time averaged informa-
tion about the hull pressure amplitudes generated by the propeller under consideration. These ampli-
tudes are sufficient for comparison of different propellers or as an input for a vibration analysis of the
steel structure. Nevertheless, the simultaneous strobe light cavitation observation provides just one
picture of the cavitation behavior, belonging to one single cross in Fig. 2. This does not allow correla-
tion between certain peculiarities of the cavitation behavior (e.g. bursting of the cavitating tip vortex)
and distinct peaks of the hull pressure time function. This correlation could be the basis to elaborate
remedies against too strong pressure variations.
Beside these disadvantages the conventional

strobe light observation also bears the risk of a
frequently occurring miss-interpretation
among inexperienced observers, which the
author would like to clarify in this context:
Under stroboscopic light the helical trace of
developed tip vortex cavitation appears sta-
tionary in the ship's wake field as shown in Fig.
3. To inexperienced observers these helical
traces pretend to be flow lines, e.g. hitting or
even "piercing" the rudder blade in distinct
and stationary locations. Indeed, the propeller Figure 3: Frozen Movement of a Cavitating Propel-
generates a downstream swirl of load depend- ler
ing strength. But this swirl is much weaker
818
and rotates in the opposite direction than

may be suggested by the vortex traces.
From one strobe light picture to the next
a water particle does not cover one loop
of the helical vortex trace but moves
downstream a distance d almost axially
as indicated by the white arrow in Fig. 3.
Here Z means the number of propeller
blades.
To remove the above problems and insuf-

ficiencies a High Speed Video system has
been established at HSV A, which will be
explained in detail in the next section.
3 DESCRIPTION OF HSV A'S HIGH

SPEED VIDEO SYSTEM
The basis of HSV A's High Speed Video

system is a KODAK EKTAPRO HS Mo-
tion Analyzer, Model 4540, consisting of
a camera, the so called imager, and a
video processor. These and all the other
system components are described below.
A structural diagram and a photograph
are given in Figs. 4 and 5 respectively.
3.1 The Imager
The imager is a camera of 8.5 x 8.5 x 19

cm size, equipped with a video chip of
256 x 256 pixels. The latter provides 256
gray levels per pixel, i.e. one image cov-
ers 64 kbyte of information. To increase
its sensitivity the camera provides an
optional +6 db gain setting. For high
speed cavitation observations in HYKA T
the imager is combined with a 18 - 90
mm C-mount zoom objective. All fimc-
tions of this objective, i.e. focus, focal
length and aperture, are remotely con-
trolled. To realize a close observation
distance, the imager is installed inside the
ship model, which therefore has to be
equipped with a perspex window in its
stem region. HYKA T is operated with a
closed test section without a free surface
to allow high tunnel water speeds. The so
called trunk above the test section, where
the ship model is installed inside, is Figure 4: Structure of the High Speed Video System
819
completely filled with water to avoid air

surging into the test section and to allow
quick pressure variations. Weitendorf, Fri-
esch, Song (1988). This concept requires
operation of the high speed video imager in
a water tight housing. This housing basically
consists of a 40 cm long brass tube of 13 cm
diameter. It is linked to the trunk side wall
by a plastic hose containing all the cabling.
The housing is mounted on a watertight re-
motely controlled spindle drive allowing
axial adjustment of the observation distance.
3.2 Illumination
The high speed video recording of a cavitat-

ing propeller requires an intensive illumina-
tion. Since the test section of HYKAT is
wide (2.8 m) and the model propeller nor- Figure 5: Components of the High Speed Video Sys-
mally operates in its center plane, an illumi- tem
nation nom outside through the observation
windows is difficult. Initial attempts with Water Tight Imager Housing (1), HSV Processor (2),
two huge theater spotlights heated the per- Connecting Hose (3), Cold Light Sources (4),
spex tunnel windows to a critical degree but Light Guides (5), HSV PC (6)
provided just a poor illumination of the
model propeller. Furthermore large shady
areas remained on the propeller blades. To overcome this problem two 2.5 kW cold light sources were
purchased, providing spot light via fiber glass light guides of 3 m length. While the light sources are
located outside the tunnel the light guides are separately coated by water tight plastic hoses allowing
variable arrangements inside the ship model.
3.3 The Video Processor
The video processor is linked to the imager by a 55 core cable. It has a capacity of 512 Mbyte, which is
enough to store 8192 images in its video memory. Its performance allows data acquisition with a re-
cording rate of 4,500 video names per second, i.e. the complete data acquisition takes only 1.8 seconds.
At the first glance this seems to be a very short observation time. But with a typical model propeller
speed of 25 revs per second in HYKAT the capacity of the video processor allows the continuous re-
cording of about 46 propeller revolutions with an angular solution of pictures every 2°. A further in-
crease of the recording rate would be possible but requires an excessive illumination and reduces the
number of pixels per name. The recording process can either be controlled by an external trigger signal
or internally by the processor itself. After the data acquisition the memory of the processor can be read
out to a conventional video recorder or to a PC hard disc drive. The latter generates one 66 kbyte data
file per frame in Windows bitmap format. To handle this large amount of incoming data a 600 MHz
Pentium III processor (256 Mbyte RAM) in combination with a 38 Gbyte hard disc is utilized, running
under Windows NT.
3.4 Hull Pressure Data Acquisition
For the acquisition of the hull pressure data basically the same measuring equipment is used as for
conventional HYKAT cavitation tests. Up to 32 Kulite pressure pick-ups with a diaphragm diameter of
820
3.7 mm can be installed in the model hull above the propel-

ler. The pressure signals are amplified and than fed into a
Data Translation analog-digital (AD) converter board,
which is operated in a Windows 95 PC. Using 32 channels,
this AD board allows simultaneous data acquisition with a
sampling rate up to 13 kHz. As the video processor also the
AD converter can be triggered externally. The large number
of output values is stored binary in a raw data file in the Pc.
Although no trigger signal from the propeller shaft is
required for High Speed Video purposes, it is monitored as
long as a measuring channel is free.
3.5 Synchronization
One major issue is the exact synchronization between the

High Speed Video recording and the simultaneous acquisi-
tion of the hull pressure values. This synchronization en-
sures that for each cross in Fig. 2 a corresponding video
frame can be associated. Not only the sampling rates but
also begin and end of video and hull pressure data acquisi-
tion need to be synchronized. For this purpose a little elec-
tronic circuit has been developed by HSVA. Its main parts
are a tact generator adjusted to 4.5 kHz tact frequency and a
counter IC opening a gate for exactly 8192 pulses after
pressing a starter button. This circuit supplies both the video
processor and the AD converter. To allow previous adjust-
ment of camera and light settings the circuit can alterna-
tively be switched to pass the propeller shaft trigger signal
(also used for strobe light control) to the video processor. In
this mode the High Speed Video camera continuously pro-
vides one live picture per propeller revolution.
3.6 The Procedure
The final result of a High Speed Video Observation is a

movie clip in AVI format. Fig. 6 shows every second pic-
ture of a very short piece of such a clip. Beside the original
256 x 256 pixel High Speed Video frame (Fig. 6, top, item 1)
this movie additionally includes graphical elements, visual-
izing the actual hull pressure value optionally measured in
two different locations (2,3), the history of the hull pressure
time signal (4) and the angular orientation of the propeller
(5). Furthermore the elapsed time (6) and a caption are in-
cluded. The procedure to obtain this final movie consists of
two phases:
After adjustment of all light and imager settings phase one

(the recording phase) starts when the operator releases the
tact generator to provide 8192 pulses. Than the imager gen-
erates 8192 video frames temporarily stored in the video
processor. Simultaneously the AD converter generates a Fig. 6: Overloaded Yacht Propeller
821
binary data file containing the corresponding hull pressure

values.
In phase two (the data processing phase) the memory of the

video processor is read out, i.e. 8192 BMP files are gener-
ated on the High Speed Video PC, each containing one
video frame. Than two self made FORTRAN programs
manage the following tasks:
Reading the binary data file, transferring AD converter

units into pressure values by means of a calibration array,
calculating actual angular propeller orientations for each
frame by means of the strobe signal (if recorded), output
to an ASCII file for other purposes.
Manipulation of the BMP files piece by piece, i.e. gen-

eration of left side and bottom margin with the graphical
elements mentioned above.
After that a commercial video editor composes the AVI

movie file from the 8192 manipulated single pictures. The
whole process takes about half an our until the final video
clip can be handed out on a CD ROM.
3.7 Synchronization Check
The control of video processor and AD converter by the

same set of 8192 pulses already ensures synchronized opera-
tion of these units. Nevertheless, to make sure that no delay
is caused by the rest of the measuring chain, especially by
the measuring amplifier, the complete HSV system was
used in a pre-test to record the excitation of a pressure pick-
up installed in a water glass, which was exposed to the sin-
gle beat of a hammer. The result is given as a short video
sequence in Fig. 7. As can be seen, the pressure signal
shows the excitation exactly in the moment when the ham-
mer touches the water glass. This was a good verification
for the whole system.
4 FIRST RESULTS
Fig. 6 gives a short piece of the High Speed Video movie

clip obtained for a 110m long twin screw yacht. Of course
this printed picture is only a poor substitute for the very im-
pressive motion picture handed to the customer and shown
during the oral presentation of the paper on the PRADS
2001 symposium. Nevertheless, one can see the large
excitation of the pressure pick-ups right in the moment
when the cavitation grows and develops into tip vortex
cavitation. From former investigations carried out with the Fig. 7: Synchronization Check
model of a container ship in HYKA T it is known that even
822
container ship in HYKA T it is known that even much stronger excitations are produced in the moment
when this vortex bursts. Johannsen (1998). In the present case such a bursting could not be observed,
although the propeller was heavily overloaded already.
An other phenomenon could be investigated instead: The periodicity of the cavitation behavior in Fig.
6 was very poor, leading to an unstable appearance in the strobe light observation. While on a first
glance small differences in the geometry of the propeller blades were made responsible, a more careful
High Speed Video analysis proved the responsibility of air bubbles in the tunnel water. Supposition for
the development of cavitation as in Fig. 6 was the presence of an air bubble in the vicinity of the blade
tip just in the angular blade position where the vapor pressure was under-passed. Whenever no bubble
was present at that time in that location, no cavitation occurred at all. This observation is in line with
the theory. Water can sustain pressure levels far below vapor pressure (and even negative pressure, i.e.
tensile stress) as long as there is no partition surface to serve as starting point for cavitation bubble
growth. Isay (1989). At least in sea water those partition surfaces are available at any time, since sea
water contains air bubbles and other nucleis to a sufficient extent. In opposite to this full scale situation
a sufficient content of partition surfaces is not self-evident for the water of a cavitation tunnel. If the
water is very clean and the gas content is low, the cavitation behavior in model scale may consequently
suffer from an unrealistic non-periodicity as reported in the present case. To avoid this, a sufficient air
bubble content should be ensured at any time. Weitendorf, Tanger (1995).
The above findings are not completely new and should be understood more as an example for the po-
tential that is inherent in the High Speed Video technique for future research. This technique has been
established for HYKAT. It is now easy to handle and efficiently to use. It is ready for both scientific
and customer-orientated use in the field of hydrodynamics.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Basically two major things are necessary to achieve reliable model test results for cavitation occurrence
and vibration excitation. On one hand an advanced cavitation test facility is required, which ensures
full scale similarity of the phenomena to be studied. HYKA T, with its large test section and high tunnel
water speed, has proven its membership to this group of facilities more than once. On the other hand
advanced observation and evaluation techniques are required to make optimum use of such a facility.
The establishment of a High Speed Video system with simultaneous hull pressure measurement was a
considerable step forward in this regard. So the tools are available, waiting for frequent use.
References
Burrill L.C. (195 I). Sir Charles Parsons and Cavitation. Transactions of the Institute of Marine Engi-
neers LXIII:8, 149 ff.
Friesch J., Johannsen C., Payer RG. (1992). Correlation Studies on Propeller Cavitation Making Use
of a Large Cavitation Tunnel. Transactions of the Society of Navel Architects and Marine Engineers
(SNAME), 2- I ff
Isay W.H. «1989), Kavitation, Schiffahrts-Verlag "Hansa", Hamburg, Germany (in German)
Johannsen C. (1998). Investigation of Propeller-Induced Pressure Pulses by Means of High-Speed
Video Recording in the Three-Dimensional Wake of a Complete Ship Model. Twenty-Second Symp. on
Naval Hydrodynamics (ONR), 189 ff
Weitendorf E.A., Friesch J., Song C.C.S. (1988). Considerations for the New Hydrodynamics and
Cavitation Tunnel (HYKA T) of the Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSV A). Schiffstechnik Rd. 35, 59 ff
WeitendorfE.A., Tanger H. (1995). Pressure Fluctuation Investigations in Two Conventional Tunnels
and the Hydrodynamics and Cavitation Tunnel HYKAT. Proceedings of the PROPCAV 95 Symp.,
Newcastle.
UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS OF TOWING TEST
Mo-Qin He, Hong-Cui Shen and Shu-Long He
ABSTRACT
A towing tank measurement system is described, based on this system a model resistance repeated
tests and a propeller open water repeated tests are conducted. Uncertainty analysis results of those two
towing tests have been drawn and discussed .
./
KEYWORDS
Uncertainty Analysis, Towing Test, Measurement
INTRODUCTION
The efforts for improving the accuracy of ship model tests and hence to ensure the reliability of the test
results have been continuously enhancing for years in many towing tanks in the world. In recent
years, uncertainty analyses of measurements and model tests attracted more attention, and were
addressed by the Propulsion Committee and Resistance Committee of 22nd ITTC (1 996-1 999il.2l.
To accurately determine full-scale ship power perfonnance, the first and the most important action
among all the efforts is evidently to improve the measurement accuracy of the model test, though data
representation and model-ship correlation methods are also very important. This paper presents
uncertainty analyses of a resistance test and an open water test by a newly built measurement system in
the towing tank of China Ship Scientific Research Center (CSSRC).
2 DESCRIPTION OF MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
To assess the uncertainties of model tests at the towing tank, the facilities and the corresponding
measurement systems are briefly described in this section.
The measurement system newly built at CSSRC towing tank is composed of a personal computer, 4
AID converters, and various kinds of transducers. Each AID converter has 16 channels for analogue
signal input and two counters for plus signal input. The resolution is 12 bits, and the maximum
sampling rate is 100kHz. The diagram of the measurement system is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 2: Sketch of Towing Tank
2.1 Towing Tank
Towing tests are conducted in a towing tank in CSSRC. The tank is 474 meters long and is divided
into three sections, acceleration section, test section, and retardation section. Those three sections are
95, 195, and 184m respectively. Both acceleration section and retardation section are 7 meters wide,
while the width of the test section is 14m. The water depth in the towing tank is 7 m. There are two
rows of wave damper along with tank walls in the test section. A diagram of the towing tank is given
in Figure 2.
2.2 Carriage and Carriage Speed
The test model is towed by a carriage, which runs at a controlled" speed along the tank. The
measurement system of the carriage speed (Ux) consists of an optical encoder fixed to a driven wheel,
a pulse counter, and a computer with an AD card for data sampling. The driven wheel used for
measuring the running speed is elastically mounted under the carriage for keeping touching the top
surface of the rail, and is driven by the relative movement between the carriage and the rail. Its
circumference is 500 mm and the axis is connected to the optical encoder. The optical encoder is
825
perforated around its circumference with 5000 equally spaced windows. As the encoder follows the
driven wheel to rotate, these windows provide optical pulse signals. Each pulse signal received by the
pulse counter indicates a 0.1 mm movement of the carriage. The pulse numbers are counted 10 times
a second providing the speed change every 0.1 second. After converting the pulse numbers to the
carriage speed, the digitals below I mmls are omitted, resulting in the truncated error of 0.5 mmls [31.
The measurement system of carriage speed is calibrated ever one year. Procedures of the calibration
are conducted under the guide of Quality System Document (Q702 ).
2.3 Rotation Rate of Propeller Measurement
In open water test and self-propulsion test, a DC motor through a gearbox drives the propeller, and its
rotation rate defines the propeller rotation rate. The measurement device of the rotation rate is also an
optical encoder, which is similar to the carriage speed measurement system, except that it is perforated
around its circumference with only 1000 equally spaced windows. When the encoder rotates with the
motor, these windows are counted with a pulse counter. Each pulse signal in this device means the
motor rotate of 111000 revolution/so
2.4 Force and Moment Measurement
The resistance measurement system is composed of a 20kg strain-gage type load cell and a signal
conditioner (SA-55) for amplifying and filtering resistance data. The load cell is mounted on a R63
type Resistance Dynamometer manufactured by K&R Company. The same load cell measyres both
the model resistance during resistance tests and the captive forces of the model during selr-propulsion
tests.
Thrust and torque are measured by a R25 self-propulsion dynamometer made by K&R Company.
Transducers of the dynamometer are of strain-gage type, signals are picked up and amplified by a
conditioners (SA-55) before transmitting to the computer controlled AID card for data sampling.
2.5 Transducers Calibration
The measurement system is always checked on the carriage before and after every test. The check
procedure is more or less similar to the calibration procedure. The calibration is carried out once
every year for the whole system from end to end, including the linearity quality analysis of the
resistance measurement system.
The end-to-end calibration is to establish the functional relationship between the load on the transducer
and the output of the whole measurement system. The repeatability of the calibration results for
different period of time is also examined. This calibration is conducted by simulating the drag force
using the standardized weights at different increments, and by recording the output of the load cell.
The procedure is to carefully orient the central line of the transducer and the loading line of the
weights in the vertical direction. The weights are placed on the tray in both ascending procedure
from zero to the maximum load, and descending procedure from the maximum load to zero. For each
load the output of the transducer is recorded for 4 seconds at the sampling rate of 25Hz. A linear
regression curve fit is made based on the average values of the forces measured within the 4 seconds.
2.6 Measurement of the other parameters
The value for water density is interpolated from ITTC (l963} based on the water temperature
measured 300 mm under water surface in the test section of the tank. The gravity acceleration (g) is
computed from the latitude of the CSSRC lab site. The wetted surface area of the model is taken by
integration method.
826
3 UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS
3.1 Resistance Test
According to the Manual of Quality Control [2Jof CSSRC, the error allowances of model length and
model surface area are 0.1 %. The qualification records of the model manufacture indicate that the
geometry of the test model is qualified, and the maximum bias of model length L and wetted surface
area S are as follows:
BL~0.006m (per unit length, I m)
Bs=0.006m X m (per unit wetted surface area, 1m2)
From the carriage speed system described above, the model towing speed is measured by the distance
over the time interval of carriage movement (Ux = Distance/Time Interval). The distance transferred
from pulse numbers by the encoder is of 0.1 mm in accuracy. Compared to the distance measurement,
the timer accuracy is much higher, therefore the bias of Ux measurement is mainly due to the data
truncation:
Bux = 0.0005 m/s (per unit speed, Im/s)
The bias of total resistance R mainly consists of bias of transducer, bias of amplifier and bias of AID
converter. Suppose all tests are conducted just after an end-to-end calibration, so the bias of each
measurement system is mainly rrom their non-linear index and the AID converter truncation error. In
this system, non-linear index for transducer and amplifier are 0.1 %. The ND converter used in the
system is the one with 12 bits, corresponding to the relative resolution of 1/4096. Finally the bias of
the total resistance is:
BR = 0.29 N (for 200 kN transducer) /.
The water density P and viscosity v is not measured during each test. Only measured is the water
temperature, and the density is read from a chart. If the chart is accurate enough compared to the
water temperature measurement, the bias of water density and viscosity can be considered as mainly
caused by the temperature measurement. The thermometer employed in the temperature
measurement has a resolution of 0.1 'C, which may cause differences up to 0.3 % in water density and
0.2 % in viscosity around 25'C, namely
B,= 0.003
By = 0.002e-6
A summary of the error sources is listed in Table I.
For a given ship model with the length L, wetted surface area S, the total resistance coefficients CT and
the residuary resistance coefficients C, are obtained by measurements, and are represented by the
measured towing speed Ux and model resistance (towing force R). Prediction of bias and precision
limits of the final experimental results of CT and C, involve the evaluation of elemental error sources
for individual measurement devices, the estimation of bias and precision limits for individual variables
(for example, L, S, R, Ux etc.), and the errors induced in data reduction methods.
As far as the measurement systems and the test conditions are concerned, the error sources can be
divided to four sectors:
model geometry, L, S;
carriage speed Ux;
828
varied from 0.3 % to 0.9 % for multiple tests and 1.I % to 2.9 % for single test. The total
uncertainties varied from 0.8 % to 1.8 % for multiple tests and from 1.4 % to 2.9 % for single test. By
average of the results provided by the seven facilities, the total uncertainty was 1.1 % for multiple tests
and 2.1 % for single test. The uncertainty of CT in the present repeated tests are 1.2 % at Fr = 0.2 and
0.5 % at Fr = 0.32. They are similar compared to the ITTC results. However for Fr = 0.1, the
uncertainty of CT goes up to 4.3 %, greater than the average value of the ITTC results. This may be
caused by the fact that at low Fr the measured quantities in the present test were much smaller than the
total measuring range of the dynamometer. This introduced larger measurement errors.
TABLE 5
BIAS SOURCES OF THE OPEN WATER TEST
Bias H29, SA-55 AID Calibration Zero Bias
Sources Coefficient Setting Limited
Propeller Thrust 0.566 0.006 0.080 0.000023 0.572
Hub Thrust 0.566 0.006 0.080 0.000023 0.572
Propeller Torque 0.021 0.00023 0.00588 0.0000009 0.022
Hub Torque 0.021 0.00023 0.00588 0.0000009 0.022
3.2 Open Water Test
Open water test [5] was conducted in the towing tank with the same measurement system. A propeller
model of B4-55 series and a propeller dynam~meter H29 was used in the open water test for
uncertainty analysis. The propeller model paramdters are listed in Table 4.
In addition to the parameters described in the uncertainty analysis of resistance test, some more error
sources need to be considered. Propeller thrust and torque are measured by force and moment cells in
the H29 dynamometer. The signals generated in the dynamometer were picked up and amplified by
SA-55, then converted to digital by the AID card. The results of the bias sources of the open water
test are listed in Table 5.
The bias limit of the propeller diameter measurement comes from the errors of model setting and the
data reading, they are respectively 0.02 mm and 0.0025 mm by estimation. The bias limit is 0.02 mm.
Four error sources of propeller rotation rate have been taken into consideration. They are the
truncation error 0.0 I, reading error 0.00 I, fluctuation error 0.002, and setting error 0.02. The bias limit
is 0.01.
Table 6 gives the results of uncertainty analysis of repeated open water test for the B4-55 propeller
model.
TABLE 6
SUMMARY OF UNCERTAINTY ANALYSISOF OPEN WATER TESTS

J 0.2034 0.4071 0.6 I 00 0.8148
J UJ 0.0018 0.0015 0.0025 0.0038
UJ 0.009 0.004 0.004 0.005
KT 0.4214 0.3444 0.2571 0.1666
KT UKT 0.0075 0.0027 0.0032 0.0033
U'KT 0.018 0.008 0.012 0.020
Ko 0.0658 0.0553 0.0436 0.0308
KQ UKO 0.0012 0.0004 0.0005 0.0006
U'KO 0.018 0.008 0.012 0.019
829
4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the newly built towing tank measurement system, a model repeated resistance test and a
propeller repeated open water test were conducted. The uncertainty analyses for both measurements
are described in this paper. The comparison of the present uncertainty analyses of resistance tests
with those provided by the Resistant Committee of ITTC' 1999 show that the results in CSSRC towing
tank is in good agreement with other towing tanks except at very low Froude numbers. By changing
the load cell or resetting the amplify coefficients may certainly improve the accuracy of the present
measuring system used for the towing tests at the low Froude numbers.
References
Report of Resistance Committee, 22nd lITC Proceedings.

Report of Propulsion Committee, 22nd lTTC Proceedings.
Specification ofVelocimeter for The Towing Tank Carriage, 1983, CSSRC.
Shen Hongcui, He Moqin and Zhou Yi. (1999). Uncertainty Analysis of Resistance Test, Journal ol
Ship Mechanics, 3:6.
He Shulong. (2000). Uncertainty Analysis of A B4-55 Propeller Open Water Test, CSSRC Report
00077.
TRANSIENT FLOODING IN A DAMAGED FERRY
Jose M. Riola & Jesus Valle
Canal de Experiencias Hidrodimimicas de El Pardo, Madrid, Spain
ABSTRACT
The Ro-Ro ferries damage stability is one of the main topics of great interest in the mantIme
community in the last years. The first stage in the initial flooding after collision is one of the most
interesting effects to study.
The main aim of these tests carried out at El Pardo Model Basin is to contribute to a better
understanding and to acquire data and experimental knowledge about the effect on stability and
survivability of the water inflow in the lateral tanks, double bottom ducts, machinery spaces and
garage deck in the first transient period after a side damage.
KEYWORDS
Ro-Ro, Transient, Flooding, Collision, Survivability, Damage, Stability, Roll, Damping, Analysis,
Capsize, Basin, Test
1 INTRODUCTION
Ro-Ro ferries are very popular around the world and due to fast pier work: produce great economic
benefits. But their navy design origins which is a risk assumed in such a context, keep an inherent
danger flooding condition of stability. Several accidents in the latter years of the century demonstrate
that a strong effort in this Maritime Security field is necessary.
After a collision or damage in the hull, the ingress of water will create a heeling moment that will
produce a roll response. If the heel is enough to permit the pass of water onto the Ro-Ro deck, the
heeling moment can overcome the restoring one and the balance damping can cause the ship to capsize.
The flooding effect in a ship due to the side damage is influenced by the inertia and heeling moment.
Both moments are produced by the weight of the water and the buoyancy changes suffered by the
different ship wetted surfaces.
The first step to avoid the problem of the heel after a damage is the design of symmetric lateral tanks
to equalize the flooding effects as fast as possible through the down flooding ducts.
832
This paper tries to model the damaged Ro-Ro behavior in two different scenarios, the first one with a
total flooding in the machinery spaces. The second case is with lateral tanks flooding and an inner
longitudinal bulkhead in a distance of a fifth of the beam from the hull side.
The typical static solution, from naval architecture programs, is not realistic because to obtain the real
response it is necessary to study the process from a dynamic point of view, due to the fact that flooding
is not instantaneous. Ship behavior can be determined from several variables such as the damage sizes,
metacentric height values, the permeability and volume of flooding spaces, the residual freeboard, etc.
One of the highlights of this study is focussed on obtaining the dynamic amplification effect over the
static one.
2 SHIP DYNAMICS LABORATORY OF EL PARDO MODEL BASIN
The tests were carried out at Ship Dynamics Laboratory of EI Pardo Model Basin (Canal de
Experiencias Hidrodimimicas de EI Pardo) in Madrid, Spain. The basin has a sixty flaps wavemaker, a
CPMC and the following dimensions: 150 meters long x 30 meters width x 5 meters depth.
lMO survivability tests, EC researches and the Stockholm Agreement compliment for several ferry
companies carried out in the last six years, have provided widely recognised and experienced
personnel in the Maritime Security field.
3 MODEL CONSTRUCTION AND INSTRUMENTATION
In order to reproduce the flooding phenomena in the lab a Ro-Ro model, a device to simulate the quick
ingress of water and a data acquisition system are necessary.
To maintain the same hydrostatic properties, a fibreglass

model was built in a I :30 scale with a characteristic block
coefficient in this kind of ferries. More significant appendages
such as rudders and keels were fitted.
The inner damaged area compartimentation was made as

realistically as possible.
Figure 1: Testing model.
The tests were based on a sliding door me9hanism developed at CEHIP AR, and mounted on the model
that permits a fast water flooding. The deVice, located on the centre of gravity, consists of a discharge
of a pneumatic piston with an arm that lifts the piece of the hull vertically with a controlled speed
allowing the inner flooding of water.
The data acquisition system consists mainly in an optical tracking

system able to pick up the information sent from the free model
emitting infrared light diodes.
4 TEST PROCEDURE
Once the model is ready and supervised, the pneumatic device is

discharged opening the part of the hull that simulates the collision part.
Figure 2: Sliding device

833
When the damaged area of the hull is rising, the fast ingress of water makes the model begin to heel to
the damage side while the water is entering the flooding spaces.
The roll response behavior is shown in the figures. The heel can be seen growing until the maximum
value. From this point the ship tends to move to the upright position and after a series of peaks, the
model is stabilized with a lower freeboard.
Figure 3: Roll comparison between Figure 4: Open damage

lateral tanks and total flooding
The model tests were carried out in calm water condition with several metacentric heights, some
diameters of air vents and different internal configurations. They were also useful to develop a
methodology for future tests of this kind.
If the GM values are high, the Ro-Ro deck only takes a small amount of water but if the GM values are
less than 2 meters, the amount of water is enough for the model to capsize.
5 ROLL DAMPING ANALYSIS
Transient flooding test rolling response of a ship can be presented by the following equation:
Where on the equation left side are the moments due to inertia, damping and restoring effects
respectively.
In order to determine the coefficients values of the

equation, free roll decay tests (free of external moments)
were carried out for intact and damage conditions.
Figure 5: Stability diagram
Free roll decay tests were studied using the following linear and non-linear expressions of the damping
moment using a self-made program:
835
A series of test were carried out in order to compare the importance of the residual freeboard related to
GM in the balance response. Additional tests with different widths in the down ducts (2, 4 and 6 m2)
and ventilation tube diameters (from 0 to 20 mm model scale) were done.
The two flooding cases: total flooding in the machinery space and partial flooding only in lateral tanks,
were done in order to compare the maximum roll value and the elapse time to reach the equilibrium.
Several conclusions, presented at the final of this paper, were obtained from the comparison of the
temporal series of these testing cases.
7 SCALE EFFECTS
One of the most important problems testing models is to take into account the scale effects. Data from
models is commonly extrapolated to full scale considering that there are no scale effects however it is
well known that viscous effects are very important in roll motions.
The assumption of equal damping coefficients in the model and the real vessel has to be studied and
revised because the existence of these scale effects can be evidenced even in models.
Future tests using the same model with different scales will be quite valuable in order to determine the
correct extrapolation procedure.
8 CONCLUSIONS
• Evidence of the importance of this transient phenomenon is that in a GM condition the model
capsizes in this transient flooding test when she passed a survivability standard test of four
meters significant height waves.
• The additional heel produced by wind and waves should worsen the roll results.
• Residual freeboard and metacentric height are the two main parameters with influence in the
flooding roll response. A lower GM and a lower freeboard facilitate higher roll angles and the
ingress of water onto the Ro-Ro deck.
• The response time from zero to the maximum heeling value caused by flooding is similar to the
natural roll period of the ship with consequent dangerous dynamic amplification.
• The importance of the scale effects in the down flooding ducts and ventilation tubes are
demonstrated. The stabilization time depends mainly on down flooding duct and ventilation tube
areas.
• In the comparison between the roll response to the total machinery space flooding and the lateral
tanks only, the time series shows a similar maximum first peak roll value but the time needed to
get the upright position again is quite longer in the lateral case flooding.
• There is a great influence of the roll in the equalizing tank filling and hence these areas need a
careful design, which takes into account the dynamic process.
• The roll damping analysis shows a large dynamic amplification effect over the static one and
must be taken into account in a preliminary Ro-Ro ferry design process.
836
References
[1] Valle J., Perz-Rojas L. & Carrillo EJ. (2000). Influences of Test Parameters on Roll Damping
Coefficients. STAB '2000. Australia.
[2] Riola J.M. (1999). Stability After Collision. Revista General de Marina.
[3] Valle J. (1998). Experimental Theoretical Study of Damping Non-Linearities in the Ship Roll
Movement. Doctoral Thesis. ETSIN-UPM.
[4] Journee J., Vermeer H. & Vredevelt A. (1997). Systematic model experiments on flooding of
two Ro-Ro vessels. STAB '97. Varna, Bulgaria. September.
[5] Riola J.M. & Maron A. (1997). Survival tests of a damaged ferry vessel. STAB'97. Varna,
Bulgaria.
4. STRUCTURES AND MATERIALS
PREDICTION OF WAVE-INDUCED ROLLING RESPONSES

BY A TIME-DOMAIN STRIP THEORY
Zhao-Hui Wangl, 1. Juncher Jensen2 and Jin-Zhu Xia3
lOffshore Division, Clough Engineering Limited,

22 Mount Street, Perth, W A6000, Australia
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark,
Studentertorvet, Building 101E, 2800 Lynby, Denmark
3Centre for Oil & Gas Engineering, The University of West em Australia,
Crawley, W A6009, Australia
ABSTRACT
A time-domain strip theory formulation is presented for predicting wave loads and 5-DOF motions of a
ship at constant forward speed and arbitrary wave heading. The hydrodynamic memory effect due to
the free surface is approximated by a set of higher-order ordinary differential equations, which can
automatically include the non-linear memory effect and the 'momentum slamming' force. The formula-
tion is generalised from the time-domain strip theory for vertical wave loads and ship responses (Xi a et
aI, 1998, Marine Structures). Based on the time-domain strip theory formulation, a linear method for
predicting wave-induced anti-symmetric motions and loads of rigid-body ships is developed. Numeri-
cal calculations are presented for a panamax container ship for the roll motion and torsional moment
and are compared with experimental results.
KEYWORDS
Wave Loads, Time-Domain, Strip Theory, Ship Responses, Roll.
1 INTRODUCTION
In a previous study published by Xia et al (1998), a time-domain strip theory was developed for pre-
dicting vertical wave loads and ship responses. It takes into account memory effects through the use of
a higher-order differential equation. The linear case of the theory is coincident with the classical linear
strip theory formulation (Salvesen et aI, 1970). Its semi-empirical generalisation, however, produces
the 'momentum slamming' force and models a non-linearity in memory effects. Comparisons with
model tests of different kinds of ships (Xia et aI, 1998; Wang et aI, 2000) show very favourable
agreement for vertical motions and loads.
840
The purpose of the on-going research is to complete the task offormulating a time-domain strip theory,
which covers both symmetric and anti-symmetric wave-induced ship responses. In the present paper
the time-domain strip theory for symmetric problems is generalised to model wave loads and ship mo-
tions in five degrees of freedom, assuming the ship travels at a constant speed and arbitrary wave head-
ing. Following the general formulation, a linear method for predicting anti-symmetric responses of
rigid ships is given. The ship motions are represented in a principal coordinate system; the same meth-
odology may be easily applied to flexible ships (Bishop and Price, 1979).
One might expect that a time-domain strip theory would treat the non-linear anti-symmetric ship mo-
tions as efficiently as for the symmetric ones. However, in matters of detail the anti-symmetric problem
is by far the more difficult. It introduces a number of complications that were not encountered previ-
ously. These fresh obstacles have to be investigated separately. The present paper reports the progress
achieved. A single degree of freedom problem is solved numerically for roll motion and torsional mo-
ment of mono hull ships. Numerical calculations are presented for a panamax container ship and the re-
sults are compared with the model experiments (Tan, 1972).
Acknowledgements
The research work done in this paper was financially supported by a Ph.D. Scholarship of the Technical University of Den-
mark awarded to the first author and a UW A Small Research Grant of the University of Western Australia granted to the
third author. The financial supports are gratefully acknowledged.
References
Bishop, R.E.D. and Price, W.G. (1979). Hydroelasticity of ships, Cambridge University Press.
Salvesen, N., Tuck, E.O. and Faltinsen, O.M. (1970). Ship Motions and Sea Loads. Trans. SNAME. 78,
250-287.
Tan, S.G. (1972). Wave Load Measurements on a Model of a Large Container Ship. Netherlands Ship
Research Centre, Report 173S.
Wang, Z. (2000). Hydroelastic analysis of high speed ships, Ph.D. Thesis. Department of Naval Ar-
chitecture and Offshore Engineering, Technical University of Denmark.
Wang Z., Xia J., Jensen J.1. and Braathen A. (2000). Prediction of Vertical-Plane Wave Loading and
Ship Responses in High Seas. Proc. 23rd Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, ONR.
Xia J., Wang Z. and Jensen J.1. (1998). Nonlinear Wave Loads and Ship Responses by a Time-Domain
Strip Theory, Marine Structures. 11:3, 101-123.
Yeung R.W. (1973). A Singularity Distribution Method for Free-Surface Flow Problems with an Os-
cillating Body. University of Cali fomi a Berkeley, College of Engineering, REP.NO. NA 73-6.
METHODS TO REDUCE THE EFFECTS OF

IRREGULAR FREQUENCIES IN
HYDRODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF VESSELS
WITH FORWARD SPEED
S.x. Du 1,2, D.A. Hudson 2, W.G. Price 2 and P. Temarel 2
China Ship Scientific Research Centre, P.O. Box 116, Wuxi, Jiangsu
1
214082, China.
2 School of Engineering Sciences, Ship Science, University of
Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, S0l7 lBJ, United Kingdom.
ABSTRACT
This paper investigates the occurrence of irregular frequencies in the hydrodynamic analysis of
moving ships by using translating, pulsating source methods. This is achieved through a theoretical
analysis of a rectangular box travelling and oscillating in waves, together with numerical calculations.
These analyses indicate the importance of accurate evaluation of the waterline integral term and a
technique to improve this evaluation for a rectangular box is presented. Investigations into the
hydrodynamic data for a Series 60 hull form highlight the importance of elements close to the
waterline in the appearance of an oscillation in value in these data. Practical numerical methods to
reduce the effects of this oscillation are introduced. Their effectiveness is demonstrated through
calculations performed for the Series 60 hull form.
KEYWORDS
Forward speed, seakeeping, irregular fTequency, Series 60, Green's function.
1 INTRODUCTION
In the zero speed formulation of the boundary value problem employing a distribution of singularities
over the wetted body surface of a surface piercing vessel to determine velocity potential functions, the
solution of the developed integral equation at certain fTequencies is not unique or does not exist. These
irregular frequencies were first discussed by John (1950) and subsequently studied by Inglis and Price
(1981). John showed that these irregular frequencies relate to the eigenvalue problem of the imaginary
interior fluid motion inside the body with the same free surface condition as the external fluid
surrounding the body. In a numerical scheme of study, singularity distribution methods use a discrete
form of the integral equation to derive singularity strengths subject to appropriate body-boundary
conditions. Whilst John (1950) analytically demonstrated that the integral equation becomes singular
848
at discrete, the numerical implementation of the integral equation is never, or very rarely, actually
singular at any discrete frequency. However, its determinant does approach zero over a narrow range
of frequencies either side of, and including, the precise irregular frequency. Numerically the matrix is
ill conditioned. The presence of an irregular frequency is noted by a very rapid change in the
calculated values of the fluid actions, hydrodynamic coefficients, etc. over a narrow range of wave
frequencies. For the majority of ship-like structures these irregular frequencies lie outside the range of
practical interest for rigid body motions. They can, however, create difficulties for the analysis of
flexible bodies, multi-hulled vessels and in using frequency domain data to create impulse response
functions for subsequent simulation of vessel response in the time domain.
Although the zero speed irregular frequency problem has received much attention in analysing two-
and three-dimensional fluid-structure interactions, it is slightly surprising that there is little discussion
of irregular frequencies when the forward speed of the surface piercing vessel is non zero. In recent
validation studies of two independent translating, pulsating source methods, the hydrodynamic data for
several hull forms display an oscillation in value at a similar frequency to the irregular frequency for a
zero speed (pulsating source) method (Du et al. 1999,2000). This oscillation is different in appearance,
occupying a wider frequency range and being much smoother in nature. Comparisons with
experimental results indicate that it is not a physical phenomenon (Bailey et al. 2001). Bruzzone et al.
(2000) indicate a similar oscillation in hydrodynamic data in calculations performed for a frigate form
using a translating, pulsating source method.
In this paper, the occurrence of irregular frequencies for a travelling surface piercing vessel is
discussed by examining the behaviour of eigenvalues, ill-conditioning of matrices, etc. associated with
a rectangular box of ship-like proportions. These numerical calculations highlight the importance of
elements closing to the waterline in the appearance of the oscillation in the hydrodynamic data. The
waterline integral term in the translating pulsating source Green's function is often approximated and a
numerical technique to improve evaluation of this term for a rectangular box is presented. Finally,
numerical techniques to reduce the effects of the oscillation for practical calculations are introduced.
Calculations performed for a Series 60 hull form indicate its effectiveness in reducing the amplitude of
the oscillations in the hydrodynamic data.
2 INVESTIGATIONS FOR A RECTANGULAR BOX
2.1 Mathematical Formulation
The formulation of the boundary value problem for a ship travelling and oscillating in waves has been
described many times in the literature (see for example, Newman 1978, Faltinsen 1990) and will not be
repeated here. Suffice to say, the velocity potential for the radiation and diffraction problems may be
expressed as an integral equation, i.e.,
852
When formulating the translating pulsating source Green's function method the upstream far-field
radiation condition may be satisfied automatically by introducing a Rayleigh viscous coefficient to the
free-surface boundary condition and seeking the solution as this coefficient tends to a small positive
value. If this approach is examined then it is apparent that by introducing the Rayleigh viscous
coefficient to satisfy the upstream radiation condition, the magnitude of the Green's function is
decreased when the field point is upstream and beneath the source point, but when the field point is
downstream of the source point the magnitude of the Green's function is increased artificially.
Although the Rayleigh viscous coefficient tends to a very small positive number, its influence in
determining the value of the Green's function numerically appears to be important.
In order to artificially damp the value of the Green's function and its derivatives when the field point is
downstream and above the source, a Rayleigh viscous damping coefficient may be introduced in a
similar manner to that used in the formulation of the problem. In Figures 5 and 6, the hydrodynamic
coefficients for the Series 60 form are shown, including the original results together with those
predicted where the influence of certain source-field point combinations was simply ignored, those
when the source points are moved down slightly and those calculated when the artificial damping
technique is employed. It can be seen that all sets of calculations produce smoother hydrodynamic
coefficients than the original results. Although in general both the results by damping method and shift
method are not as smooth as those by part panel ignored method, however, as shown in Figure 6, the
anti-symmetric coefficients are predicted more accurately. The motivation for pursuing the damping
technique is that it has the potential to be more generally applicable than the other techniques, since
decisions dependent on hull form, frequency of oscillation, forward speed, panel location, etc. should
not need to be taken for each application of the method. However, much work remains to be done to
determine a suitable value of the artificial damping coefficient and to ensure that such an approach
does not adversely affect predictions at other frequencies.
3 CONCLUSIONS
A theoretical analysis of the problem of a rectangular box moving with forward speed indicates that
irregular frequencies exist in this case and that their occurrence may be predicted using Eqn. 4.
Numerical calculations performed using a translating pulsating source method indicate the existence of
irregular frequencies for very low forward speeds. As forward speed is increased the numerical method
indicates that irregular frequencies do not occur. Re-formulating the line integral term in the integral
equation as a surface integral allows the approximations inherent in the method to be reduced. Results
calculated using the re-formulated line integral, for a rectangular box travelling at Fn=0.2, indicate the
presence of an irregular frequency.
Calculations of hydrodynamic coefficients for a Series 60 hull form exhibit oscillations in the value of
the hydrodynamic coefficients in the region of a predicted irregular frequency. The origin of this
oscillation in value caused by the influence of source points located upstream and beneath the
waterline panels in the stem region of the vessel being unduly large.
Three different practical techniques are employed to reduce the size of this influence. Namely,
ignoring the contributions of certain panels in the calculation of source strengths, moving the field
points close to the waterline down slightly and introducing the concept of artificial damping when the
source point is upstream and beneath the field point. Each of these techniques reduces the size of the
oscillation in value of the hydrodynamic coefficients and produces smoother trends in these data with
frequency. This improves agreement with experimental measurements for the symmetric coefficients.
For the anti-symmetric coefficients, agreement with experimental data at some frequencies is reduced,
853
since the contributions of waterline panels to the overall hydrodynamic quantities is greater in these
case.
Before proposing a general technique to reduce the oscillations in the value of the hydrodynamic
coefficients further work needs to be done applying the concept of artificial damping to other hull
discretisations, hull forms and forward speeds. Criteria for the inclusion of the influence of panels on
waterline panels will also be investigated as will their incorporation into the numerical schemes of
study.
References
Bailey, P.A., Hudson, D.A., Price, W.G. and Temarel, P. (2001). Comparisons between theory and
experiment in a seakeeping validation study. Transactions RINA 143.
Bruzzone, D., Gualeni, P. and Sebastiani, L. (2000). Applications of Green's function methods to the
seakeeping computations for high speed vehicles. NA V 2000: Thirteenth International Conference on
Ships and Shipping Research, 9.1.1.-9.1.11, Venice.
Du, S.x., Hudson, D.A., Price, W.G. and Temarel, P. (1999). Comparison of numerical evaluation
techniques for the hydrodynamic analysis of a ship travelling in waves. Transactions RINA 141, 236-
258.
Du, S.x., Hudson, D.A., Price, W.G. and Temarel, P. (2000). A validation study on mathematical
models of speed and frequency dependence in seakeeping. Proceedings of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, Part C 214,181-202.
Du, S.x., Hudson, D.A., Price, W.G. and Temarel, P. (2001). An investigation into irregular
frequencies in speed dependent Green's functions, Submitted for Publication.
Faltinsen, a.M. (1990). Sea Loads on Ships and Offshore Structures, Cambridge Ocean Technology
Series. Cambridge University Press. UK
Gerritsma, 1. and Beukelman, W. (1964). The distribution of the hydrodynamic forces on a heaving
and pitching ship model in still water. Fifth Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, 219-257.
Inglis, R.B. and Price, W.G. (1981). Irregular frequencies in three dimensional source distribution
techniques. International Shipbuilding Progress 28,57-62.
John, F. (1950). On the motion of floating bodies. Communications on Pure and Applied Maths 3,45-
!OI.
Newman, J.N. (1978). The theory of ship motions. Advances in Applied Mechanics 18, 221-283.
Todd, F.H. (1953). Some further experiments on single-screw merchant ship forms- Series 60.
Transactions SNAME 61, 516-589.
van Leeuwen. G. (1964). The lateral damping and added mass of an oscillating ship model. Report of
Shipbuilding Laboratory, Delft University of Technology 23.
Wu, X.J. and Price, W.G. (1986). An equivalent box approximation to predict irregular frequencies in
arbitrarily-shaped three-dimensional marine structures. Journal of Applied Ocean Research 8:4, 223-
231.
THE EFFECTS OF FORWARD SPEED ON HYDRODYNAMIC

PRESSURE AND STRUCTURAL RESPONSE OF SHIPS IN WAVES
Chih-Chung Fangl Hua-Tung Wul Hoi-Sang Chan2 Chung- Yung Lul
I United Ship Design and Development Center, Taiwan, China

2 Department of Marine Technology, University of Newcastle, UK.
ABSTRACT
In this study, two different three-dimensional source distribution techniques, three-dimensional

translating-pulsating source (3DT) and three-dimensional pulsating source (3DP) are used for the
hydrodynamic load calculation of a high-speed monohull ship (RD-200) advancing in oblique waves.
The numerical results are compared with experimental values obtained from wave load tests carried
out at the SSPA. It is observed that the difference between the theoretical results obtained by these
two modellings is insignificant for motion responses. However, the 3DP method demonstrates an
erroneous fluctuation of wave load amplitudes in bow seas. The comparison of hydrodynamic
pressure distribution obtained from two mathematical models has been discussed with different
forward speeds. There are some discrepancies between two numerical models on the wave pattern
and pressure distribution of ship. Some comparison results of structural analysis based on the
hydrodynamic pressures calculated by 3DP and 3DT techniques have been shown and discussed.
KEYWORDS
Oblique waves, Three-dimensional source technique, Unsteady wave pattern, Hydrodynamic pressure,
Structural response.
INTRODUCTION
To establish a confidence in the reliability of the hydrodynamic calculations for structural response
analysis, it is important to investigate the influence of modelling for our current analytical method.
The dynamic wave loads are the most significant ones, which are the ultimate criterion for the hull
design of a ship. In order to ensure structural safety of ships in extreme hazard environments, it is
necessary to estimate structural responses to waves in the design procedure.
With the advent of powerful computers, it is possible nowadays to produce the direct design method
when ship travelling in waves. This design method can apply the hydrodynamic load directly on ship
structural members for stress response analysis. In this paper, emphasis is given to the determination
of dynamic loads rather than the structural FEM (finite element method) analysis procedure because
858
structural analysis practices are well established.
The three-dimensional Green function method is the most popular technique to overcome
insufficiencies of two-dimensional strip method in seakeeping analysis. Application of
three-dimensional source distribution techniques to solving the ship-wave interaction problems was
presented by Chan(l990). It was found that the correlation between experimental results and
numerical values obtained by the three-dimensional pulsating source distribution method was
satisfactory for the motions and sea loads except some discrepancies which were believed to be
caused by the neglect of forward speed effects on the free surface. To investigating the effect of
forward speed on ship structure, Fang et al.(l998) used two different 3D source distribution
techniques for wave load calculation on a high speed mono hull (RD-200) advancing in regular waves.
It is found that the difference between those results of ship motions obtained by these two modelling
is insignificant. However, the simplified three-dimensional oscillating source method demonstrates
erroneous fluctuation of wave load amplitudes in bow seas.
In this study, using two different three-dimensional source distribution techniques, three-dimensional
translating-pulsating source (3DT) and three-dimensional pulsating source (3DP), numerical
investigations have been carried out for a monohull ship (RD-200) advancing in oblique waves with
different forward speeds. The numerical results are compared with experimental values obtained from
tests carried out at the SSPA. The comparison for the unsteady wave pattern and hydrodynamic
pressure distribution obtained from two mathematical models has been discussed. Some comparison
results of structural analysis based on the hydrodynamic pressures calculated by 3DP and 3DT
techniques will be shown.
2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
859
boundary integral equation. The Green's function satisfies the three-dimensional Laplace's equation,
the linearised free surface condition, the sea bottom condition and the far-field radiation condition.
Chan(1990) presented a three-dimensional translating-pulsating source distribution technique
(HSC-3D) which is satisfied the classical linearised free surface condition. Both divergent and
transverse wave systems are account for.
A high-frequency assumption may be made that the frequency of oscillation (J) is much higher than
the differential operator va I ax in the free surface boundary condition which leads to the use of a
simplified three-dimensional pulsating source distribution technique (3DP). For oscillating source
model the Green function G(p;q) is a zero speed limit of the translating-pulsating source function
(3DT) and the water-line contours in the integral disappear.
The global structural loads of a vessel to waves, such as shear forces and bending moments, arise
from imbalance between the inertia and the external forces. After the linear coupled equations of
motion are solved in the frequency domain, the three-dimensional motion-induced radiation pressure
distribution can be obtained together with quasi-hydrostatic pressure, the Froude-Krylov and
diffraction pressure distributions. The dynamic global wave loads can be obtained by the integration
of these hydrodynamic pressures and inertia loads.
3 HYDRODYNAMIC RESPONSE IN OBLIQUE WAVES
The ship motion and global wave load are the integrated effects with which a lot of factors not only
hydrodynamical but also mechanical have been involved. The hydrodynamic pressure distribution and
wave elevation around a ship will be more hydrodynamic phenomena than the resulting body motion
and global force.
861
4 CONCLUSIONS
Two different three-dimensionallinearised potential techniques have been used for the calculations of
ship motions and sea loads in oblique waves with different forward speeds. It is found that the
difference between those results of ship motion responses obtained by two numerical modelling is
insignificant. However, the simplified three-dimensional pulsating source method demonstrates
erroneous fluctuation of wave load amplitudes in bow seas. For the fully three-dimensional problem of
a moving ship in waves, the translating-pulsating source exactly satisfies the linearised free surface
condition without further assumption in terms of the forward speed.
In this numerical investigation, there are some discrepancies observed from the wave pattern and
pressure distribution for RD-200 travelling in oblique waves when the forward speed increases. The
3DP technique gives higher pressure gradient prediction than the 3DT method at V=24 knots.
Furthermore, the hydrodynamic pressure distribution obtained from 3DP shows a significant
fluctuation along the intersection of the free surface and the hull surface. The stress analyses of
structure have been performed for the RD-200. It has been found that the significant differences of
calculated structural responses between 3DP and 3DT will be obtained as the ship speed increases.
In order to establish a confidence in the reliability of the hydrodynamic calculations for structural
response analysis, it is important to precise validate our current analytical method by measuring the
wave flow or hydrodynamic pressure in the near future.
References
Chan, H. S. (1990). A Three-dimensional Technique for Predicting First and Second Order
Hydrodynamic Forces on a Marine Vehicle Advancing in Waves, Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Naval
Architecture and Ocean Engineering, University of Glasgow, UK.
Fang, e.C., Chan B.S. and Huang P.C. (1998). Prediction of Motions and Wave Loads of a Mono-hull
Vessel in Oblique Waves, Proc. Twe((ih Asian Technical Exchange and Advisory Meeting on Marine
Structures, TEAM'98 KANAZAWA, Japan, 6-9 July, 177-185.
Wang, W.H., Chen, T.L. and Fang, e.e. (1999). Fatigue Life Analysis on Structural Hot Spot of a
High-Speed Craft, Proc. Thirteenth Asian Technical Exchange and Advisory Meeting on Marine
Structures, TEAM'99 KEELUNG, Taiwan, China 18-21 October,397-406.
Hua- Tung Wu, Fang, e.e. and Chan H.S. (2000). Dynamic Loadings for Structural Analysis of a Large
Container Ship Based on 3D Green Function Method, Proc. Fourteenth Asian Technical Exchange
and Advisory Meeting on Marine Structures, TEAM' 2000 VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, 18-21 September.
Fang, e.e., Chan H.S. and Lu, e.Y. (2000). Numerical Study of Hydrodynamic Pressure on a High
Speed Displacement Ship in Oblique Waves, Proc. The Fourteenth Asian Technical Exchange and
Advisory Meeting on Marine Structures, TEAM'2000 VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, 18-21 September.
V 200 I Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
SHIP MOTIONS AND SEA LOADS BY A 3D

RANKIN PANEL METHOD
Li Xul, Wei-Xing Zhangl, Chen-Bi Zha02, Fa-Yan Xul and You-Fang Chenl
IChina Classification Society(CCS), Beijing 100006, China

2Wuhan Science and Technology University, Wuhan 430063, China
ABSTRACT
The paper is concerned with ship motions and sea loads by a 3D Rankine Panel Method to assess the
ship structural strength. The method was used to solve the linearized ship motions and sea loads for a
ship with a steady forward speed in quasi-random incident waves. The solution algorithm involves the
discretization of the ship hull and part of the free surface by panels, over which a B-spline
approximation is employed. The method is for the solution of the wave-body interactions in frequency
domain and will be developed in time domain to solve the non-linear problem in the near future. In the
paper, results are shown for a Wigley hull and a large container ship with and without a forward speed.
The hydrodynamic pressures exerted on the ship are found in remarkable agreement with related
experimental measurements carried out by China Classification Society or the other referenced results,
demonstrating that the solution scheme is available for the 3D flow and sea loads.
KEYWORDS
Sea loads, 3D Rankine Panel method, B-spline, Free surface
INTRODUCTION
3D frequency and time domain methods based upon the potential theory are widely applied to solve
the wave loads. Over the past 20 years, Rankine source panel methods have been successfully
employed to obtain the results of free-surface boundary value problem ranging from the linearized
wave resistance and ship motion problems to nonlinear breaking wave simulations. But the geometry
of ship is complex and it is important to describe the hull exactly to avoid the divergence of numerical
simulation for the 3D flow of the ship and sea loads. In the paper, the free-surface and body boundary
conditions are linearized about the double-body flow at the presence of a forward speed and the
solution algorithm involves the discretization of the ship hull and part of the free surface by panels,
over which a rational non-uniform B-spline approximation is employed. The method is for the solution
of the wave-body interactions in frequency domain and will be developed in time domain to solve the
non-linear problem in the near future.
870
Some of the calculation results are shown for a Wigley hull and Flokstra container ship. The
coefficients of added mass, damping and hydrodynamic pressures exerted on the ship are found in
remarkable agreement with related experimental measurements.
Based on the numerical results, the conclusion can be drawn that the 3D Rankine Panel method for
large container ship is available and effective, and the solution scheme can be developed to long-term
prediction of the sea loads and the non-linear calculations which have been carried out in CCS.
References
Beck, R.F. (1996). Application of Modem Numerical Method in Marine Hydrodynamics, ANAME
Vol. 104.
Kouh, J-S, Ho C-H. (1996). A High Order Panel Method based on Source Distribution and
Gaussian Quadrature. Ship Tech. Res. Vo1.43.
Maniar, H.D.(1995). A 3-D Heigher Order Panel Method based on B-Spline, PHD. Thesis MIT
Nakos D.E., Sclavounos P.D. (1990). Steady and Unsteady Ship Wave Patterns, J.FM, Vo1.215.
Zhao C. B. And Zou Z. J. (1999). A 3D Patential Flow Computing Method based on NURBS,
14th International Workship on WW & FB.
EXPERIMENT ON EXTREME W AVE LOADS OF A FLEXIBLE

SHIP MODEL
Rui-Zhang Chen Shuang-Xing Du You-Sheng Wu

Ji-Ru Lin Jia-Jun Hu Ya-Lin Vue
ABSTRACT
A self-propelled, flexible model of the S175 container ship made of elastic materials was
manufactured and tested. The purpose of the test is to study the wave-induced loads and responses of
the ship in severe waves, mainly focusing on the non-linearity of the loads with respect to the wave
heights, the biasing of sagging relative to hogging bending moments. The test data has been analyzed
and compared with the numerical results. It is concluded that to thoroughly assess the non-linear
behavior of the wave loads, the flexible effect of the ship hull girder should be carefully considered,
and the wave tests of a flexible ship model would be a useful approach to gain more insight towards
this purpose.
KEYWORDS
Extreme wave loads, Hydroelasticity, Model test, Flexible model
1 INTRODUCTION
Non-linear effects on wave-induced loads and motions are often significant for a ship traveling in
severe waves. These in turn are very important in design and strength assessment of ships in service.
Design codes and rules for wave loads are initially determined based on both theoretical and
experimental investigations.
For several decades comparative studies on theoretical and experimental results of the S175 ship
models have been widely carried out in the world for verification of theoretical predictions, and for
development of empirical design methods. The results have also been provided for validation of
experimental procedures adopted at different wave tanks. Four organizations, namely IHI, CSSRC,
NKK and SHI carried out model tests of the S175 container ship, and contributed the results to the
16th IITC Seakeeping Committee (16th ITTC report, 1981). At the 18th Seakeeping Committee
(18th ITTC), 23 organizations participated the comparative model tests of the S175 ship and
investigated the test procedures and data analysis methods, among which 19 organizations submitted
the results to the committee report. Comprehensive database of the experimental results covering
different wave conditions and the corresponding responses of the SI 75 models is available for
872
validation of linear procedures. Rather large scatter in the results of heave and pitch transfer
functions in head seas was observed. It appeared that the scatter was not simply random, but
correlated to a function of wave steepness (O'Dea, et aI., 1992).
In order to determine the non-linearity in vertical ship motions, systematic tests of a S 175 model with
the length of 3.5 meter were carried out at the Hydromechanics Laboratory of the u.s. Naval Academy
(O'Dea, et aI., 1992). Heave, pitch motions and vertical acceleration at bow were measured in
various wave conditions. The variations of the heave and pitch transfer functions with regard to the
wave amplitude were found to be non-linear in the wave frequency range. In order to predict this
nonlinear behavior, it was mentioned that a Volterra series expansion to the cubic order, or a full
nonlinear approach without any serious approximation should be used. To assess the influence of the
wave amplitude on the transfer functions of heave, pitch and vertical bending moment, Tao and
Incecik (1998) carried out a segmented model test of S 175 running with two Froude numbers in
regular head waves. The transfer functions were given as functions of non-dimensional wave
frequencies and steepness. With the same purpose, Fonseca and Soares (1998) also carried out a
model test of a segment S 175 model both in regular and irregular head waves.
The first experiment on flexible ship model to investigate the longitudinal strength was carried out in
Japan by Sato (1954). The model was constructed of brass plate with its longitudinal members being
scaled in more or less simplified form. Heave and pitch motions, stresses and wave height were
measured. Akita and Ochi (1955) used the same material for the model test of ship strengths in
waves. It is noticed that in order to obtain a measurable stress, rather large model scale was
necessary in the case of a metal model.
De Does (1960) used fiberglass polyester laminates to construct three 2.479m long ship models for
measuring bending moments in waves. Fukasawa (1981) chose foamed vinyl chloride to make the
elastic model of a large bulk carrier. Later on, synthesized resin and foamed urethane, and aluminum
plates attached at both sides of the ship model were employed for the elastic models of a bulk carrier
and a patrol ship (Watanabe, et aI., 1984, 1985). In order to obtain information about the effects of
bow flare to the deck wetness and asymmetry phenomenon of the vertical wave bending moments,
Watanabe (1989) produced two 4.5m long flexible S175 models with different bow flare forms using
synthetic resin and foam urethane, and tested in regular and irregular waves.
The application of plastic materials enables an entirely elastic ship model, with acceptable not too
large scale, being manufactured to allow for the satisfaction of the similitude principle. This provides
the possibility of measuring and obtaining much more information than the segmented model about the
structural responses over the whole hull of the ship, including the bending moments, shearing forces,
torques at any cross sections, and stresses at local hot spots. Generally speaking, the elastic ship
model satisfies the geometric similarity of the hull form, hydrodynamic similarity, together with the
structural similarity with regard to the global vertical bending and shearing, and hence may be used to
predict the hull girder wave loads, motions and the global structural responses. The material chosen
for this kind of model should basically have the following properties (Un, et aI., 1991):
(a). Young's modulus of the material should be less than that of steel by an order of 10-2 and its
Poisson ratio should be close to that of steel.
(b). The material is isotropic and has a comparatively large region of linear strain-stress relationship.
(c). Within the linear region, the material has stable mechanical properties and no distinguishable
creepage in the usual atmospheric temperature.
(d). Formalizing and adhering may be easily performed.
A kind of ABS702 material was fund to be of acceptable mechanical properties, as shown in Table 1
(Un, et aI., 1991). Un, et. al. (1991, 1996) tested two flexible models made of ABS702 in the wave
basin of CSSRC. In the present work a self-propelled flexible S 175 model of the same material was
tested in the towing tank of CSSRC. The main purpose of the test is to study the wave loads,
especially focusing on the non-linearity of the loads with respect to the wave heights, the biasing of
sagging relative to hogging bending moments. The test data is compared with the numerical results.
2 EXPERIMENT
The principal particulars and the body profile of

the model are shown respectively in Table 2
and Fig.I. The length between perpendiculars
of the model is 3.6m, the thickness of plastic
plate for the hull is 2mm, while the thickness of
the plastic plate for bulkhead, keel and girder
located on deck is 4mm. All together 21
transverse bulkheads setting at each station
(from O#~20#) were used to reinforce the
transverse stiffness of the model and to supply
the places to locate the ballast blocks. The
weight and locations of the ballast blocks were
suitably arranged to satisfy the similitude of the weight distribution along the length and the location of
the gravity center of the ship.
According to the requirement of Extreme Hull Girder Wave Load Committee of ISSC'2000, the
measuring items were vertical bending moments, vertical acceleration at the FP, and heaving, pitching
motions. The 2-node frequency of the model floating in still water, and the relative wave making
vertical bending moment at a certain traveling speed were also measured. The model test was carried
out in the towing tank of CSSRC in order to have longer record during each run. The experiment
874
conditions are listed in Table 3, including both regular and irregular waves.
The model was self-propelled, free to surge, heave, pitch and vertical structural vibrations, however
restrained for sway, roll and yaw. Heave and pitch were measured by means of 4-component motion
measuring device. A Servo needle type wave height meter was attached to the towing carriage in a
fixed position at about 4.5 meters in front of the model. The bending moments were measured using
strain gauges longitudinally distributed on the starboard side-deck plate. The relationships between
the measured strains and the vertical bending moments were obtained by the static calibration method.
The locations of these measurement points were:
Ml near Station 5 (95 cm from AP); M2 at Station 7.5;
M3 near Station 10 (185 cm from AP); M4 at Station 12.5;
M5 near Station 15 (265 cm from AP).
Before each wave test when the model was at rest in still water, the strain signals were set to zero.
Therefore, the measured bending moments of the model traveling in waves were regarded as the
differences from the static bending moments in still water, however with the wave-making components
being included. Thus the sagging and hogging phenomena were easily distinguished. The time
history of the irregular waves was generated by a white noise wave generating system with the
truncated frequency 2.0Hz. The vertical bending moments at Mj 0 =1-5) along the model in irregular
waves were obtained from the strain measurements.
878
important factor of introducing the non-linear asymmetric responses of ship structures in extreme wave
conditions. The application of a flexible ship model made of plastic material may de useful to further
investigate this kind of phenomenon.
References
I 16th ITTC Seakeeping Committee Report, Proceeding of the 16th ITTC, Leningrad, Sep.1981.
2 18th ITTC Seakeeping Committee Report, Proceeding of the 18th IITC, Kobe, Japan, Oct.I987.
3 O'Dea J., Powers E. and Zselecsky J. (1992). Theoretical and Experimental Study of the
Nonlinearities in Vertical Plane Ship Motions. Proceedings of the 19th Symposium on Naval
Hydrodynamics, Seoul, Korea
4 Tao Z. and Incecik A. (1998). Time Domain Simulation of Vertical Ship Motions and Loads in
Regular Head Waves. 17th OMAE, Lisbon
5 Fonseca N. and Soares C. G. (1998). Time Domain Analysis of Large-amplitude Responses of
Ship in Waves. Proceedings of PRADS'98, The Hague, The Netherlands
6 Soto M. (1954). Model Experiments on the Longitudinal Strength of Ships Running Among
Waves, E.T.T. Report No. 614.
7 Akita Y. and Ochi K. (1955). Model Experiment on the Strength of Ships Moving in Waves,
Trans. S.N.A.ME. 203-236.
8 Does J. Cb. De. (1960). Experimental Determination of Bending Moments for Three Models of
Different Fullness in Regular Waves, International Shipbuilding Progress, 7:68.
9 Fukasawa T., Yamamoto Y., Fujino M. and Motora S. (1981). Motion and Longitudinal Strength
of a Ship in Head Sea and the Effects of Non-linearity (4th report) - Experiment. Journal of the
Society of Naval Architects of Japan,150.
10 Watanabe I., et al. (1984). Measurement of Wave Impact Pressure on Patrol Ship 'Shikine' Using
Elastic Similar Model. Proceedings of Annual Presentation Meeting of SRI, 44
11 Watanabe I. and Sawada H. (1985). Effects of Elastic Responses to the Longitudinal Bending
Moment in Bi-direction Irregular Waves, Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan, 158.
12 Watanabe I., Ueno M. and Sawada H. (1989). Effect of Bow Flare Shape to the Wave Loads of a
Container Ship, Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan, 166.
13 Lin J., et al. (1991). Experiment of an Elastic Ship Model and the Theoretical Predictions of its
Hydroelastic Behavior, Proc. of 1st Int!. VLFS, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
14 Lin J., et al. (1996). The Comparative Study on the Elastic Ship Model Test and the FulI Scale
Ship Trial. Ship Behavior Research, 3.
ESTIMA TION OF NONLINEAR LONG-TERM EXTREMES OF THE

VERTICAL BENDING MOMENTS IN SHIPS
Oro Sagli Baarholml and Torgeir Moanl
IDepartment of Marine Structures, NTNU, N-749l Trondheim, Norway
ABSTRACT
This paper deals with estimation of the long-term extreme of hull girder loads in ships for a given
return period. In principle, this response is obtained by combining the response in all the sea states.
The long-term response for a linear system can be effectively obtained by determining the response for
each sea state, specified by the significant wave height, Hs, and the peak period, Tp, in the frequency
domain. However, if the response is nonlinear, time domain simulation would be required and long
time series is required to limit the statistical uncertainty. Long-term analysis becomes complicated and
time consuming, and it is crucial to improve the efficiency in the calculation. In this work it is shown
that the long-term extremes can be estimated by considering only a few short-term sea states. A long-
term analysis based on identifying the most important sea state, defined by the coefficient of
contribution, using linear analysis is applied. An iteration procedure is thereafter used to find the
nonlinear long term extreme values. It is concluded that only a limited number of sea states is
necessary to get an acceptable estimate of the nonlinear D-year response as long as the most important
sea states are included, i. e. the sea state with maximum coefficient of contribution.
KEYWORDS
Ship, Vertical bending moment, nonlinear, Long term, simplified
1 INTRODUCTION
Safety requirements to ship hulls are specified in Ship Rules issued by Classification Societies who
harmonise their rules through the International Association of Classification Societies, lACS, e.g. Nitta
et al (1992). Traditionally extreme wave loads are obtained rrom Ship Rule formulae. The rule book
approach meet well the busy designers' need and preference for rules which are simple to use, omitting
the possibility to quantify the effect of a proposed design change on the subsequent safety on that
design. As new designs are entering the arena, the ship rules may become outdated since the formulae
are based on data for various ship types and would not generally be optimal for a given vessel. The
variation and complexity of novel hull concepts, possible influence of structural dynamics as well as
nonlinear load effect, suggest that direct calculation of the hull girder load effects are preferable in
such cases.
880
The most common way to establish design loads by direct calculations is by means of long term
description of the response itself. This requires that a wide range of sea states must be analysed and
that the final distribution is obtained as a weighted sum of these short term distributions, considering
various wave heading, velocities and operational requirements, i.e. velocity and heading profiles. If
linear response analysis are conducted, the response in a given sea state is defined by the transfer
function, while time domain simulations are in general required to obtain the nonlinear response. This
leads to time consuming analysis. A more efficient and practical feasible method to estimate the long
term design values is therefore desired. In Soares (1984), Farnes (1990), Farnes & Moan (1994),
Videiro (1998), Videiro & Moan (1999) application of the direct long-term approach Gaussian and
non-Gaussian response is outlined.
2 LONG TERM DISTRIBUTION
The long term peak distribution of maxima is obtained by summation of short term probabilities of
exceedance in all possible combinations of mean wave periods, significant wave heights, heading
angles and speeds, e.g. Bishop & Price (1979). Only one heading and forward speed are considered in
this work. These two variables are independent in addition to independence between forward speed
and significant wave height. The probability of exceedance is given as
3 CASE STUDIES
The procedure in Figure 1 is applied to find the nonlinear vertical bending moment on three different
vessels. The nonlinear simulations are obtained by using a quasi-nonlinear theory described in Wu &
Moan (1996). Validation based on a model test is presented in Wu et al (1996). The chosen vessels are
the S-175 container ship, a tanker and destroyer. Description of the hull form and the weight
distribution for the S-175 container ship is given in Salvesen (1983) and in Dalzell (1964) for the
tanker and destroyer. The long term extreme value of the vertical bending moment midship for the S-
175 container ship is calculated at two forward speeds. Those are Froude numbers Fn=O.O &
Fn=0.275. In addition, similar analysis were performed with the tanker and the destroyer at Proude
numbers Fn=O.O & Fn=0.2. Only head sea cases are studied herein. The three parameter-Weibull
distribution was used to fit the maxima samples, Sagli (2000). The short-term wave process is
described by the Pierson-Moskowitz wave spectrum in all cases. The long-term wave process is
characterised by the joint probability density distribution for the significant wave height, H, , and peak
period, Tp' for the Northern North Sea as proposed by Haver & Nyhus (1986). The return period is
D= 100 years.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results for the S-175 container ship, tanker and destroyer are presented in TABLE l. The
estimated nonlinear, long-term vertical bending moments midship are made dimensionless using the
main dimensions of the vessels. The nonlinear effects tend to increase the sagging and hogging
moments for the S-175 container ship and the tanker as the forward speed increases. The destroyer
experiences reduced sagging and hogging moments as the forward speed increases. As expected the
tanker is influenced by small nonlinear effects, while the container ship experiences a rather large
change in sagging and hogging as a result of the speed change.
Figure 3 show the distribution of the CR(si) -coefficients for the nonlinear, sagging moment midship
for the S-175 container ship at forward speed Fn=0.275. The CR(si)-contours For the S-175 container
ship sagging has two distinct peaks where CR(si) reaches a maximum. The maxima are almost
equivalent in value. The maxima are close, and they are easily detected by studying the CR(si) -
4.2 Final Comments
The coefficient of contribution might be used to define a design sea state. Estimation of the most
probable maximum response value in this sea state, with duration as given by the scatter diagram, will
give a reasonable estimate of the long term extreme value within an error of 10-15%, as shown in
Figure 4. Including more sea states, improves accuracy. The method is still rather time consuming
since the most critical sea state must be identified to ensure the grade of accuracy. However, the
885
method can be used for verification of more simplified methods used to estimate the long-term
extreme values, see Sagli (2000).
5 CONCLUSIONS
The long-term extremes can be estimated by considering only a few short-term sea states as long as the
most important sea states. defined by the coefficient of contribution, are identified.
References
15th & 16th ITTC Seakeeping Committee. (1983). Summary of Results Obtained with Computer
Programs to Predict Ship Motions in Six Degree of Freedom and Related Responses (1976-1981).
Baarholm G. S. and Moan T. (2000). Estimation of Nonlinear Long Term Extremes of Hull Girder
Loads in Ships. Marine Structures. 13, 495-516
Bishop & Price. (1979). Hydroelasticity of Ships. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.
Dalzell J. F. (1964). An Investigation of Midship Bending Moments Experienced in Extreme Regular
Waves by Models of a Tanker and a Destroyer. Technical report. SSC-i56. Ship Structure Committee.
Washington, D.C.
Farnes K. A. and Passano E. (1989). LOSSTA User's Manual. SINTEF, Trondheim, Norway.
Haver S. (1987). On the Joint Distribution of Heights and Periods of Sea Waves. Ocean Engineering.
14:5, 359-376.
Farnes K.A. (1990). Long-term Statistics of Response in non-Linear Marine Structures. Doctoral
dissertation. Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Farnes K. A. and Moan 1'. (1994). Extreme Dynamic, non-Linear Response of Fixed Platforms Using a
Complete Long-Term Approach. Applied Ocean Research. 15,317-326.
Haver S. and Nyhus K. A. (1986). A Wave Climate Description for Long Term Response Calculation.
Proc.ofOMAE'86.
Haver S., Sagli G. and Gran T. M. (I998a). Long Term Response Analysis of Fixed and Floating
Structures. Proc. of Wave'98-0cean Wave Kinematics, Dynamics and Loads on Structures. in! OTRC
Symp. Houston, USA, May-April.
Haver S., Sagli G. and Gran T. M. (l998b). Long Term Response Analysis of Fixed and Floating
Structures. Technical report. 98s97*4715. STATOIL, Stavanger, Norway.
Larsen C. M. and Passano E. (1990). Extreme Response Estimation for Marine Risers. Proc. of
OMAE'90. ASME.
Nitta A., Arai H. and Magaino A. (1992). Basis of lACS Unified Longitudinal Strength Standard.
Marine Structures. 5, 1-21.
Sagli G. (2000). Model Uncertainty and Simplified Estimates of Long Term Extremes of Hull Girder Loads
in Ships. Doctoral dissertation. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Soares C. G. (1984). Probabilistic Models for Load Effects in Ship Structures. Doctoral dissertation.
Norwegian Institue of Technology, NTH, Trondheim, Norway.
Videiro P. and Moan 1'. (1999). Efficient Evaluation of Long- Term Distributions. Proc. of OMAE'99.
ASME. paper no. 6014.
Videiro P. M. (1998). Reliability Based Design of Marine Structures. Doctoral dissertation.
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Winterstein S. R., Ude T. c., Cornell C. A., Bjerager P. and Haver S. (1993). Environmental
Parameters for Extreme Response: Inverse form with Omission Factors. Proc. of IOSSAR'93. G. I.
Schueller, M. Shinozuka and J. T. P. Yao, Eds. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, 77-84.
Wu M.-K. and Moan T. (1996). Linear and Nonlinear Hydroelastic Analysis of High-Speed Vessels. J
of Ship Research. 40:2, 149-163.
Wu M.-K., Aarsnes J. V., Hermundstad O. A. and Moan T. (1996). A Practical Prediction of Wave-
Induced Structural Responses in Ships with Large Amplitude Motion. Proc. of the 2ist Symposium on
Naval Hydrodynamics.
A DIRECT CALCULATION APPROACH OF DETERMINING

EXTREME COMBINED BENDING MOMENTS FOR FAST FINE
FORM SHIPS
Xue-Kang Gu and Jin-Wei Shen
Department of Marine Structures, China Ship Scientific Research Center,

Wuxi, Jiangsu 214082, China
ABSTRACT
For fast fine form ships, direct calculation approaches play more and more important roles towards
rational structural design. In this paper, the coupling effects between the higher order hannonic
components and whipping components of nonlinear vertical bending moments are described. To
further investigate this phenomenon and other nonlinear dynamic effects of wave loadings, a nonlinear
time domain strip theory is developed and validated. The nonlinear wave-induced bending moments
and nonlinear combined bending moments including whipping components are obtained. Considering
the coupling effects and the speed losses of ships in waves, a direct calculation approach of
determining extreme combined bending moments for fast fine fonn ships are presented. Taking the
combined bending moments as the dominant load parameter in head sea condition, the matched ship
motions, nonlinear wave-induced wave loads and design operational conditions (design wave and ship
speed) are obtained at the instant when the combined bending moments reach their maximum to ensure
that the most unfavorable responses are achieved. Finally, an application example for a fast
containership is presented.
KEYWORDS
Nonlinear wave-induced bending moments, Higher order hannonic component, Whipping response.
Coupling effects, Speed loss, Design operational condition, Dynamic loading approach.
INTRODUCTION
For structural designs of conventional ships, classification rules and regulations are still the main
criteria because of their successful practice and feedback experience, simplicity in applications and
familiarity to designers, although the resultant structures are usually not the most optimum ones for
specific ships. For modern ships, especially for newly designed large size or fast ships with fine hull
forms, the structural designs will be beyond the limits of traditional rules. For example, the design
fonnula of vertical bending moments in lACS UR-S II do not explicitly include whipping bending
moments. However, effects of the whipping components on structural design can not be ignored for
888
ships with flat bottoms and large bow flares. For merchant ships, these effects are mostly implicitly
reflected in the longitudinal distributions of section modulus except for rules of Germanischer Lloyd
and ABS-SafeHull with whipping bending moments expressions. Furthermore, although the sagging
and hogging bending moments are distinguished in UR-Sll, they are just influenced by block
coefficient. The nonlinear loading characteristics of modern ships with fine hull forms are not fully
reflected in the formula. All of these can only be properly considered in direct calculations.
The designs based on direct calculations of ship motions, wave loads and structural finite element
analyses play more and more important roles toward rational structures and meanwhile widely
accepted by different classifications. Among all the aspects of direct calculation methods, the
determination of wave loads and ship motions is of critical importance to achieve successful ship
structures. Up to now, linear frequency domain wave load theories have been the main tools in
calculating ship responses in waves in many well-established direct calculation approaches and
associated commercial codes.
In 1992, American Bureau of Shipping developed a dynamic loading approach (DLA) (Liu, et al,1992)
for VLCC. The loads acting on ship structures are explicitly considered in dynamic sense and all key
combinations of primary and secondary loadings for structural design including cargo holdings,
headings, environmental conditions are provided. Since then, it has also been applied to bulk carriers,
containerships and LNG ships. It is a remarkable step toward rational designs of ship structures,
although the responses (motions, loads and extreme values) of ships are still based on linear strip
theory and the truly dynamic responses, i.e. slamming induced responses, are not taken into account.
With the Large Amplitude Motion Program (LAMP), the DLA method is modified to incorporate
nonlinear responses, including whipping component that is crucial to fine form ships (Shin, et ai, 1997).
It is not clear, however, from the paper how to apply the nonlinear wave loads and slamming induced
loads simultaneously for structural designs.
Hachmann (1991) presented a revised design wave concept to distinguish sagging and hogging design
bending moments based on a revised strip theory. The wavelength at peak of response amplitude
operator (RAO) of linear vertical bending moments is set as design wavelength, whereas the design
wave amplitude results from linear long-term design value (probability level of 10.6 and a 10%
reduction) divided by the peak value of the RAO. No whipping was considered, although the author
also realized that it is significant for large-sized vessels keeping on sailing at high speed in extreme
waves.
In this paper, the newly found coupling effects between the higher order harmonic components and
whipping components of nonlinear vertical bending moments are described. To further investigate this
phenomenon and other nonlinear dynamic effects of wave loadings, a nonlinear time domain strip
theory is developed and validated. The nonlinear wave-induced bending moments and nonlinear
combined bending moments (CBM) including whipping components are obtained. Considering the
coupling effects and the practical speeds of ships in waves, a direct calculation approach of
determining extreme combined bending moments for fast fine form ships are presented. Take the
combined bending moments as the dominant load parameter in head sea condition, the matched ship
motions, nonlinear wave-induced wave loads and design operational conditions (design wave and ship
speed) are obtained at the instant when the combined bending moments reach their maximum to ensure
that the most unfavorable loadings are achieved. Finally, an example for a fast containership is
presented.
2 COUPLING EFFECTS BETWEEN HIGHER ORDER HARMONIC AND WHIPPING

COMPONENTS
889
In addition to usually concerned wave-induced components with wave encounter frequencies and
whipping components with hull girder natural vibration frequencies in vertical bending moments in
moderate or high amplitude regular waves, there are higher order harmonic components with
frequencies which are multiples of wave encounter frequency (Watanabe, 1989, Adegeest, 1994, Shin,
et ai, 1997). These harmonic components are induced by non-sinusoidally changed hydrodynamic
forces on non-wall-sided ship hulls and cannot be revealed by linear theories.
Gu, Shen & Moan (2000) analyzed the vertical bending moments using FFT transformation based on
the model test results of a fast containership with large bow flare and low rigidity. Some sample results
are displayed in Figure I. Where, A., H, L and Fn are wavelength, wave height, ship length and Froude
number, respectively. The wave encounter frequency is 0.9Hz in this case and the first natural
frequency is 5.4Hz. Although the motions of the ship are almost monochromatic, the higher order
harmonic bending moments have non-negligible contributions to the nonlinearity of combined bending
moments (CBM) and mainly have frequencies between the wave encounter and the first hull natural
frequency. It was found that there are coupling effects between higher order harmonic and whipping
components. That means that the higher order harmonic components, especially those have frequencies
close to hull natural frequencies, are influenced by whipping component due to hydroeiastic effects;
and the whipping components are significantly amplified when the first hull natural frequency equals a
multiple of wave encounter frequency.
Because of these coupling effects, some advanced direct load calculation procedures, such as dynamic
loading approaches (Uu, et ai, 1992, Shin, et ai, 1997) and design wave method (Hachmann, 1991),
should be replenished if the whipping components are to be rationally included.
3 TIME DOMAIN SIMULATION OF NONLINEAR RESPONSES OF SHIPS IN WAVES
The importance of nonlinear responses of ships in waves has been generally recognized (ISSC, 2000).
However, the applications to various nonlinear theories and associated codes in direct load calculations
for ship structural designSto incorporate these nonlinear effects and whipping components are limited.
890
To predict nonlinear vertical ship motions and structural responses in severe waves and include these
effects in direct design of ship structures, a nonlinear time-domain strip theory is developed based on
linear strip theory (Salvesen, et aI, 1970). The restoring, Froude-Krylov forces and all hydrodynamic
coefficients are varied with the instantaneous draughts of hull sections. Also the bottom impact, bow
flare slamming and green water forces are included in ship motion predictions. The flexible modes of
ship hull girders are accounted for by a Timoshenko beam theory (Gu, 1999).
The predicted results are validated for various ship types such as S-175 containership (Watanabe &
Guedes Soares, 1999), destroyers and bulk carriers. Some sample comparisons of the combined
bending moments (CBM) predicted with that of the containership model tests in regular waves with
different wave heights are shown in Figure 2. In small or moderate amplitude waves, the predicted
bending moments agree very well with test results; In large amplitude waves, the combined bending
moments increase nonlinearly with the wave heights and the predicted values are larger than that of the
tests.
The relations between bending moments and wavelengths in large amplitude waves compared with the
test results are shown in Figure 3. As expected, there are more than one peaks in calculated bending
moments, the first one is at AJL=1.0 and the second one is at A/L=1.25. The corresponding ratios of the
first natural frequency to wave encounter frequency are about 6.0 and 7.0 for these two peaks,
respectively. This phenomenon means that when the first natural frequency equals a multiple of the
wave encounter frequency, the combined bending moment will reach their extreme values.
The frequency characteristics of combined bending moments predicted are also shown in Figure Id
(dashed line). The energy distribution on frequencies is similar to the experimental results but the
influences of whipping component on higher order components are generally reflected.
4 A MODIFICATION TO DYNAMIC LOADING APPROACH
Dynamic loading approach (DLA) (Liu,et aI, 1992, Shin, et aI, 1997) is a practical direct load
calculation method with many innovative concepts such as dominant load parameters, structural load
cases, equivalent wave systems and so on. Although some improvements, e.g., reasonably including
nonlinear wave-induced and whipping bending moments in equivalent waves, have to be made, the
overall framework is flexible enough to admit further modifications.
Because of the existence of the higher order harmonic bending moments and their coupling effects
with whipping components, the predicted combined bending moments in equivalent regular waves are
very sensitive to wavelength and ship speed. The operational condition, here means the combination of
wavelength, wave height and ship speed, should be carefully considered to ensure that the most
unfavorable responses are achieved. Moreover, when the speed loss of a ship must be taken into
891
account in long-tenn linear load predictions, it is difficult to detennine the ship speed in equivalent
design waves. Hence, in order to rationally include whipping components in direct calculations of
wave loads, a modification to Dynamic Loading Approach is proposed as following:
(I) Choose the long-tenn wave data statistics and associated spectra;
(2) Choose ship speed loss expression;
(3) Long-tenn predictions of linear wave-induced bending moments to obtain linear design loads
corresponding to appropriate probability of exceedence.
(4) Calculate a set of response amplitude operators (RAOs) of the ship in head sea with different ship
speeds, the wave lengths at the peaks of the RAOs are consider as a set of candidate wave lengths.
(5) A set of candidate wave amplitudes are equal to the quotients of the linear design loads divided by
peak values of RAOs.
(6) Every ship speed and the associated candidate wave length and amplitude fonns a operational
condition. The nonlinear wave loads are calculated in every condition, then the curves of sagging and
hogging wave-induced and combined loads are obtained. Usually there are several peaks on the
combined curve, the loads, wave parameters and ship speed at maximum peaks (sangging and hogging)
of combined bending moment are design values.
(7) Other responses such as ship motions and hydrodynamic pressures are obtained at same instants
when the combined bending moment reaches its maximum (sagging) or minimum (hogging).
892
The linear long-tenn wave-induced bending moments of the containership are calculated in
short-crested waves. The ratio between them and the design bending moments according to lACS
UR-S 11 is shown in Figure 4. The long-tenn predicted values with constant ship forward speed are
also shown in the figure. It can be seen that for this ship the predicted values considering speed loss are
close to that with constant speed of two third maximum design speed.
Take the bending moment at probability of 10-5 as linear design value which is 97% of the mean value
of lACS sagging and hogging design bending moments, divide it by peaks of RAOs in head sea with
different forward speed, the relations of candidate wave lengths and heights with different speeds are
shown in Figure 5.
The nonlinear bending moments in different operational conditions are shown in Figure 6. There are
two obvious peaks existed in combined bending moments.
To further explain the reason for the peaks of combined bending moments, the coincidence, D, of the
hull natural frequency with higher order harmonic frequencies is shown Figure 7. Here D is defined as
the absolute value of the difference between the remainder after the natural frequency is divided by
wave encounter frequency and the nearest integer (0 or 1), and is a degree of coupling between
whipping component and a harmonic component. D::::oO means that the natural frequency is about a
multiple of a higher order harmonic component, and in this case the combined bending moments will
achieve their extremes as shown in Figure 6.
Choose the maximum combined bending moments as design moments (the second peak in Figure 6),
then the associated wave and ship speed are considered as design wave and speed in the calculation,
see Table 1. The bending moments are non-dimensionalized by linear design bending moment. Other
responses are obtained at the same instant of time during the simulation of the combined bending
moments in design waves.
Figure 6: The nonlinear vertical bending Figure 7: Coincidence of the first natural
moments for candidate operational frequency with higher order harmonic
conditions frequencies
To rationally consider nonlinear wave-induced and extreme combined bending moments including
whipping components in direct load calculations for fast ship structural designs, a modification to
dynamic loading approach is presented. The nonlinear responses are predicted by a nonlinear
time-domain strip theory. The coupling effects between higher order harmonic and whipping bending
moments, the speed loss of ships in severe waves are well considered in determining the design
operational conditions to ensure the most unfavorable responses are achieved.
The modification to dynamic loading approach is suitable for alternative nonlinear ship response
theories to provide more comprehensive information and high accuracy for direct design loads
calculations.
References
Adegeest L.J.M. (1994). Nonlinear Hull Girder Loads in Ships. Ph.D. Thesis, Delft University of
Technology.
Gu X. K., Shen J. W. and Moan T. (2000). Experimental and theoretical investigation of higher order
harmonic components of nonlinear bending moments of ships. Ship Technology Research,
Schiffstechnik, 47:3, 143-154.
Gu X. K. (1999). Direct Design of Ship Structures. Ph.D. Thesis, China Ship Scientific Research
Center.
Hachmann D. (1991). Calculation of Pressures on a Ship's Hull in Waves. Ship Technology Research,
Schiffstechnik, 38:, 111-133.
ISSC (2000). Report of Special Task Committee VI.l-Extreme Hull Girder Loading. Proceedings of
the 14th International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, Nagasaki, Japan.
Liu D., Spencer J., Hoh T., Kawachi S. and Shigematsu K (1992). Dynamic Load Approach in Tanker
Design, Transactions of Society of Naval Architect and Marine Engineers, 100,143-172.
Salvesen N,; Tuck E,a.and Faltinsen a.M. (1970), Ship motions and sea loads, Transaction of Society
of Naval Architect and Marine Engineers, 78, 250-287.
Shin YS., Chung J.S., Lin W.M., Zhang S. and Engle A. (1997). Dynamic Loadings for Structural
Analysis of Fine Form Container Ship Based on a Non-linear Large Amplitude Motions and Loads
Method. Transactions of Society of Naval Architect and Marine Engineers, 105, 127-154.
Watanabe I. and Guedes Soares, C. (1999). Comparative Study on the Time Domain Analysis of
Nonlinear ship Motions and Loads. Marine Structures, 12:3, 153-170.
Watanabe I., Keno M. and Sawada H. (1989). Effect of Bow Flare on Shape to Wave Loads of a
Container Ship. Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan, 166,259-266.
PracticalDesignof Shipsand OtherFloatingStructures 895
You-ShengWu, Wei-ChengCui and Guo-JunZhou (Eds)
© 2001 ElsevierScienceLtd. All rightsreserved
FLUTTER OF HYDROFOIL IN VISCOUS FIELD
Can Sima, Xiao-Ci Zhang and You-Sheng Wu
China Ship Scientific Research Center

Wuxi, Jiangsu 214082, China
ABSTRACT
A Boundary Element Method is introduced to solve the coupled responses of an elastic

two-dimensional hydrofoil in viscous flow. A modified Oseen's equation is employed in the present
paper to describe the viscous field. The application of the Oseen's equation is extended to a much
larger range of Reynolds number by introducing the turbulent viscosity in the numerical analysis. A
fluid-structure interface boundary condition is presented. The coupled problem is therefore
represented as a boundary integral method, with Oseenlets being the fundamental functions. The
two-dimensional hydrofoil is modeled as an elastically supported rigid body with identical NACA242I
cross-section and two degrees of freedom. Newmark integral method is used to solve the boundary
integral equation. The theoretical results of the viscous flow induced flutter of the hydrofoil are
described in time and in frequency domain. The corresponding phenomena and the factors, which
affected the flutter are discussed.
KEYWORDS
Hydroelasticity, Flow-induced flutter, Boundary element method, Oseenlet, Hydrofoil, Turbulent

viscosity.
INTRODUCTION
Improper design of an appendage of a ship, especially a thin hydrofoil, stabilizing fin, ruder, or a
propeller, for example, may introduce unexpected vibrations or flutter, resulting in structural damage
and serious noise. This did happen in some fast surface ships, for example hydrofoil crafts, and some
submersibles. This phenomenon requires further investigations about the coupled responses of a thin
wall structure and the surrounding viscous flow.
In the present paper a Boundary Element Method is introduced to the coupled responses of an elastic
two-dimensional hydrofoil responding to viscous flow excitation. By introducing the viscous fundamental
solutions (Oseenlets) of Oseen's equation as the basic functions, the viscous flow field can also be
described by a boundary integral. Analogous to the usual boundary element methods widely
employed in potential theories, by distributing the Oseenlets over the body's wetted surface, the fluid
disturbances induced by the presence and motions of the body, solely depends on the values of the
strengths of the Oseenlets. The strengths are solved from the boundary integral equation to ensure
896
the body boundary conditions.

In the present paper a two-dimensional hydrofoil is analyzed. It is approximately represented as a
rigid NACA2421 foil elastically supported at a rotating center to allow for two degrees of motion
freedom, namely the vertical motion simulating the bending mode, and the rotation simulating the
torsion mode. Newmark integral method is employed to solve the boundary integral equations for the
strengths. The coupling with the foil is reflected in the boundary condition of the hydrofoil-wetted
surface. FFT method is used to translate the results from time domain to frequency domain. The
responses of the hydrofoil are then presented by the response frequency spectrum and limit cycles.
898
equal-amplitude vibration and convergent vibration) of the hydrofoil can be clearly distinguished from
the calculation results. Using FFT method, the calculated time domain results are translated to
frequency domain. It is exhibited by Fig.2 that when the hydrofoil performs a convergent vibration,
no peak values appear on the frequency spectrum curves of the response amplitude. In the case of a
divergent vibration or an equal-amplitude vibration, peak values clearly appear in the frequency
spectrum curves of the amplitudes, especially at the frequencies 7.8Hz and 12.7Hz. The peak value of
divergent vibration is bigger than that of equal-amplitude vibration. This flutter is particularly harmful
to produce serious under-water noise, and in some cases is the cause of the structural damage.
5 CONCLUSIONS
(1) It is shown that the boundary integral method can be extended to solve the viscous flow induced
fluid-structure interaction problems with certain success. Although the previous application of
Oseen's equation showed limitations in the Reynolds number range, it is still possible to extend its
range of application to allow for much larger Reynolds number to be calculated for some engineering
problems, like the flutter of an elastic hydrofoil. The turbulent viscosity introduced in this paper has
shown its advantage in overcoming the limitations of the Oseen's equations.
(2) The flutter phenomena of the NACA242I hydrofoil can be exhibited from the time histories, the
limit cycles, and the frequency spectra.
(3) The analysis method developed in the present paper may be employed to predict the possible occurrence of the
flutter of the appendages of a ship.
References
1 Himeo Y. (1970). On Viscous Flow about Bluff Body at High Reynolds Number. J of the Naval
Architects of Japan, 127.
2 Zhang Xiaoci, et al. (2000). The Analysis of the Vortex Induced Vibration of Hydrofoil in Turbulent
Field. Ship Mechanics of China, 65.
3 Zhang Xiaoci, et al. (2000). Numerical Simulation and PIV Experimental Display of Vortex Induced
Vibration for Hydrofoil. ICHD 2000, Yokohana, 423.
4 Sima Can, et al. (1999). Applications of Oseenlet Boundary Element Method in Viscous
Fluid-structure Coupling Motion Problems. Ship Mechanics of China, 38.
SYMMETRIC AND ANTI SYMMETRIC HYDROELASTIC

ANALYSIS OF A BULKER IN WAVES
S.E. Hirdaris, W.G. Price and P.Temarel
School of Engineering Sciences, Ship Science, University of Southampton,

Southampton, S017 IBJ, UK
ABSTRACT
The influence of structural configurations (such as large deck openings and double skins encountered
in containerships, bulk carriers and LNG carriers) on predicting the global dynamic behaviour of these
flexible vessels in waves is of particular interest. This is due to the options available for structural
modelling, namely two-dimensional beam and three-dimensional FE idelisations. Two-dimensional
idealisations offer a fast and efficient means of simulating the dynamic behaviour in waves whilst
three-dimensional models are time and effort consuming, even when a relatively simple idelisation is
used. The high rate of bulk carrier casualties in recent years makes this type of vessel a suitable
example for investigating the influence of modelling on the fluid structure interactions and subsequent
loads and responses in waves. Therefore, in this paper two- and three-dimensional hydroelasticity
theories are applied to predict and compare the dynamic behaviour of a bulk carrier hull in regular
oblique waves. Both symmetric and antisymmetric distortions are incorporated in these investigations.
KEYWORDS
Bulk carriers, Dynamic loads, FE idealisation, Hydroelasticity, Wave-induced dynamic response
1 INTRODUCTION
The evaluation of wave-induced motions and loads are two of the most important aspects in ship
design. Traditionally, prediction of wave-induced loads, in the main, relies on quasi-static and/or
empirical methods. Overall, such methods proved to be quite adequate over the years with problems
arising dealt by relying on accumulated experience. Nevertheless, the international amendments for
bulkers, tankers and LNG carriers brought about by lACS and IMO are a measure of the concern
related to the behaviour of such vessels and associated risks involving loss of human life,
environmental pollution etc. (lACS 1997; Tustin 1998).
During the past ten years, more than 700 crewmen have died as a result of bulk carrier casualties.
Following a rush of 25 bulk carrier losses in 1990 and 1991 five more bulk carriers and 74 lives were
lost in 1993, followed, in 1994, by the tragic loss of six bulkers and 100 lives (lACS 1997; Tustin
1998). Research undertaken by IMO and lACS suggests that some of the possible causes for 90% of
904
the losses could be hull girder failure, loss of stability and loss of reserve buoyancy (lACS 1997).
However there still remains 10% unexplained disasters, which could be attributed to structural failure,
although concrete evidence is hard to come by. The accurate prediction of seaway induced dynamic
loads and their consequences may be able to shed light in explaining these disasters.
Hydroelasticity theory, unlike empirical and quasi-static methods, provides a rigorous analysis
whereby the fluid-flexible structure interaction is formulated and the wave induced dynamic loads and
responses (e.g. stresses, bending moments, etc) are evaluated. The two-stage approach of dry or in
vacuo and wet analyses leads to a direct evaluation of dynamic loads and responses for a vessel
travelling at arbitrary heading in regular waves and irregular seaways. This theory is unified in the
sense that it incorporates rigid body motions (i.e. conventional seakeeping) as well as distortions. The
concept of hydro elasticity theory gained significant momentum in the mid-seventies, when Bishop and
Price (1979) established the basic principles of a theory for flexible beam-like hulls subject to steady
state or transient (e.g. slamming) wave-induced loads, combining Timoshenko beam and strip theories.
The method was applied successfully to a variety of beamlike merchant and naval ships and its
capabilities in simulating symmetric, antisymmetric and unsymmetric dynamic behaviour in waves
was demonstrated. Comparisons with available experimental and full-scale measurements, such as
those by Bishop et al (1984) and Aksu et al (1993), confirmed the validity of the hydroelastic approach.
The three-dimensional hydro elasticity theory was developed to simulate the wave-induced dynamic
behaviour of non-beamlike vessels in waves (Bishop et al 1986). This analysis makes use of two- or
three-dimensional finite element models of the structure and a singularity distribution (such as
pulsating source) over its wetted surface. The application to SWATHs, using crude and refined
structural models, has demonstrated the versatility and potential of this method (Bishop et al 1986,
Price et al 1994). Recent applications to trimarans showed good agreement with flexible model
experiments for wave induced loads, such as prying moment, for a range of speeds and headings (Miao
et a:l 1997). Applications to non-slender, mono-hulled vessels, such as sailing yachts, showed that the
method is capable of simulating accurately the dynamic behaviour of such vessels and identifying
correctly areas where structural problems may arise (Louam et al 1999). The analysis has also been
applied to beamlike mono-hulls (neglecting any small deck openings), showing good agreement
between wave-induced loads and responses predicted by two- and three-dimensional models (Price et
aI2001).
The objectives of the current investigations are to examine the influence of three-dimensional
structural modelling on the dynamic behaviour of slender beamlike vessels in regular waves and, in
particular, vessels with large deck openings. Along these lines a vessel with principal dimensions and
characteristics similar to those of MV Derbyshire is used in this paper (Bishop et al 1991; Hirdaris et al
2000). Two fluid-structure interaction models, incorporating both symmetric and anti symmetric
motions and distortions, are used, namely (i) beamfd where Timoshenko beam idealisation is
combined with a suitable strip theory (Bishop and Price 1979) and (ii) she1l3d where a shell FE
idealisation is used in conjunction with a three-dimensional pulsating source distribution over the
wetted surface of the hull. Comparisons between the dry and wet hull characteristics, such as principal
mode shapes, natural frequencies and wet resonance frequencies, and wave induced loads in oblique
regular waves predicted by these models are presented.
2 FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION MODELLING
Two- and three-dimensional structural models were generated to idealize the structural and inertia
characteristics of a vessel based on the OBO MV Derbyshire. The length of this vessel is LoA=294m
(L=LBP=282m) and the remaining dimensions and properties can be found in Bishop et al (1991).
For the three-dimensional model (she1l3d) shell finite elements were used to incorporate major
structural elements such as deck, side, inner/outer bottom, hopper spaces, bulkheads, major
longitudinal girders etc. The material contributions of other stiffeners and transverse frames were
subsumed into the properties of adjacent shell elements. For simplicity of modelling the superstructure
905
as well as the stiffness of the hatch covers were not included, thus resulting in a deck with a number of
large openings. Element SHELL63 with four nodes and six degrees of freedom per node was selected,
considering only membrane deformations (Swanson Ltd. 2000). The three-dimensional FE model,
shown in Fig.l(a), consists of 6439 nodes and 3673 shell elements and is in the form of 46 sections
along the vessel. This facilitates the determination of the mass distribution along the vessel, by
manipulating the mass density of elements in a section, as well as the acquisition of properties required
for the beam model. This method was preferred to using lump mass elements so that relevant
numerical problems during modal analysis, as noted by Price et al (1994), can be avoided. The
omission of transverse frames and longitudinal stiffeners from structural idealisations of mono- and
multi-hulled vessels has been dealt successfully in the past, as illustrated for example by Miao et al
(1997), Louarn et al (1999) and Price et al (2001), by incorporating fictitious bulkheads of negligible
mass and thickness (e.g. lmrn for the current application), where appropriate. Omission of such
elements results in mode shapes containing localised distortions, which are not physically
representative of the global dynamic behaviour of the vessel. A fan shape form, clearly seen in the
detail of the FE model shown in Fig.l(b), was adopted for all actual and fictitious transverse bulkheads
to avoid using excessive number of elements.
A finite difference formulation for a non-uniform Timoshenko beam (beamfd) was used to provide a
comparator for the three-dimensional model (shell3d). The lengthwise variations of structural and
inertia properties for the beam model were calculated from model shell3d, to allow for meaningful
comparisons between the two idealisations. Properties such as mass, moments of inertia, second
moments of area, effective shear areas, torsional stiffness, warping stiffness, shear centre were
evaluated at every section of model shell3d, with the saw-tooth character being a result of the loading
condition (for mass properties) and the large deck openings (for structural properties). These properties
were illustrated by Hirdaris et al (2000) and, hence, not repeated here. However, the section moduli at
deck and keel, relating to vertical bending, and at side, relating to horizontal bending, are shown in
Fig.l (c), as they are used when comparing wave-induced loads. Previous two-dimensional structural
models (e.g. Bishop et al 1991) adopted smooth variations of structural characteristics. It should be
noted that although the 46 sections along the shell3d model are of unequal length, as seen in Fig.l(a),
beamfd model was discretised using sections of equal length along the hull.
The mean wetted surface of the vessel, shown in Fig. 1(d), is idealised using 952 four-cornered panels.
For convenience a one-to-one correspondence between shell finite elements and panels on the mean
wetted surface has been adopted. This implies that triangular elements, used to overcome warpage
constraints (i.e. limitations imposed on four nodes of an element being coplanar), are also idealised as
four-cornered panels with, for example, one node assigned to two comers. A pulsating source is
allocated to each panel.
3 DRY AND WET ANALYSES
The dry hull natural frequencies obtained from models beamfd and shell3d are shown in Tables lea)
and l(b), for the symmetric and antisymrnetric modes respectively. The dominant distortions of
anti symmetric principal modes are highlighted. Views of the first few principal mode shapes obtained
from the shell3d model are shown in Fig.2, highlighting the dominant distortion. The vertical
deflections for the first two symmetric mode shapes are shown in Figs.3(a,b). The first antisymrnetric
(torsion dominant) and second antisymmetric (bending dominant) mode shapes are shown in
Figs.3(c,d,e,f), represented by the horizontal deflection and the twist, respectively. For the shell3d
model the horizontal deflections at both deck Gunction with side plating) and keel (centreline) are used.
From Figs.3(a-f) and Tables lea) and l(b) it can be seen that there is good overall agreement between
the two structural models used, in terms of natural frequencies and mode shapes, for the first few mode
shapes. Nevertheless as the complexity of the mode shapes increases so do the differences. It should be
noted that inclusion of warping effects in the beamfd model is essential for agreement in the
anti symmetric modes.
4 CONCLUSIONS
• This paper focuses on comparing the influences of different levels of refinement in fluid-structure
interaction modelling on the dry hull dynamic characteristics and wave-induced loads and stresses
for ships with large deck openings, such as bulk carriers, containerships, LNG carriers etc.. The
results of this investigation are important from the point of view of selecting the detail to be
incorporated into a model when working at various stages of the design process, such as concept
and preliminary design.
907
• The dry hull analysis showed good overall agreement between beamfd and she1l3d models for the
first few symmetric and anti symmetric mode shapes; however, differences increase with modal
complexity.
• The wave-induced vertical bending moment and direct stress show good overall agreement
between the two models, taking into account the saw-toothlike nature of relevant second moment
of area and section moduli. However, the agreement is not good between the horizontal bending
moment values predicted by both models. The contributions from anti symmetric modes to stresses
on the deck, at the junction with side plating, are noted.
• Further investigations are required to assess the influence of structural properties with saw-
toothlike variation, a consequence of the large deck openings, on the dry hull characteristics and,
consequently, wave-induced loads. The effects of wetted surface idealisation on wave-induce loads
also merit further investigation.
References
Aksu, S, Price, W.G., Suhrbier, K.R. and P. Temarel, P. (1993). A comparative study of the dynamic
behaviour of a fast patrol boat travelling in rough seas, Journal of Marine Structures 6, 421 - 441.
Bishop, R.E.D. Clarke, J.D., and Price, W.G. (1984). Comparison of full scale and predicted responses
of two frigates in severe weather trial, Trans. RINA 126, 153 - 166.
Bishop, R.E.D. and Price, W.G. (1979). Hydroelasticity of Ships, Cambridge University Press, UK.
Bishop, R.E.D., Price, W.G., and Temarel, P. (1991). A theory on the loss of MV Derbyshire, Trans.
RINA 127, 169-186.
Bishop, R.E.D, Price, W.G. and Wu, Y. (1986). A general linear hydroelasticity theory of floating
structures moving in a seaway, Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. London 316:A, 375 - 426.
Hirdaris, S.E., Price, W.G. and Temarel, P. (2000). Hydroelastic analysis of a bulk carrier, (keynote
lecture), International Conference on Ship and Shipping Research NAV2000, 1,5.6.1 - 5.6.12, Venice,
Italy.
lACS (1997). Bulk carriers - guidance and information on bulk cargo loading and discharging
to reduce the likelihood of over-stressing the hull structure, lACS publications, London, UK.
Louarn, F .H. and Temarel, P. (1999). An investigation of the structural dynamics of a racing yacht, In
Proceedings of the 14th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium, 123-142, USA
Miao, S.H., Price, W.G. and Temarel, P. (1997). The hydroelastic behaviour of multi hulls travelling in
a seaway, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference for Advances in Marine Structures,
Dunfermline.
Price, W.G., Temarel, P. and Keane, AJ. (1994). Hydroelastic analysis of a SWATH in waves, In
International Conference of Hydroelasticity in Marine Technology, 231 - 243, Trondheim, Norway.
Price, W.G., Salas lnzunza, M.A and Temarel, P. (2001). The dynamic behaviour of a mono-hull in
oblique waves using two- and three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction models, Accepted for
publication RINA.
Swanson Ltd. (2000). The ANSYS 5.6 users manual.
Tustin, R.D. (1998). Existing bulk carrier safety - on the evaluation of the foremost hold structure
under conditions of hold flooding, RINA International Conference on the Design and Operation of
Bulk Carriers, 48 - 68, London, UK.
HYDRO ELASTIC MODEL FOR BOTTOM SLAMMING
A. Bereznitski I and V. Postnov 2
I Ship Structures Laboratory, Delft University of Technology,

Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD, Delft, The Netherlands
2 Ship Structures Laboratory, St-Petersburg State Marine Technical
University, Lotsmanskaia 3, 190008, St-Petersburg, Russia
ABSTRACT
The effect of hydroelasticity is studied extensively for a 2D problem of bottom slamming. A number
of wedge-shaped structures are considered for water penetration at small deadrise angles. The effect of
hydroelasticity is studied as a function of different parameters influencing the impact interaction.
These parameters include various stiffness of the structure, presence of entrapped air between the
structure and the water surface, and water penetration at different deadrise angles. The primary
objective is establishment of range, within which hydroelasticity plays an important role. This range
will show when the hydroelasticity should be taken into account and in which cases it can be skipped.
The problem is studied with application of MSC.Dytran code. At the same time for verification
purpose a specific case is compared with results obtained with application of a self-developed code.
KEYWORDS
Slamming, Hydroelasticity, Hydrodynamic loads, Water impact, Fluid-structure interaction
1 INTRODUCTION
The importance of the hydroelasticity is still not studied well with respect to the dynamic fluid-
structure interaction problems. The question "Should be hydroelasticity considered or it can be
neglected?" is still not answered. The correct choice of suitable models and approaches for solving of
water impact problems remains a great challenge. A large number of scientists work on this problem
(SSC-385 (1995), Arai and Miyauchi (1998), Faltinsen (1997), Herrnundstad, Wu, and Moan (1994),
Korobkin (1998), Kvalsvold and Faltinsen (1993), Price and Temarel (1994)). It was shown in our
recent publications (2000a, 2000b) that effect of hydroelasticity plays a very important role for a flat
impact, where the bottom is parallel to the free water surface. The entrapped air between the bottom
and water was not considered. The present paper introduces a new model based on application of
MSC.Dytran code. A detailed study of different parameters influencing the fluid-structure interaction
is performed for a 2D problem of bottom slamming. Water penetration of a wedge-shaped structure is
studied for various structural stiffness and different small deadrise angles (Fig. I). The influence of
entrapped air is also investigated.
9]4
3 VERIFICATION OF THE MODEL
As the first step in development of the model a simple case was considered for the beam N3. The
MSC.Oytran model is compared with the hydro elastic model described in our recent publications
(2000a, 2000b), which is based on application of our self-developed code. Water penetration is studied
for zero-deadrise angle without consideration of the entrapped air. No cavitation in the water is
modeled (pressure can be negative).
A history plot of displacement in the center of the

beam is shown in Fig. 6. In spite of a big distinction
between the two codes, the results are in quite a good
agreement. The difference in the maximum
displacement and the period of vibration comes up to
10-15% only. This difference can be explained by the
following factors:
• First of all, in MSC.Oytran the structure is modeled
with application of the Lagrange mesh introducing
the nonlinear geometrical behavior, while the self-
developed code operates with linear behavior .
• Secondly, there is a big difference in the models.
The self-developed code model consists of 20
rectangular water elements and 20 beam elements
for the bottom structure. While the MSC.Oytran
model operates with solid water elements and shell
elements for the structure. Moreover the fluid in
MSC.Oytran is modeled with application of the
finite volume formulation, while the self-developed
code is based on the finite element method.
4 RESULTS OF CALCULATIONS
An advanced series of calculations has been carried out in order to study different parameters
influencing the fluid-structure interaction. For each of the four beams (Table I) the following deadrise
angles: a = 0°, 2°, 5°, and 10° are considered. For each of these cases two variants are investigated with
account of entrapped air and without air. In order to evaluate the effect of hydroelasticity for each
model two simulations are performed and the maximum displacement in the center of the beam is
monitored. In the first case the hydroelastic problem is solved. This means that the hydrodynamic
loads obtained from the fluid analysis are applied to the structure and the structural response is the
boundary condition for the fluid analysis (Fig. 7). This interaction takes place for each time increment.
In the second case the fluid analysis is performed
assuming that the structure is rigid. The pressure
loads are stored. As soon as the fluid analysis is
completed the structural analysis starts and the
stored pressures are applied to the structure (Fig.
8). So there is no accounting of the structural
response in the fluid analysis.
A typical history plot for displacement in the center

of the beam is shown in Fig. 9 for the beam N3
impacting the water surface with zero-deadrise
angle (with consideration of entrapped air and
9]5
5 CONCLUSIONS
An extensive study of different parameters influencing the bottom-slamming phenomenon is discussed

in this paper based on results of numerical analyses for more than 64 models. The following
conclusions can be made:
• It was found that effect of hydroelasticity is extremely important for the bottom-slamming problem
when the deadrise angle is close to zero. With increases of the angle, the structural response
predicted through application of the rigid body water penetration approach differs less from the
results of the hydroelastic solution .
• The effect of hydroelasticity is more significant for flexible structures and becomes less important
as the structural stiffness increases .
• Entrapped air between the structure and the water surface leads to reduction of impact loads for
very small deadrise angles (0° - 5°) being a quite effective cushion. For bigger angles the effect of
the entrapped air is not important and can be skipped. The most dangerous case is observed for a
two-degree dead-rise angle when some air can escape the interface area, thus making the impact
loads higher. At the same time, for zero-angle the loads are a little bit lower because more air is
entrapped.
The conclusions given above are based on results of quite simple models. Only a 2D case is studied
and the constant speed of penetration is considered. For more complicated cases probably different
results might be expected.
References
Arai M. and Miyauchi T. (1998). Numerical Study of the Impact of Water on Cylindrical Shells.
Considering Fluid-Structure Interactions. The 7th International Symposium on Practical Design of'
Ships and Mobile Units, (PRADS'98), The Netherlands.
Bereznitski A., Boon B. and Postnov V. (2000a). Influence of the Ship Structure Flexibility on the
Hydrodynamic Impact Loads Due to Bottom Slamming. Proceedings of the 7th International
Marine Design Conference, Korea.
Bereznitski A., Boon B. and Postnov V. (2000b). The Effect of Hydroelasticity on the Impact Pressure
Due to Bottom Slamming on Ship Structure. Proceedings of 10th International OffShore and Polar
Engineering Conference, USA.
Faltinsen O.M. (1997). The Effect of Hydroelasticity on Ship Slamming. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond.
A(1997) 355,575-591.
Hermundstad OA., Wu M.K. and Moan T. (1994). Hydroelastic Response Analysis of a High Speed
Monohull. Hydroelasticity in Marine Technology, Proceedings of the International Conference,
245-259.
Hydrodynamic Impact on Displacement Ship Hulls. (1995). Ship Structure Committee, (SSC-385),
USA.
Korobkin A. (1998). Unsteady Hydroelasticity of Floating Plates. Hydroelasticity in Marine
Technology, Proceedings of the Second International Conference, 109-117.
Kvalsvold J. and Faltinsen O.M. (1993). Hydroelastic Modelling of Slamming Against the Wetdeck of
a Catamaran. FAST'93, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Fast Sea
Transportation. Yokohama Japan, 13-16.
Price W.G. and Temarel P. (1994). Prediction of Wave Induced Responses, loads and Stresses Using
Hydroelasticity Theory. International Conference on Ship and Marine Research. 1.
HYDRODYNAMIC IMPULSIVE LOADS ACTING ON SHIP-HULL

PLATES
Gang Wang
China Classification Society, Shanghai 200135, China
ABSTRACT
A numerical method is given to calculate the hydrodynamic impulsive pressure acting on side plates
and bottom plates at the bow of ship by using Mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian Method with time marching
procedure. The ship structure is assumed to be a 2-D elastic body. Based on Green's theorem and the
motion Equations of the plate with the large deflection, The motion Equations of fluid-solid coupling
based on the displacement of plate structures and fluid potential function are first derived. Considering
the dynamic boundary conditions, the numerical solutions are obtained by using the methods of the
nonlinear boundary element and the finite difference. Then water entries of the elastic wedge bodies
with various deadrise angles and plate thickness are calculated. The calculation results indicate that
impulsive loads vary with the changes of plate thickness and hydro-elastic effect compared with rigid
body's.
KEYWORDS
Impulsive loads, Fluid-Solid coupling , Hydro-elastic effect, Boundary element method, Finite
difference method,Ship structure
1 INTRODUCTION
With the increasing of the size and speed of ship, the structure at the bow of ship suffers from a great
impulsive loads and damage. Therefore, it is the most important to determine the hydrodynamic
impulsive pressure acting on side plates and bottom plates of the bow of ship at the design stage.
Several analytical methods, such as Wagner's water entry theory, similarity flow theory, asymptotic
expansion method or Laplace transformation method. With the development of modem computational
technique, the numerical methods, such as FEM, FDM(including MAC, PIC or VOF method), BEM,
are widely applied to calculate the hydrodynamic pressure. BEM is more effective method for
calculating flow field, its computational domain is limited to the boundary of the flow field, therefore
its advantages are attributed to decrease the number of the computational elements and improve the
calculation accuracy. Geers(I977)firstly calculated water-entry bodies' fluid added masses and
hydrodynamic impulsive pressures by the boundary element method. Based on the free surface's
nonlinear flow, Greenhow(I988) analyzed the problem about vertical water entry and exit of two
920
dimensional wedge bodies and cylindrical shells. Zhao&Faltinson(l992) presented a new method to
calculate the "jet phenomena" of wedge's water-entry at high speed under assumption of one
dimensional flow in the "jet flow". Falch(l986) calculated accurately nonlinear deformation of free
surface and hydrodynamic impulsive pressures at deferent time steps. In my nation, many important
and significant works (Qian(1994); Hou&Lu(l998» as same as above have also being done.
Actually, the ship hull is elastic structure. As ship hull entering water, the deformation of ship structure
will occur and also influence the motion of the fluid, i.e. coupling effect between structure and fulid
will occur. Early stage results of test and theory computation have proved such a truth that the elastic
character will change the duration time and distribution of the hydrodynamic impulsive pressure.
Therefore, the elastic effect of the structure has to be considered. In order to study the hydro-elastic
effect of ship hull and catch the truly fluid-solid coupling procedure during water entry. Two
shortcomings in the past works have been improved in this paper, which are (I) rigid wedge bodies are
replaced by elastic wedge bodies, (2) the effect of fluid-solid coupling between elastic bodies and the
water is deeply considered. The computational model is set up, which the ship structure is assumed to
be a elastic body composed of two 2-D elastic plate beam structures, and it enter water with a high
speed. According to Green's theorem and the motion Equations of the plate beam structures with the
large deflection, a new unifying motion Equation of fluid-solid coupling based on the displacement of
ship structures and fluid potential function are first applied to calculate impulsive loads. Results of
several conditions are compared with the rigid body's, and analyzing conclusions are given.
923
maximum impulsive pressure is more increasing with decrease of the elastic body's thickness.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Elastic character of ship structure is effect on ship slamming. Compared with the rigid body, Elastic
effect decrease the magnitude of impulsive pressure and change the variety regularity of impulsive
pressure which have fluctuation ,although it can't change the distribution of impulsive pressure. The
results have shown that Elastic effect of ship structure is depended on their physical parameters. In
practice, many design of ship structures on slamming is based on designer's experience. With
development of high-speed vessels , It is necessary for ship designer to select optimization
structure's parameters in order to decrease the impulsive pressure, so numerical computational method
presented in this paper is applicable to calculate the hydrodynamic loads on ship and other works such
as floats of seaplanes, missiles water entry and so on.
References
Falch S. (1986). A Numerical Study of Slamming of two Dimensional Bodies. Dr.ing. thsis, Division
of Marine Hydrodynamics. The Norwegian Institute of technology.
Geers T.L.and LodenW.A. (1977). Finite Element. Boundary Integral Analysis of Fluid-Solid Impact.
LMSC-D563591. Lockheed Palo Alto Research Lab., Palo Alto, California
Greenhow M. (1998). Water Entry and Exit of a Horizontal Circular Cylinder. Applied Ocean
Research. 10:4, 191-198
Hou Y. and Lu C.H. (1998). The Water Entry ofWadge by the Boundary Integral Method. Scientific
Report of China. ShangHai.
Qian Q. (1994). Numerical Simulation of Water Entry of Elastic Body. Dr.ing. thsis. Division of
Mechanic. The Huazhong Institute of technology
Zhao R. and Faltisen O. (1992). Water Entry of two Dimensional Bodies. Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
246,593-612
RISK ANALYSIS APPLIED TO OCCURRENCE OF MAXIMUM

WAVE BENDING MOMENT
Emil Aall Dahle', Dag Myrhaug' and Hanne Therese Wist'
'Faculty of Marine Technology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,

N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
ABSTRACT
In the rules of classification societies, the operating life of a ship is often taken as 20 years. Regarding
the longitudinal bending moment, a probability of exceedance of 10-8 is indicated, i.e. one extreme
wave encounter amongst the total of 108 waves (with a mean period of6sec). The maximum hogging
moment will occur with the maximum wave crest amidships in a wave with the same length as the ship.
Correspondingly, the maximum sagging moment occurs when the same wave has the trough amidships.
Extensive analysis of wave records to evaluate the relation between wave heights and wave periods
has been carried out in Norway. On this basis, a method for assessment of the probability of
occurrence of high waves with a distance between them corresponding to the ship length is outlined,
and sample numerical results are presented for one sea area (North Atlantic) in a sinusoidal wave for a
barge form. A simple method for obtaining a specified level of probability of exceedance of the
longitudinal strength is outlined on this basis, and an example is presented to illustrate the approach.
KEYWORDS
Risk analysis, longitudinal strength, reliability design, wave load
1 INTRODUCTION
The longitudinal strength of ships constitutes the capability of the hull girder to withstand the demand,
defined as the loads imposed by the sea and by the still water bending moment which is imposed by
the containment of cargo, ballast and bunker. The latter component is well under control by standard
calculations. The former is depending upon the dynamic loads imposed by the sea encountered by the
ship in its operating life.
Risk analysis of the design should ensure that the demand would only exceed the capability with a pre-
determined, low probability. Formerly, a static approach was employed to calculate the wave bending
moment. The ship was positioned in equilibrium in a sinusoidal wave with the same length as the ship,
normally with a height/length relationship of 0.09 to 0.10, corresponding to a commonly adopted near-
breaking criterion for ocean waves. The wave crest was positioned at amidships for calculation of the
926
hogging moment, and correspondingly, the trough was at amidships for calculation of the sagging
moment. The still water bending moment was added or subtracted as the case might be.
As specified in the Load Line Convention, elaboration of rules for strength of ships is a task for
acknowledged ship classification societies. So, using maximum allowable stress in the deck and
bottom plating as stipulated in the rules, the amidship section could be designed. Then, checking for
buckling resistance was carried out, and the job was so far done.
Now the simple procedure outlined above has been abolished, and two options are open. First,
deterministic, detailed equations are given in the rules for calculation of the wave bending moment.
Second, a probabilistic method can be employed, if all relevant statistical distributions are at hand (sea
loads, material strength etc.). Both options should ideally provide a probability of exceeding 10-8
during the lifetime of a ship (about 20 years), operating in the North Atlantic. This figure corresponds
to one critical wave encounter in a ship lifetime (20 years), using a wave period of 6 seconds.
In the following, the former basic approach is re-iterated in a modified form as follows:
• The maximum wave moment occurs when there is close correspondence between the wave length
A and the ship length L, Le. A :::::
L.
• For this wave length, the probability of exceedance can be calculated for any wave height H up to
the maximum height of 0.09 to 0.10 times A. (the near-breaking wave criterion).
• Then, the scantling can be designed with a capability to withstand the maximum wave moment
that corresponds to the chosen probability of exceedance.
The probability of exceeding wave heights for given lengths can be obtained from wave statistics for
the sea area under consideration. Long-term wave statistics must be employed. In this paper, both
hogging and sagging moments are considered in the sense that the same critical wave is assessed to
produce both moments upon passing the ship. The moments can be determined for a specific route,
while for unrestricted service, data from e.g. the North Atlantic can be employed. The approach may
be suited for a relatively simple way of evaluating alternative designs. As such, the method could fmd
its place in risk analysis, where simple methods are often applied to evaluate alternative solutions. The
approach outlined above is illustrated by a sample calculation for a barge form, for unrestricted service.
The classification rule risk level of 10-8 probability of exceedance in 20 years (or about 5·10-10per
year) is commented upon.
2 LONG TERM WAVE STATISTICS FOR SPECIFIED SHIP LENGTHS
The probability of exceeding wave heights within a narrow band of wave lengths corresponding to
some typical ship lengths has been calculated from available wave statistics. The purpose is to obtain
data for risk analysis for ships that are restricted to operate in specific trades. Such restrictions are
presented in the rules of classification societies, and they must be noted in the ship certificates. It is
believed that use of relevant wave statistics may yield a more transparent view of the probability of
exceedance. For the analysis, typical wave/ship lengths of 100, 150,200, 250m with a ± 5% band have
been selected, and the probabilities of wave height exceedance within each wave/ship length band
have been found.
The probability of exceedance P in Figure I has been calculated as follows:

928
3 PHYSICAL WAVE BENDING MOMENT
To illustrate the use of the wave statistics from Figure I, a barge with a rectangular amidships section,
Cn = I is used, with a sufficiently high freeboard to allow full effect of waves. For such a shape, the
hogging and sagging wave moments are identical in magnitude, physically as well as in the
classification rules. A sinusoidal wave with the same length as the ship length is used in the following
for calculation of the physical moment, which is found by simple, analytical integration. The result is:
MWO(PhYSical) =0.253·L2 ·B·Ho (kNm) (2)

Ho,L = wave height and ship length (m)
In Table I, the actual probabilities of maximum wave heights, based upon the near-breaking criterion
of HO(max) I L "" 0.09 are shown. The probability of exceedance per year has been taken from Figure I.
TABLE I
HO(max) AND CORRESPONDING PROBABILITY PER YEAR P OF ENCOUNTERING Ho(max)
BASED UPON HO(max) I A '" 0.09
L (m) 100 150 200 250

Ho(max) (m) 9 14 18 22
5 7
P (from Figure 1) 4.9.10- 6.6·10-6 8.9 0- 1.3 0-9
No. of waves encounteredperyear(:Z:= 6sec) 257 34 4 0.006
The probabilities of meeting maximum waves are very different. While the 100m ship can expect to
encounter 257 extreme waves per year, the 250m ship will encounter such a wave only once in 166
years.
4 THE RULE WAVE BENDING MOMENT
Advanced, three-dimensional computer programs can simulate and integrate the pressures on the ship
hull to provide the physical wave bending moment. However, a simplified approach is presented by
classification societies, e.g. by Det Norske Veritas (2000). There, the capability is given as maximum
allowable stress in the deck and bottom plating as:
CTa :0:; 175 N/mm2
For normal ship steel, NV-NS, the yield point is CT = 235 N/mm2• Thus, a material safety factor
against yield of about 1.35 is built into the rules.
The still water rule bending moment is also presented in the rules, but is neglected in the following.
The demand, or the rule hogging and sagging wave moment M wo amidships, for a barge form with a
unity block coefficient and for unrestricted service is given as:
MWO(Rule) =0.19·Cw ·L2·B (kNm) (3)
Cw = wave coefficient (empirical, given in the rules, depending on L)

B = breadth of ship (m)
Acknowledgement
This work was partly funded by Anders Jahres Foundation for the Advancement of Science.
References
Det Norske Veritas (2000). Rules For Ships.

Hogben, N., Duncan, N.M.C. and Olliver, G.F. (1986). Global Wave Statistics. Unwin Brothers,
London, UK.
Myrhaug, D. and Kjeldsen, S.P. (1984). Parametric Modelling of Joint Probability Density
Distributionsfor Steepness and Asymmetry of Deep Water Waves. Applied Ocean Research, Vol. 6, pp.
207-220.
FUZZY RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF A SHIP LONGITUDINAL

STRENGTH
J. M. Yang' and J. Y. Huang'
'Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan, China
ABSTRACT
Basically, the nature of structural strength itself is fuzzy or vague and it should not be defined as a
single value. In order to obtain a rational strength region of a ship structure and to attain the
integrity of a ship, the fuzzy arithmetic approach is needed in analyzing a ship's structural strength.
In this paper, the fuzzy reliability in which the fuzziness in both loads and resistance is taken into
consideration is used in assessing the strength of single hull tankers. The performance function in
the reliability method, based on the ultimate strength of a ship's hull girder, is evaluated by means of
the advanced second moment (ASM) method. A triangular fuzzy membership function is applied to
get approximate solutions that have generally wider interval containing the exact ranges. Furthermore,
two tankers, one is made of mild steels and the other is made of high tensile steels, are selected as
examples to examine the effect of high tensile steels on fuzzy reliability. The results of this study
may be used in reliability-based design or the development of reliability-based design criteria.
KEYWORDS
Fuzzy Reliability, Membership Function, a -cut, Advanced Second Moment Method, Fuzzy
Arithmetic
1 INTRODUCTION
During the past two decades, the reliability analysis of structures grew rapidly and was used to
improve and modify the design specifications [1,2]. The traditional design approach still works quite
well and remains simple for routine design practice. However, in order to achieve an optimal ship
design, the ultimate object, which is within an acceptable degree of reliability, becomes necessary to
apply certain probabilistic approach in design to account for the randomness of sea loads and various
uncertainties in strength analysis. There are two types of uncertainties involved in the structural
strength analysis, subjective (cognitive) uncertainty and objective (non-cognitive) uncertainty. The
objective uncertainty is usually treated by means of stochastic analysis. However, the subjective
uncertainty may be treated by traditional probability theory or modeled by fuzzy set theory [3,4,5].
7 CONCLUSIONS
In this study, approximate analysis models for predicting the fuzzy reliability of ship hull girder are
presented. These models take into account for the randomness and fuzziness. Probabilities of
failure associated with global and local failure modes are calculated. The resulting probabilities of
937
failure imply that tripping failure of the principal member of the tanker is the governing mode in
failure. In general. the larger a vessel is. the higher safety level the vessel can get [I]. However,
the results obtained in this study reveal that larger vessels. which are made of high tensile steel. are not
necessary to have higher safety levels. Because the use of high tensile steel in ship design generally
reduces the thickness of ship hulls, this may reduce the buckling strength and fatigue strength of a ship.
Therefore. more attention should be given to the detail design and the working procedure to avoid the
premature failure of the ship hulls.
Acknowledgement
The National Science Council, Taiwan, China, under Grant NSC 88-2611-E006-015. supported this
work. The authors would like to extend their gratitude to NSC for the support.
References
[1] Mansour A.E. (1990). An Introduction to Structural Reliability Theory, Ship Structure
Commillee Report, SSC-351,
[2] Mansour. A.E .. and Hovem L. (1994). Probability Based Ship Structural Safety Analysis.
Journal ojShip Research 38:4,329-339.
[3] Zadeh, L. A. (1965). Fuzzy Sets. Information and Control, 8, 338-353.
[4] Ayyub B.M. (1992). Structural Reliability Assessment with Ambiguity and Vagueness in
Failure. Naval Engineering Journal, 21-35.
[5] Shao w.J. (1995). Structural Fuzzy Reliability Analysis and Its Applications in Strength
Problems for Ships. OMAE, Volume II, 343-347.
[6] Klir G.J. and Yuan B. (1995). Fuzzy Sets and Fuzzy Logic- Theory and Applications. Prentice
Hall PTR, New Jersey.
[7] Chao RJ. (1995). Structural and Reliability Analysis of Ships with Fuzzy and Random Variables.
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Maryland.
[8] Mansour A.E. (1985). Approximate Formulae for Preliminary Design of Stiffened Plates.
ICOSSAR '85. 4th International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability, Kobe, Japan
[9] Loukakis T.A. and Chryssostomidis C. (1975). Seakeeping Standard Series for Cruiser Stern
Ships. Trans. SNAME, 83, 67-90.
[10] Hasofer. A.M. and Lind N.C. (1974). Exact and Invariant Second Moment Format. Journal of
the EnRineering Mechanics Division. ASCE lOO:EML 111-121.
RELIABILITY-BASED REQUALIFICATION OF
EXISTING OFFSHORE PLATFORMS
Torgeir Moan land Ole Tom Vardal 2

INorwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, N-7491, Norway
2 Aker Offshore Partner ASA, P.O. Box I, Sandsli, N-5861, Bergen, Norway
ABSTRACT
This paper deals with the philosophy and principles that should be applied in developing procedures
for re-qualifying existing platforms, for an extended service period, with particular view of crack
growth, based on the results of in-service inspections, weld improvement and possible increased
inspection program. These principles have been applied to assess existing North Sea platforms. A
probabilistic fracture mechanics model is applied towards this aim. Application of this methodology
requires determination of target safety levels, which are consistent with the safety regulations to
comply with as well as the reliability method to be used. In this paper particular attention is paid to
establishing the target level.
KEYWORDS
Requalification, Offshore platforms, Fatigue, Reliability, Target level
1 INTRODUCTION
Requalification means the process of demonstrating fitness for further use of an installation that may
be necessary to undertake due to e.g. desired change of use or extended service life or occurrence of
damages. Basically, requalification involves the same assessments as carried out during initial design,
except that it is carried out with more specific information obtained through monitoring and inspection
during fabrication and operation. Moreover, improvement of the safety level of an existing structure is
much more expensive than for new structures. This fact justifies the use of more advanced analyses of
loads, responses, resistances as well as use of reliability analysis, and more elaboration on target safety
level than implied by design codes.
The focus of this paper is on requalification of offshore platforms for extension of service life in view
of crack growth, based on results from in-service inspections, weld improvement and possibly an
increased inspection program. The principles for requalification that are outlined in ISO standards
(I 994, 1998) are general and do not represent an industry standard for this kind of assessment of
offshore structures. This paper deals with the development of methodology towards this aim.
940
While current fatigue design procedures are based on a semi-probabilistic SN- approach, a
probabilistic fracture mechanics approach needs to be adopted to properly account for the effect of
inspection results and the inherent uncertainty in prediction of crack growth. Such a method also
allows for treatment of the interaction between design, inspection, maintenance and repair
requirements.
In the present assessment a reliability measure of the crack growth is obtained by using and extending
the probabilistic fracture mechanics tool, PIA (Probabilistic Inspection Analysis), Kirkemo (1988,
1989), Moan et al.(l999) and Johannesen et al. (2000). When a probabilistic approach is used, the
target level also needs to be expressed in probabilistic terms.
Published test results for fatigue life improvement methods such as grinding, hammer-peening etc.
document a high potential for increased capacity against fatigue crack growth and may be utilised to
achieve an extended fatigue life.
The probabilistic method applied is outlined in an accompanying paper, Johannesen et al.(2000). The
focus here is on establishing the target level for the reliability analysis as well as describing how the
desired safety level is achieved by the inspection result: "No Crack Growth Detection", post weld
treatment, and possibly an extended inspection program.
2 IN-SERVICE VERSUS DESIGN FATIGUE ASSESSMENT
Table I summarizes characteristic features of the in-service and design fatigue assessment process. As
long as it is extremely complicated/expensive to change topology and member dimensions for an
existing structure, it is beneficial to search for other measures than traditional reconstruction to
improve the safety level. In-service observations by Magnetic Particle/Eddy Current (MPVEC)
inspections and/or strain measurements may be used to reduce the uncertainty of the estimated fatigue
life (fatigue potential). A reduced uncertainty in the estimated fatigue life may be used to reduce the
required safety margin. The safety margin for the design fatigue assessment procedure is defined by
the selected SN-curve and the regulatory requirements in terms of Design Fatigue Factors (DFF=
TfatigudTservice,where T denotes life). Table 2 shows the values specified by NPD.
The design SN-curve represents the 97.7 % quantile, which corresponds to a fatigue life approximately
one third of the mean fatigue life. Implementation of the DFFs in Table 2 gives an additional
multiplication factor on the fatigue life. Depending upon the access for inspection and the severity of
failure consequences, the design fatigue life, therefore, will be between 3 and 30 times the expected
fatigue life. The estimated initial fatigue lives are normally also conservative since each simplification
and assumption made in the fatigue analysis, is intended to be slightly conservative. This is due to the
approaches used for calculating hydrodynamic loads (which are the primary source of crack growth),
the corresponding load effects and crack growth resistance.
The actual safety margin of the design fatigue assessment methods may be obtained by use of
performance data i.e. by systematic comparison of crack growth observed and estimated fatigue life.
For instance, the studies of jackets by Vardal and Moan et al (1997-1999) resulted in the following
main conclusions:
• The number of predicted fatigue cracks are 3 to 15 times higher than observed
• 2-5 % of the observed fatigue cracks occurs in joints without any significant fatigue potential
according to the fatigue assessment methods.
• The in-service observations indicate that the crack growth starts from large initial defects.
The studies indicate that fatigue life estimates based on "standard" fatigue assessment from 1985-1990
have conservative mean values, but at the same time the level of uncertainty is even higher than
assumed.
The availability of in-service observations makes it possible to achieve significant reductions in the
level of uncertainty, (Vardal and Moan, 1997). A sufficient amount of EC/MPI inspection with the
result "No detection of a propagating crack" may be used to document an upper limit for the potential
for crack growth.
941
Fatigue analyses are normally based on a long-term distribution of stress-ranges and SN data. The
fatigue resistance is modelled by Paris-Erdogan's crack propagation law. The stress intensity factor is
described as a function of crack depth a, with assumed crack aspect ratios, cia. Further details about
the probabilistic crack growth model used for steel-plated and tubular joints may be found in
Johannesen et al (2000) and Moan et al (2000), respectively. Particular efforts were made in the former
paper to establish K-factors for the weld toe of as-welded and ground welds, recognising membrane
and bending stress conditions. Various models for POD curves are discussed in the quoted papers as
well as in Moan et aI., (1997).
On the other hand, the fatigue resistance obtained by the fracture mechanics (FM) model is sensitive to
the model of initial crack size and stress intensity factor. It is, therefore, essential that the FM-model
be validated when adopted in a regulatory context. This especially includes comparisons between
probabilistic SN and FM prediction (Moan et aI., 1993, Johannesen et a.l, 2000).
3 EQUIVALENT PROBABILISTIC REGULATORY FATIGUE EQUIREMENTS
3.1 General
According to NPD (1998) design fatigue factors (DFF) are specified according to the accessibility and
failure consequences of the detail, see Table 2. It is noted that consequences are defined in relation to
whether the structure survives a 100-year wave condition after fatigue failure of the relevant structural
component. Access for inspection implies that maintenance by inspection and potential repairs are
carried out. However, due to the lack of specification of the quality and extent of in-service inspections
required in NPD (1998), the target reliability level is deduced from the requirement of DFF values for
components that are not accessible for inspection.
This derived target level can then be met by designing the structure with a certain resistance against
crack growth, as well as by using inspection. It is then important that design criteria are chosen so that
the target level can be reached by reasonable efforts during operation i.e. a practical amount of
maintenance by inspection and repair. The DFF factors in Table 2, for components accessible for
inspection, define design criteria that combined with inspection intend to achieve the target reliability
level for the service lifetime.
3.2 Target Reliability Level
Consider relevant welded joints in a platform that has been operating for a time Tpastand is intended to
be operating for another period Tfuture. The target level for the fatigue reliability in the remaining
period Tfuturecan then be obtained by considering a fictitious new weld at Tfuture=0 that satisfies the
relevant regulatory requirement in Table 2. For a weld which is not inspected, this means a DFF of 10
or 3, depending upon the failure consequences. The "deterministic" safety measure (DFF) may then
be transformed into a reliability measure by using the relevant probabilistic fracture mechanics
approach.
It is crucial that the implied target levels are determined by the same reliability methodology that will
be used later to demonstrate compliance with the target values. This is because the results are sensitive
to the assumptions made in the reliability analysis. With a required remaining in-service time of 20
years and a required design fatigue factor of 10, the target reliability level as at the end of T futureis
found to be P~DFF~IO = 3.5, based on the methodology in Johannesen et al.(2000). The target reliability
level is independent of the initially specified service life.
The target level for the case when the consequences of failure are minor (i.e. the structure fulfills the
ALS requirements according to NPD (1998), should correspond to DFF=3. The corresponding target
level is found in a similar manner to be Pt,DFF~3=2.5.
The reliability approach outlined above, by considering a single component can be made more refined
by introducing a systems reliability approach that incorporates the following failure modes: fatigue
failure of a component, followed by ultimate systems failure. The target level is then inferred from the
942
NPD regulation, e.g. requiring DFF=lO for statically determinate systems, i.e. with a conditional
system failure probability of 1.0 given component failure. The target of fatigue probability P[FFih
level for a single component is then
P[FF,h ·P[FSYS IFF,]=P[FSysh (I)

where P[FsysIFF;] is the system failure probability given fatigue failure for the actual platform. Any
presence of residual resistance after a component failure would then imply a relaxed fatigue reliability
target level compared to the target value given above. This approach is described more in detail by
Moan et al. (1999).
The reliability target values obtained by current analysis methodology are notional values. A
systematic comparison of the theoretical prediction of and observed fatigue crack growth are to be
used for an adjustment of the theoretical model, as outlined e.g. by Viirdal, Moan et al. (1997-2000).
Based upon the authors' knowledge such data are not available for floating offshore structures. As
long as the same model is applied for estimating the reliability target values and the components
reliability level, the conclusions based on use of "notional" reliability values will give reasonable
results.
4 CASE STUDY: THE VESLEFRIKK B PRODUCTION PLATFORM
The Veslefrikk B platform is a semi-submersible platform (Fig I) and was initially constructed in 1985
and modified to a production unit and installed on the Veslefrikk field in 1989. In 1999 the platform
was modified to increase the payload and to improve the fatigue life of the comer areas of
pontoon/column connections. Additional payload capacity was achieved by sponsons on the pontoon.
Two additional columns and sponsons on the existing columns were required for the purpose of
stability, see Fig.!.
A detailed FEM analysis also revealed a high fatigue potential for the two horizontal braces.
Traditional deterministic SN-curve estimates identified that the fatigue life of the most critical area
was 5-10 years. Upon 10 years in-service and a requirement of an additional 20 years in operation,
motivated the use of a refined analysis method for estimating the potential of fatigue crack growth.
4.1 Inspection after 10 Years In-service.
An inspection program with nearly 100% EC- and 30% UT-inspection of the welds in the horizontal
braces was carried out before the platform was taken to the yard. The cracks detected by EC were
examined by microscope and classified as hydrogen cracking. These non-propagating cracks were
repaired. The UT-inspection revealed 11 crack sites that need to be monitored by inspection during in-
service.
The inspection program in the repair dock mainly focused on external MPI, one propagating crack was
detected, at a site with initial fatigue life of 15 years. This crack is assumed to have started from major
internal fabrication defects. The crack was weld repaired and the detection resulted in an extended UT-
inspection program.
The corrosion protection system included 71 anodes attached to the skin of the horizontal bracing by
284 doubling plates which represented a high crack growth potential. All doubling plates were
removed, replaced by bracelets for support of anodes and inspected. Afterwards the welded areas were
ground and hammer-peened.
4.2 Inspection and Weld Improvements Activities Required
Sufficient capacity against fatigue crack growth, can be documented by using inspection results "No
Crack Growth Detection", weld improvements methods as well as more frequent inspections.
943
4.3 In-service Inspection Programfor the Remaining 20 Years
To reach the target level it may be necessary to carry out inspections in the period after the time of
requalification. Recommended time for inspection is defined as the year when the component
reliability curve and the target reliability level, intersects. Table 3 indicates the amount of in-service
inspections required for fulfillment of the reliability target level. To get a more cost optimal
maintenance procedure, additional inspections are specified for early detection of crack growth. Early
detection of crack growth gives the possibility for grinding repair and increased inspection frequency
for avoiding costly weld repairs.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This paper deals with extension of the service life of offshore platforms in view of crack control based
on a probabilistic fracture mechanics approach.
It is demonstrated that "No Crack Growth Detection" during extensive inspections after 10 years in-
service, use of weld improvement methods by burr grinding and frequent future in-service inspection
have made it possible to extend the service life of of the platform without the significant structural
modification required for reduction ofthe load effect in the horizontal braces. The alternative approach
would have been to modify the overall design at a much larger costs.
Currently, there exists no industry standard for reliability-based requalification of service-life. The
work presented in this and the accompanying paper, by Johannesen et al. (2000), contributes towards
establishing such a standard. In particular, an approach to define a target safety level that is consistent
with the current fatigue design criterion ofNPD has been developed. This procedure may be applied to
establish target levels consistent with other regulations or standards.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Statoil and DNV Classification for their constructive co-operation.
944
References
ISO 2394. (1998). General Principles on Reliability for Structures. draft for approval.
ISO 13819. (1994). Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries-Offshore Structures Part I ,General
requirements. (1994) Int. Standard. Organization, London.
Johannesen, J.M. Moan, T. and Vilrdal, O.T. (2000). Application of Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics
Analysis for Reassessment of a Floating Production Unit - Theory and Validation. OMAE2000.
New Orleans, Louisiana.
Kirkemo, F. (1989). PIA Theory Manual. Aker, Oslo.
Kirkemo, F. (1988). Application of probabilistic fracture mechanics to offshore structures. Appl Mech
Rev., 41 :2.
Moan, T. et al. (1993). Reliability-Based Fatigue Design Criteria for Offshore Structures Considering
the Effect ofInspection and Repair. OTC1993, Paper 7189, Houston Texas.
Moan, T. et al. (1997). In-Service Observations of Cracks in North Sea Jackets. A Study on Initial
Crack Depth and POD Values. OMAE-97, Paperl335, Yokohama Japan.
Moan, T. et al. (1999). Probabilistic Inspection Planning of Jacket Structures. OTC 1999, Paper 10848,
Houston, Texas.
NPD. (1998). Regulations Relating to Loadbearing Structures in the petroleum Activities. The
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Stavanger
Nress, A. et al. (1985). Fatigue Handbook, Trondheim: Tapir Publishers.
Underwater inspection of steel offshore installations: Implementation of a new approach. London
(1989). 89/1 04, MTD Ltd Publication.
Vardal, O.T. et al. (1998). Validation of Fatigue Assessment Methods Based on In-Service
Observations. !BC-Conference, New Orleans.
Vardal, O.T. et al. (1999). Comparison between Observed and Predicted Characteristics of Fatigue
Cracks in North Sea Jackets. OTC paper no. 10847. Houston, Texas.
Vilrdal,O.T. & Moan, T. (1997). Predicted versus Observed Fatigue Crack Growth. Validation of
Probabilistic Fracture Mechanics Analysis of Fatigue in North Sea Jackets. OMAE-97,
Paperl334, Yokohama Japan.
TABLE I
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IN-SERVICE AND DESIGN FA TIGUE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
Desi n
Topology and dimensions may be
chan ed
The time for anal sis is critical.
No in-service experience is available
=> High uncertainty that requires a large

safety mar in.
TABLE 2
DESIGN FACTORS FOR FATIGUE LIFE ARE SPECIFIED ACCORDING TO
ACCESSIBILITY OF THE DETAIL AND CONSEQUENCE OF FAILURE, NPD 1998
Classification of structural
components based on damage
consequence
Substantial conse uences
Without substantial consequences
DETERMINISTIC AND PROBABILISTIC ASSESSMENT

OF FPSO HULL GIRDER STRENGTH
A. Incecik and Y. Pu
Department of Marine Technology, University of Newcastle

Newcastle Upon Tyne, NEl 7RU, UK
ABSTRACT
FPSOs are good candidates for marginal and deep water oil fields. Due to its unique operational
scenarios, such as operating generally in a location for quite long time, constant change of its loading
conditions, possible harsh environments etc, the design criteria for conventional ships are not
necessarily applicable to FPSOs. The objective of this paper is to develop a new assessment procedure
based on the prediction of global hull girder loads and stresses from first principle. In the paper
stillwater and wave-induced loads on a typical FPSO were predicted by both first principle and rule-
based calculations. The long-tenn prediction of hull-girder loads was also carried out for two sites. The
hull girder strength was then assessed by both detenninistic and probabilistic approaches. In
detenninistic analysis the primary and local strength of the FPSO is assessed by rule-based
fonnulations. The progressive collapse analysis was used to predict the ultimate strength of the hull
girder. In probabilistic analysis, reliability of three failure modes of the hull girder was estimated by
the fust order second moment method. It is found that the rule-based wave-induced load prediction
method yields much smaller values than the fust principle calculation. It is believed that wave-induced
loads should be obtained using a first principle approach.
KEYWORDS
Wave-induced loading, Design of FPSOs, Long-tenn prediction, Reliability analysis, Reliability-based

design, Probabilistic analysis.
1 INTRODUCTION
The number of FPSOs has been increasing rapidly over the world recently. It has certain advantages
over the other types offshore structures for marginal and deepwater oil fields. Due to its unique
operational scenarios, such as operating generally in a location for quite long time, constant change of
its loading conditions, possible harsh environments etc, the design criteria for conventional ships are
not necessarily applicable to FPSOs.
948
The most significant structural failure would be the loss of hull girder integrity which would lead to
loss of containment of crude oil, flooding and potentially the loss of lives and the facility. This would
also have serious consequences for the marine environment. For these reasons a study sponsored by
Shell UK Exploration and Production Ltd was carried out with participation of the University of
Newcastle Upon Tyne and Armstrong Technology Associates Limited in early 1998. The objectives of
the study are:
• To develop a new assessment procedure based on the prediction of global hull girder loads and
resulting stresses from first principle calculations.
• To correlate different hull girder assessment methods recommended by classification societies with a
reliability based procedure developed in item (I)
• To recommend a process of prescribing environmental loadings appropriate to the field area, design
life and mode of operation.
• To develop a design acceptance criterion for the hull girder.
The major findings in this project are reported in this paper. In addition, reliability analysis was carried
out for three failure modes of the hull girder of the FPSOs.
2 PROBABILISTIC PREDICTION OF HULL GIRDER LOADINGS
Hull girder loads were predicted by both rule-based formulae and first principle calculation. The
extreme wave-induced hull girder loads can be predicted by various theoretical methods. The ship
motions and hull girder loads under regular waves were evaluated by a two dimensional strip theory
approach where the hydrodynamic force coefficients were obtained from the results of experiments
carried out with various two dimensional cylinders by Vugts (1968). The method was benchmarked
against results previously computed for a tanker form using 3D methods. It proved that the 2D method
has good accuracy. Details of the theoretical formulations are given in Pu, et al (1998).
Sea environment is continuously changing. There are large number of possible wave directions and
magnitudes. Therefore the assessment of hull girder strength of the FPSO needs to consider the
responses not only in regular waves but also in irregular waves. The long-term prediction was used to
estimate the extreme design load on the hull girder since the long term approach considers all wave
conditions encountered by the floating structure regardless of their magnitudes and integrates all short
term statistical responses on the basis of the long term joint probabilities of wave parameters and the
environment directional probabilities.
In the present study the weight factor in the long term prediction is the joint probability of significant
wave height and zero crossing period given in a 1000 year scatter diagram for the central North Sea
(CNS) and west of Shetland (WOS) provided by Shell UK Exploration and Production.
The above methods were applied to two FPSOs, whose particulars were shown in Table I. The long
term extreme wave-induced vertical bending moment for a probability of exceedence (P.O.E.) of 10-8
is shown in Table 2, in which n4 is the ratio of bending moment predicted by the first principles
calculation to that by rules.
The wave-induced loads were also evaluated by formulae in classification society rules. The results are
presented in Table 3, in which Mw is the maximum wave-induced bending moment, M, is stillwater
bending moment, M, is total bending moment (=Mw +M,).
949
TABLE I
PRINCIPAL DIMENSIONS OF TIlE TWO VESSELS
TABLE 2
VERTICAL BENDING MOMENT WITII A P.O.E OF 10-8
Return period BM n4
(years) (kN-m)
Full Load 19.5 3.886e6 1.43
Barge CNS Ballast 18.2 3.586e6 1.32
Full Load 36.4 4.953e6 1.83
was Ballast 34.1 4.514e6 1.67
Full Load 19.3 3.625e6 1.1
Aframax CNS Ballast 19.1 3.826e6 1.16
Full Load 34.8 4.705e6 1.43
was Ballast 34.8 4.838e6 1.47
TABLE 3
RULE BASED PREDICTION OF BENDING MOMENT
Mw(kN-m) M,(kN-m) M, (kN-m)

Barge Hogging 2.710x106 0.707x106 3.417x106
Sagging -2.783 x 106 -3.276x106 -6.059 x 106
Aframax Hogging 3.301 x 106 2.327 X 106 5.628x106
Sagging -3.532x106 -1.091 x 106 -4.623 x 106
It can be seen that rules underestimate the wave-induced bending moment by as much as 83%. The
difference between the first principle and rule-based calculations is due to the underwater form, the
loading condition and location where the vessels are to be operated.
3 DETERMINISTIC ASSESSMENTS
In deterministic strength assessment, primary strength, local strength and ultimate strength of the hull
girder were checked. For primary strength the section modulus of amidships section was calculated.
For local strength, three failure modes, namely plate failure, failure of the stiffener - column and
torsional buckling of stiffeners, were considered in rule-based local strength calculation. Three
classification society rules, those of the American Bureau of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas and Lloyd's
Register, were used to compare the differences in ship safety margins. Because the difference of the
950
results obtained from these rules is very small, only the results based on Lloyd's Register rules are
presented in this paper.
Although the prediction of the ultimate strength of hull girder is not a compulsory task in a rule-based
design process, it is recognised that the ultimate strength predictions can offer designers very useful
information about the strength reserve of ships. Therefore progressive collapse analysis of the two
ships was carried out by employing a procedure described by Rutherford and Caldwell (1990).
The results are shown in Table 4, in which n, = actual SM I required SM , where SM is section modulus of
the cross-section. n2 is safety margin for plate failure mode, which is defined as:
in tension
in compression
where Spit is strength of plates, O"i is stress in ith element. n3 is safety margin for stiffened plates, is
defined as:
In tension
in compression
where S" = min(Sca' Set)' Sea is critical column buckling stress of stiffeners, Set is critical torsional
buckling stress of stiffeners. Also shown in Table 4 is n 5' which is defined as the ratio of ultimate
strength predicted by progressive collapse analysis to total bending moment. From this table it can be
seen that Barge FPSO is safe, but Aframax Tanker has local failure.
TABLE 4
STRENGTH RESERVES FOR DIFFERENT FAILURE MODES
n I n2 n3 ns
Barge FPSO 1.43 1.40 1.67 1.28 rule-based
Aframax Tanker 1.24 1.40 0.93 1.42 load
Barge FPSO 1.05 1.03 1.22 0.94 P.O.E.= 10-8
Aframax Tanker 0.97 1.03 0.73 1.13 load (WOS)
It is interesting to note that Aframax Tanker is safe under rule-based loading, but fails under loads
from first principle calculation. For the barge it is marginally safe if one only considers the values of
n" n2 and n3 under load from the first principle. But the total bending moment exceeds the ultimate
strength of the ship. So the ship fails too. This shows the importance of carrying out progressive
collapse analysis. In the local buckling strength check, the shift of neutral axis cannot be considered.
So the safety factors obtained from local buckling analysis are overestimated. It means that whenever
safety factors of local buckling are very close to the allowable values, a more rigorous analysis needs
to be carried out to determine the strength reserves.
951
4 PROBABILISTIC ASSESSMENTS
Reliability analysis is a powerful tool to quantify the uncertainties involved in the design process. Due
to the unique operational scenario of FPSOs, uncertainties in the design of this type of structures
would be different from other conventional ships. So it is important to apply reliability techniques to
analyse FPSOs.
The mean and standard deviation of yield stresses and Young's modulus of steel material were chosen
based on the published data (Atua, et aI, 1996). Generally speaking there is not much arguments about
the uncertainties involved in these random variables. For wave-induced bending moment, a value
corresponding to 50% of probability of exceedence from long term analysis is used as the mean value
as suggested by Mansour (1997). A 60% of the maximum stillwater bending moment at full load
condition is used as the mean value of stillwater bending moment (Guedes Soares and Moan, 1988). A
coefficient of variation of 25% is adopted. It should be pointed out that this is strictly speaking not
applicable to FPSOs due to its continuous change of loading conditions. More work needs to be done
in this aspect.
The limit state equations for ultimate strength, initial yielding and failure of stiffened plates are
expressed respectively as:
(1)
(2)
(3)
where Mu is the ultimate strength of the hull. A 10% of coefficient of variation of Mu is assumed.
The reliability analysis was carried out only for the barge FPSO because the local failure of Aframax.
The calculated respective reliability indices for three failure modes were 6.14, 11.8 and 5.78.
Obviously the reliability level of the barge is quite high.
5 CONCLUSIONS
It may be concluded that the rule-based wave-induced load predictions yield much smaller results than
the first principle calculations. There is not a simple relationship between these two. A first principle
prediction technique should be employed in calculating wave-induced loads for ships used in fixed
locations. It is recognised that extreme responses are expected to be highly non-linear due to physical
limits such as the ship deck height. In other words wave loading should be assessed with non-linear
952
methods and this is an area worthy of further in depth investigation using, for example, time domain
simulations.
Progressive collapse analysis is a very important complementary strength check, especially when
safety factors of the section modulus requirement and local buckling strength are very close to the
allowable values. The necessity is clearly shown in Table 4.
The reliability of the barge is quite high. Due to the special operational procedures of FPSOs, it is
believed that the uncertainties of stillwater bending moments and wave-induced bending moments of
FPSOs must be different trom those of other types of ships. So in order to evaluate a more realistic
reliability level ofFPSOs, further research is required to estimate these uncertainties.
Acknowledgement
The authors want to thank Shell UK Exploration and Production Ltd and Dr N.W. Snedden for the
financial support to the project on which this paper is further developed. We are grateful to Armstrong
Technology Ltd, specifically Mr G Mackie and Mr D. Dunce, for providing data and technical support
during the execution of the project. Thanks are also due to Dr. H.S. Chan for his assistance in long
term prediction.
References
Atua K., Assakkaf I. and Ayyub M. (1996). Statistical Characteristics of Strength and Load Random
Variables of Ship Structures. Proceeding of the 1hSpecialty Conference on Probabilistic Mechanics
and Structural Reliability, ed. by D.M. Frangopol and M.D. Grigoriu, Worcester, Massachusetts, Aug.
7-9,106-109.
Guedes Soares C. and Moan, T. (1988). Statistical Analysis of Still-water Load Effects in Ship
Structures. SNAME Transactions, 96,129-156.
953
Lloyd's Register of Shipping. (1997). User's Manual LR. PASS Personal Computer Programs. 2,
'Direct Calculation'.
Mansour A., Wirsching P., Luckett M. and Plumpton A. (1997). Assessment of Reliability of Existing
Ship Structures. Ship Structures Committee, Report Number SSC-398.
Pu Y., Aryawan I., Chan B.S., Dunce D., Mackie G. and Incecik A. (1998). Development of
Generalised Design Methodology for Hull Girder Strength Assessment of Mono-hull FPSOs/FSUs.
Final Report for SHELL UK Exploration and Production.
Rutherford S. and Caldwell J.B. (1990). Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of Ships: a Case Study.
SNAME, Annual Meeting, 14, 1-26.
Smith C. S. (1977). Influence of Local Compressive Failure on Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of a

Ship's Hull. PRADS - International Symposium on Practical Design in Shipbuilding, Tokyo, 73 - 79.
Vugts J.H. (1968). The Hydrodynamic Coefficients for Swaying, Heaving and Rolling Cylinders on a
Free Surface. Delft University of Technology, Report No. 194.
CONSISTENT CODE FORMULATION

FOR SHIP STRUCTURAL DESIGN
A.E. Mansouri, J.S. Spencer2, P. H. Wirsching', J.E. McGovneyl, D. D. Tarman I
I University of California at Berkeley, USA

2 Vice President, American Bureau of Shipping, Houston, TX, USA
J Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
ABSTRACT
An approach has been developed for formulating a consistent code for design of ship structures. The
developed approach is based on partial safety factor format and a prescribed reliability level
determined from calibration with existing ABS SafeHull Rules. The main advantage of the new
formulation is that it is consistent and provides uniform reliability independent of ship size or
magnitude of the design variables. Such consistency and uniformity cannot be attained ITom the usual
safety factor format currently used in lACS and Classification Societies' ship design Rules. As a
result of the inconsistencies in the current design Rules, and the deviation of the new formulation from
them, it is feasible to reduce scantlings and weight in a certain range of design parameters governing
the design of a structural member. Another avenue for weight reduction or adjustment is via
comparing the magnitudes of the safety indices calculated for similar structural members subjected to
the same loading environment.
As an example. the paper presents a consistent formulation for determining the minimum required
section modulus of tankers. Two formulations are considered, one based on yield strength of the
material, which is the criterion used in current design Rules; and the other is based on buckling and
ultimate strength considerations. The results of either formulation show that, using this consistent
procedure, it is feasible to reduce the required section modulus of some tankers whose design wave to
stillwater bending moment ratio is low, without sacrificing their relative safety level.
KEYWORDS
Reliability based code formulation, Ship structural design
1 INTRODUCTION
Probability based design has the promise of producing well designed systems, i.e., structures having
reduced weight and/or improved reliability relative to design based on conventional practices. The
basic advantage of probability-based design is the inclusion of more information into the design
956
process that is not generally included in conventional design procedures. Not only are basic geometric
characteristics of the structure considered, but also information about the uncertainties associated with
the strength of various elements and the loading are also considered. Probability based design allows
the engineer, through good judgment, to design on the basis of a target reliability for the structure thus
designing a more efficient structure.
Partial safety factors (PSF) for both strength (resistance) and load account for the variability associated
with these quantities. Generally, the higher the uncertainty, the greater the partial safety factor will be
for loads. For strength variables, greater uncertainty yields smaller partial safety factors. A base
probability of failure, or reliability index, must be established as a prerequisite to PSF selection.
While probability based design has the potential to benefit engineers in every field, this paper
specifically focuses on the application of probability based design to establish a consistent code for
tankers. The goal is to provide a more complete design guideline for shipbuilding not only to save
weight in design, but also to provide a baseline reliability that every ship will achieve regardless of
size or operation.
958
In order to relate the nominal values to the mean values, the biases applied to Mw, Ms, fy are 1,0, 0,6,
and 1,2 respectively,
Equating the section moduli given by Equ,l and Equ,2 at the value chosen of a, a target reliability
index is established, This target safety index will be applied for the remaining values of a in order to
insure a consistent standard of reliability, Based on the established reliability index and the nominal
bending moment ratio, r ( r is based on the biases applied to a), a value representing the left hand side
of Eqn,3 is found and compared with the left hand side number by lACS Rules, It must be noted that
the biases given above should be applied to the partial safety factors given by the analysis program to
allow the comparison to be made based on nominal values. R, which is the ratio of section modulus
resulting from the reliability formulation (Eqn.2) to that of lACS (Eqn,3), denotes this comparison in
the analysis,
3.2 Ultimate Strength Formulation

961
the formulation of the g-function that the curve will yield an acceptable design based on the calibrated
probability of failure. The section modulus of the reliability-based design can be inferred from R. In
some cases, this section modulus is less than that suggested by lACS (R less than 1.0). In other cases,
the section modulus is greater than the lACS section modulus (R greater than 1.0). For any given ship
moment ratio value, a comparison can be made between the two design methods.
When the probability based design code gives a section modulus less than required by lACS rules,
weight reduction can be achieved while maintaining the design reliability level. For calibration at r
equals 1.67, this means about half of the ship case studies can save weight while the other half would
technically have to add weight to achieve the desired safety level. However, if the assertion is made
that the ship with the highest nominal wave to stillwater bending moment ratio, r, is operating safely,
then all case studies except that ship have the potential to save weight. If the ship at r equals 2.0 as a
new calibration point is operating safely, and the probability of failure of that ship (which is higher
than any other ship in the case study) is acceptable, then all other ships could have a reduced section
modulus and operate at the same acceptable probability offailure (see lower line of Figure 3).
Figure 6, like Figure 3, is based on the intersection of the calibration curves with R=1.0. This again
gives a baseline probability of failure value associated with a specific moment ratio, r. If a ship's r-
value leads to a R-value less than one, the ship can again save weight while maintaining the prescribed
safety index established during calibration. These observations are identical to those made in yield
strength formulation.
S CONCLUSIONS
An approach has been outlined for formulating a consistent code for design of ship structures based on
partial safety factors and a target reliability level which is based on a calibration with existing ABS
SafeHull Rules, and lACS formulation.
Two major advantages of probability-based design over conventional methods have been identified.
The first advantage is that partial safety factor design provides a consistent reliability standard
independent of ship size or magnitude of the design variables. The second advantage is the feasibility
of weight reduction. As has been shown in this paper, weight savings can be achieved without
sacrificing the relative safety by reducing the required section modulus of ships with low ratios of
design wave to stillwater bending moments.
References
I.American Bureau of Shipping. (2000). Rules for Building and Classing Steel Vessels, Part 5.
Specific Vessel Types. Houston, TX.
2.Mansour A., Wirshing P., White G. and Ayyub B, (1996). Probability Based Ship Design
Implementation of Design Guidelines for Ship: A Demonstration. SSC-392.
3.McGovney, Jodi. (2000). Development of Reliability Based Classification Rules for Tankers.
University of California at Berkeley Thesis.
4.Wu, Justin V-To (Southwest Research Institute) and Xiaoping Du (The University ofIowa). (1998).
Partial Safety Factor Analysis Program, version abs3b.
RELIABILITY OF STIFFENED SHIP DECKS
K.Rajagopalan I
I Ocean Engineering Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

CHENNAI 600 036, India
ABSTRACT
Stiffened plates are important components in ship structures. The reliability of stiffened ship decks
must be known for characterizing the reliability of the entire ship hull. The collapse of the stiffened
ship deck can be in several modes,the predominant being the inelastic buckling of the longitudinal
stiffener alongwith an effective width of the attached plating. Classical solutions are available for the
ultimate strength. More accurate solutions can be effected using the finite element nonlinear analysis
methods. In this paper, the reliability of the stiffened ship deck is computed using the classical
methods. Parametric studies have been carried out to bring out the sensitivity of the various parameters
involved in the reliability picture.Randomness in yield stress seems very dominant. In addition it has
been shown that the classical method used has an important bearing on the reliability.
KEYWORDS
Ship structures, Risk analysis, Stiffened plates, Buckling, Effective width, Stiffener tripping,
Reliability, Safety index
1 INTRODUCTION
The stiffened deck is one of the most fundamental components of virtually all ship structures. The
ultimate strength and reliability of the hull girder depends on the ultimate strength and reliability of the
stiffened ship deck. Failure of cross-stiffened ship decks under in-plane compressive loads is primarily
by inelastic buckling of the stiffened panel between transverse frames. However, when uncertainties
are considered other buckling modes are also possible with different probability values. The ultimate
strength evaluation for the stiffened deck itself is a complex task. Several analytical solutions have
been proposed. Accurate non-linear finite element methods require enormous modeling effort and
computing time.
The reliability of stiffened ship decks is evaluated in this paper using the point estimation technique
(Rajagopalan 1993). The ultimate strength has been evaluated by three different methods namely, due
to Shapir and White(l983), Hughes(l983) and Mikami and Niwa(l996). The loading considered is the
in-plane compression generated by the overall sagging of the ship girder as a beam.
966
1.1 Methodology for Ultimate Strength
During the last decade many analytical or semi-empirical methodologies or formulae for the
computation of ultimate strength of stiffened plates subjected to in-plane compressive loads have been
proposed. Local buckling of the deck plate or the plate elements forming the stiffener does not
necessarily represent the ultimate strength, since post-buckling strength is possible. Thus either the
overall instability or panel instability with locally buckled plate elements is likely to dictate the
ultimate strength. The stability analysis of a stiffened plate can be done by examining the following
four failure modes shown in Figure I:
(a) buckling of the longitudinal stiffener with its adjacent

plate as a column
(b) tripping(lateral-torsional buckling) of the longitudinal

stiffener
(c) local buckling of the plate between the stiffeners
(d) failure of the whole stiffened deck as an equivalent

orthotropic plate
The last one is normally avoided by ensuring that transverse frames are of adequate size. The case has
however to be analysed to insure that the overall buckling is indeed avoided.
The first mode is the most usual one and is due to excessive slenderness of the "column" (the
longitudinal stiffener and associated effective plating after local plate buckling if any). Failure may be
towards the plate or towards the stiffener depending on the column's initial shape and the type of
loading considered. In continuous panels it is usual that failure is towards the plate in one span and
towards the stiffener in adjacent span.
The second and third modes are local modes due to lack of torsional rigidity of the stiffener and due to
stocky stiffeners respectively.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the research reported in this paper, the following conclusions are advanced:
The reliability analysis of stiffened ship decks can be carried out by the point
estimation technique outlined in this paper.
As the ultimate strength equation of Hughes is conservative, the reliabilities

obtained using this method are comparatively less.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the Ministry of Surface Transport,Government OfIndia,

for sponsoring an R&D Scheme on Reliability of Stiffened Ship decks to the Ocean Engineering
Centre,Indian Institute of Technology,Madras for which the author is the co-ordinator.However the
opinion expressed in this paper is of the author alone and not necessarily of these organisations.
References
Hughes O.F. (1983). Ship Structural Design, John Wiley, New York, USA
970
Mikami I and Niwa K. (1996). Ultimate Compressive Strength of Orthogonally Stiffened Steel Plates,
Journal of Structural Engineering. 122:6,674-682
Rajagopalan K. (1993). Point Estimation Technique for the Reliability Analysis of Ship Structures,
Computers and Structures. 48:5, 835-841
Shapir Y and White G.J. (1983). An Analysis of the Ultimate Strength of Deck Structures under In-
plane Loads, Marine Technology. 20:3, 230-251
TOT AL ANALYSIS SYSTEM FOR SHIP STRUCTURAL STRENGTH
T. Yoneya', H. Kobayashi', M. Abdul Rahim2, Y. Sasaki' and M. Irisawa1
1 Technical Investigation and Information Department, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai

Chiba, Japan
2 Singapore Office, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, Singapore
ABSTRACT
This paper outlines a total analysis system for ship hull structures, which integrates a wide variety of
analysis functions to realise practical applications of rational methods to the assessment of ship
structural strength. It is based on direct calculations of wave-induced load as well as three-dimensional
structural analysis of an entire-ship or hold structure. Three major analysis functions of the total
system are ship motion and wave load analysis, ship structural analysis and statistical analysis. In
addition to these major functions it is essential for realisation of a wave-induced response analysis of
an entire-ship structure to develop a powerful load translator, which can efficiently link a
hydrodynamic analysis model to a structural analysis model. The load translator is multifunction to be
capable of dynamic load generation of liquid, granular and container cargoes and ballast water as well
as wave pressure conversion in both frequency and time domains. There are pointed out some
practical and essential features to be resolved when performing such total analysis using three-
dimensional ship structural analysis. Typical examples of its practical application to double hull
tankers and large container carriers are shown.
KEYWORDS
Total system, Wave load, Ship motion, Ship structure, Statistical prediction, Load transfer, Entire-
ship structural analysis, Partial structural analysis, Hotspot stress analysis, Buckling strength,
Fatigue strength, FEA
1 INTRODUCTION
Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, or ClassNK, has been establishing a comprehensive assessment system for ship
structures aiming at realisation of rational and consistent assessment of ship structures over its lifetime.
This includes the development of new ship structural rules and guidances based on advanced research
and implementation of sophisticated and leading edge technologies in hull structural analysis as well as
the development of computer program systems using the latest information technologies. These
various advanced technologies have been brought together as an integrated group of systems and
services under the umbrella of PrimeShip, which was first announced in 1995 (Hidaka, M, 1996).
PrimeShip-ASSAS (Advanced Ship Structural Analysis and Validation System), which has been
972
yielded in the process of establishing the comprehensive assessment system, is the most rational and
practical analysis system for ship hull structures among PrimeShip systems.
Considering the sea, loading and navigation conditions, ASSAS, which is simply called "the system"
hereinafter, performs ship motion analyses, structural analyses of the entire-ship structure, hold or part
structure, and zooming analyses of stress concentration parts. This is followed by precise and complete
evaluation of yielding, buckling and fatigue strengths of structural members. The strength evaluation
is primarily based on statistical analysis using wave spectrum and long term wave statistics, though
design wave approach can also be applied. Development of the system started in 1995 and completed
in 1997, but it has been continuously upgraded with enhancement and improvement of its functions
based on the latest technologies.
The system is widely used within the society. It is fully applicable to the design assessment of a ship
with the class notation "DATA"(Designed by Application of Total Analysis concept) under the
PrimeShip umbrella, as well as to the damage investigation, development of new structural rules and so
on. In the process of establishing the comprehensive assessment system for ship structures, ClassNK
has also developed and published a technical guide regarding the strength evaluation of hull structures
(Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, 1999), which compiles technical backgrounds on new structural rules or
guidelines for a consistent and rational design and assessment of hull structures as a fruit of the long
time research project. The system has also been used as an analysis and evaluation tool for the
development of new structural guidelines, which require considerable amount of calibration analyses
on existing ships. Newly developed assessment methods and criteria will be implemented into the
system in turn.
2 ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
2.1 Analysis Functions
The overall analysis flow of the system is shown in Figure I. The system has three major functions
namely load calculation, structural analysis and statistical analysis. The calculations of ship motion
and dynamic load are carried out based on the latest strip theory. Structural analysis is performed for
an entire ship, hold or part structures using the finite element method and the static and dynamic loads
obtained from the load calculations. Statistical analysis includes the short and long term predictions of
ship motion, dynamic load and structural response to waves.
In addition to the above-mentioned major functions, the followings are essential in practical
application of the total analysis concept to ship structures:
I. Load translator to efficiently transfer the dynamic loads such as wave pressure, internal pressure
acting on tanks, inertia force of the cargo, hull girder sectional forces, etc., into the entire-ship or
hold structural models.
2. Displacement translator or zooming function to connect two different sizes of structural models -
e.g. uom entire-ship to hold structure or partial structure; or uom hold or partial structure to finer
models for hot-spot stress analysis, etc. - which facilitates translation of displacements obtained
uom the former into geometrical boundary conditions for the latter.
3. Strength evaluation function to efficiently process large amount of analytical results of stresses
obtained from uequency response analysis, time-history analysis and statistical analyses etc.
4. FEM pre- and postprocessors to effectively model ship structures to suit the analysis requirements
and postprocessor to clearly represent the structural analysis results.
As for the FEM pre- and post-processors, PrimeShip-NASTASS (NK Advanced Structural Analysis
973
Support System) can be used as a powerful exclusive modeller for ship hull structures in lieu of
general-purpose commercial software packages for CAD/CAE. It has been developed by ClassNK for
achieving efficient direct strength calculations of hold structures within a week (Tsutsui, Y, et al.,
1996).
Figure I: Overall analysis flow of the total analysis system
The principal method of analysis employed in the system is the ftequency domain analysis of a linear
dynamic response. This method is basically intended to be used for fatigue strength assessment based
on the long term probability distribution of dynamic stress, where the lower range of linear dynamic
stress has a significant role. When assessing yielding and buckling strength, the maximum stress during
974
the design lifetime can be evaluated adding the static stress obtained rrom separate static analysis to the
dynamic stress amplitude at a reference probability of exceedance.
Another method of analysis employed in the system is a kind of quasi-static method of non-linear time
domain analysis to simulate the quasi-static response during one cycle of a regular wave, e.g. an
extreme design wave. In this method, the non-linearity of ship motion and of internal and external
pressure induced by modulating wave surface can be taken into account, which cannot be considered in
the linear rrequency domain analysis.
Based on the two methods of analysis mentioned above, the system can perform:
I. Whole-ship structural analysis under still water

2. Frequency response analyses of ship motions and wave loads in regular waves
3. Quasi-static analysis of ship structures (entire-ship; hold structure and part structure) to a
regular wave
4. Quasi-static rrequency response analysis of ship structures in regular waves
5. Short and long term predictions of ship motion, wave load and ship structural responses in
irregular waves
6. Quasi-static non-linear time-history response analysis of ship structures during one wave
cycle of a regular wave
7. Yielding and buckling strength evaluation based on maximum expected stress of primary
structural members
8. Fatigue strength assessment based on the long term distribution of local stress amplitude at
the stress concentration areas
2.2 Ship Motion and Wave Load Calculation
Figures 2 and 3 show some sample screens of ship motion and wave load analysis using the system.
Figure 2 shows the operation of visually confirming the defined hull form of a container ship. Figure 3
shows the response amplitude operator (RAO) of the longitudinal bending moment in waves at the
midship section. The menu window on the right side helps to display the moments at different sections
at different ship speeds easily.
975
2.3 Ship Structural Analysis
In general, the ship structure is modelled for the following levels of analysis:
I. Entire-ship structural analysis

2. Hold structural analysis
3. Local structural analysis
The system can perform all of the above. The mesh size for the above analyses is normally one
primary frame space for entire-ship structural analysis, one secondary frame space for hold structural
analysis and one plate thickness for local stress analysis of stress concentration parts for fatigue
assessment.
The entire-ship structural analysis is

normally applied to the evaluation of
global structural strength of the hull girder
or the global deformation affecting the
partial structural behaviour. However,
with the tremendous increase in computing
power, these days the same entire-ship
structural model can be used for all the
analyses by having appropriate fine mesh
for the hold part, or very fine mesh for the
stress concentration area within the same
entire-ship model. Figure 4 shows an
example of an entire-ship structural model
with fine meshes for the three midship
holds for stress evaluation. This huge finite
element model has 184,542 elements and
Figure 4; An entire-ship model of a double hull VLCC
102,039 nodes in total, where the three
with fine meshes for the midship holds
holds with fine meshes have 173,431
elements and 96,914 nodes.
2.3.1 Applied load
The wave pressure at each strip calculated based on the strip method is translated into nodal loads for
the structural model. In non-linear time-history response analysis, the variation in waterline due to
wave and ship motion is considered. The
inertia force exerted by ballast water and
liquid or granular cargo due to ship
motion is considered as acting on the tank
boundaries. The container load is
assumed to be acting on the primary
bottom and side members of the hold
taking into account contact phenomenon.
The hydrodynamic pressure obtained from

ship motion analysis based on the strip
theory can be transferred to the finite
element model using the load translator Figure 5: External wave pressure and tank inertia
with graphical user interface. Once both pressure simultaneously acting on a double
hydrodynamic and structural models are hull tanker in waves
976
linked to each other, the hydrodynamic pressure is automatically converted to nodal forces for the finite
element model. Figure 5 shows an example of simultaneous action of the wave load on the outer hull
and inertia load of the liquid cargo on the tank boundaries in the FE model of an Aframax type of
double hull tanker.
2.3.2 Boundary conditions
When applying the calculated results of dynamic loads by ship motion analysis to an entire-ship
structural analysis, special attention should be paid on unbalanced forces over the entire-ship. The
unbalanced forces may be caused by inaccuracy of the strip theory, difference of the load distributions
between hydrodynamic and structural models and unbalance of tank inertia pressure resulting from
simplified tank modelling. These undesirable unbalanced forces should be reduced to a minimum.
2.3.3 Strength assessment
A new buckling strength formulation (Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, 1999) has been adopted in the system.
The interaction relationship takes into account five load components: compression and bending in two
directions and in-plane shear. The buckling strength interaction relationship is given in its simplified
form as:
where Cj and C2 are functions of O'bx, O'by, O'bxcr, O'bycr, rand rcr. O'x and oy are the in-plane compressive
loads acting on the plate in x and y directions, O'bx and O'by are the bending loads acting on the plate in x
and y directions, and r is the in-plane shear force acting on the plate. The subscript 'cr' stands for
critical values. Cj and C2 are functional variables of the aspect ratio of the plate.
The fatigue analysis based on the hotspot stress approach using one design S-N curve is adopted in the
system in addition to the conventional nominal stress approach using different S-N curves according to
the type of weld joint. In addition, the effect of structural mean stress and residual welding stress can
be taken into account in a form of the following equivalent stress range:
where, a= 0.6485, O'mean is structural mean stress, O'res is residual stress, and .dO'ishotspot stress range.
3 ANALYSIS EXAMPLES
Application examples of the system with

respect to a post-Panamax container ship
and a double hull Aframax tanker are
given here. Figures 6 and 7 show the
results of global structural behaviour and
local stress distribution by the same
entire-ship analysis with finer meshes
around the hatch corners of the post-
Panamax container ship.
Figure 6: Torsional deformation and stress distribution
of a post-Panamax container ship
977
Figure 7: Local stress distribution of an entire-ship Figure 8: Dynamic stress distribution of a double
model around finer meshes embedded hull Aframax tanker in waves
An example of a series of calculations to obtain stress response functions of a double hull Aframax
tanker is given in Figure 8. In the calculations unbalanced forced were carefully checked and reduced
as much as possible.
The Advanced Structural Analysis and Validation System (ASSAS) is aimed at providing a practical
tool to the rational assessment of ship structural strength considering actual environmental conditions
as precisely as possible. With the advent of computing technology that can process massive amounts
of data in a short time, it has become possible to accurately assess very complicated structures like ship
hull structure. This paper outlines with examples the advanced analysis and validation technologies
involved in the system which supports many important aspects of the technical calculations for damage
investigation, new rules development, and plan approval and technical consultation services offered by
ClassNK.
References
Hidaka, M (1996), "Role of Classification Societies - Introduction of Advanced Technology of

ClassNK "PrimeShip"," ClassNK Technical Bulletin, Vol. 14, pp 79-80.
Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (1999), Technical Guide Regarding the Strength Evaluation of Hull Structures.
Tsutsui, Y, et al. (1996), "PrimeShip-NAST ASS: NK Advanced Ship Structural Analysis Support
System," ClassNK Technical Bulletin, Vol. 14, pp 91-100.
UNCERTAINTY AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSES IN THE

PREDICTED CRITICAL BUCKLING STRENGTH OF A
LONGITUDINALLY STIFFENED SUB-PANEL
Wei-Cheng Cui, Li-Juan Shi and Jin-Fei Zhang
School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
ABSTRACT
Reliability methods have gained more and more popularity in ship structure community. In carrying
out the reliability analysis of existing ship structures or implementing reliability based design rules for
new ships, it is necessary to determine the statistical characteristics for both capacity and demand. For
ship structures deck buckling under wave sagging bending moment is one of the most important failure
modes to be considered and for this failure mode the structural resistance is often modeled by the
buckling of a longitudinally stiffened sub-panel. In this paper the uncertainty in the predicted critical
buckling strength and its sensitivities to the basic random variables are studied. A new method to
calculate the mean and standard deviation of a function of random variables is introduced and a new
sensitivity vector which can describe both parametric sensitivity and importance measure is proposed.
The results would be useful for reliability analysis and design.
KEYWORDS
Uncertainty, Longitudinal stiffened sub-panel, Flexural buckling, Stiffener tripping, Critical buckling
strength, Sensitivity analysis.
1 INTRODUCTION
Structural design is always based on a comparison between demand and capacity, no matter whether it
is a deterministic safety factor approach or a reliability based approach. Although the deterministic
approach is still dominant in the current design rules of ship structures, reliability based design rules
are expected to be implemented soon [Guedes Soares et aI1996].
In carrying out the reliability analysis of existing ship structures [Mansour et al 1997] or implementing
reliability based design rules for new ships [Guedes Soares et al 1996], it is necessary to determine the
statistical characteristics for both capacity and demand. Much work has been done and reported in the
literature, e.g Hughes et al (1994). However, it is pointed out in [Cui 2001] that the concepts and
methods in determining the uncertainty in both load and capacity are not very consistent. Some
clarifications have been made. This paper is a further continuation of Ref. [Cui 2001].
980
According to Hughes et al (1994), uncertamtles in structural engineering systems can be mainly

attributed to ambiguity and vagueness in defining parameters of the systems and their relations. For the
structural capacity considered in this paper, the vagueness related uncertainties also exist. Let us define
the true capacity of a structure in the following way:
(1)
where Clrue is the true capacity of the structure, Cexp is the structural capacity determined from
experiments, Cpred is the structural capacity calculated trom a theoretical method.
Then the determination of the capacity through experiments, Cexp, may contain a large amount of
vagueness-related uncertainties. For example, the definition of the structural failure and the
measurement of the actual structural state need human judgement and they are not unique in nature.
However, these uncertainties are extremely difficult to quantify. As a matter of fact, structural
engineers and researchers have dealt only with the ambiguity types of uncertainty.
The second ratio of the experimentally determined value over the predicted value is called the
modeling uncertainty, while the uncertainty in the theoretically predicted value is called natural
uncertainty. Determination of the modeling uncertainty for the present method has been addressed in
Ref. [Cui 2001] with a mean bias of 0.95 and a standard deviation of 0.10. In this paper, we
concentrate on the natural uncertainty. A new method to calculate the mean and standard deviation of a
function of random variables is introduced and a new sensitivity vector which can describe both
parametric sensitivity and importance measure is proposed. Based on these, the sensitivities of the
critical buckling strength of a longitudinal stiffened sub-panel to some basic geometric and material
parameters are studied.
2 PREDICTION METHOD FOR BUCKLING STRENGTH OF A LONGITUDINALLY

STIFFENED SUB-PANEL
Various methods are available to calculate the structural capacity of ship structures corresponding to
different types of failure modes. Generally these methods can be categorized as simplified analytical
solutions, e.g. [Zhou et al 1997], semi-finite element methods such as ISUM [Paik 1993] and Smith's
method [Smith 1977] and fully nonlinear finite element method [Chen et al 1983]. In this paper, we
take a very typical example of deck panel buckling for discussion.
For many ship structures such as large oil tankers, deck buckling under wave sagging bending moment
is the dominant ultimate strength failure mode. For this failure mode, the structural capacity can be
estimated by the critical buckling stress of a longitudinal stiffener with an attached plating. The
prediction formulas are given as follows [Zhou et aI1997]:
(2)
where Gy is the yield stress of the material, MPa; GE is the minimum of elastic flexural buckling stress
GEB and the elastic buckling stress due to stiffener tripping GET, MPa.
The elastic flexural buckling stress GEB and the elastic buckling stress due to stiffener tripping GET can
be calculated by the following equations [Zhou et al 1997]:
3 A NEW METHOD TO DETERMINE THE NATURAL UNCERTAINTY OF A FUNCTION
OF RANDOM VARIABLES
Mathematically, calculation of the mean and standard deviation of the critical buckling strength is to
calculate the mean and standard deviation of a function of random variables. For this purpose, Cui et al
(1998) have compared various methods and a new method has been proposed. The method is described
as follows:
Let Xl, X2, .•. , Xn be n uncorre1ated basic random variables with means and standard deviations of )-Lxi
and crx; (i=I,2, ... ,n). G is a differentiable function of these basic random variables denoted by Y=G(X).
We are asked to calculate the mean and standard deviation of Y.
Let us define
4 UNCERTAINTY AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSES IN THE PREDICTED CRITICAL
BUCKLING STRENGTH OF THE LONGITUDINALLY STIFFENED SUB-PANEL
4.1 Uncertainty Analysis in the Predicted Critical Buckling Strength of the Longitudinally Stiffened
Sub-panel
Ifwe assume that each of the geometrical and material parameters are random variables with statistical
characteristics given in Table 1, the mean and the standard deviation of the critical buckling stress
using this new method together with the formulas in section 2 are 438.2 MPa and 32.28 MPa
respectively. The coefficient of variation is 0.074.
4.2 Sensitivity Analysis Approaches
The critical buckling strength is a function of several random variables. It is certainly of great
significance to know the sensitivities of the function to each of the random variables and rank the
importance of the basic random variables through some measures. In general the sensitivity analysis
needs to address two problems. One is the significance of a random variable to the function value
while the other is how sensitive the function value to the change of the parameters of the random
variables such as mean and standard deviation. The former is also called the importance measure while
the later is called the parametric sensitivity factor (DNV 1992).
TABLE I
STATISTICS OF BASIC RANDOM VARIABLES
Variable Variable name Physical meaning mean s.d. COV

order
I <Jy (MPa) Yield strength of the 476.77 38.14 0.08
material
2 t (mm) Thickness of the plating 8.0 0.24 0.03
3 E (MPa) Young's modulus 200000.0 6000.0 0.03
4 I (mm) Length of the stiffener 1500.0 15.0 0.01
5 B (mm) Width of the Dlating 400.0 4.0 0.01
6 Dw (mm) Web height 105.745 1.05745 0.01
7 tw (mm) Web thickness 6.5 0.065 0.01
8 bf (mm) Flange width 30.0 0.30 0.01
9 tf (mm) Flange thickness 14.255 0.14255 0.01
Different definitions for sensitivity analysis exist in the literature and there is no universally accepted
one [e.g. Wirsching et al 1994; Mansour and Wirsching 1995]. In order to provide answers to both
problems, Zhang et al (1998) suggested to define a sensitivity vector for each random variable to
describe both the sensitivity of parameters and the significance of the random variable.
4.3 Sensitivity Analysis Results of the Predicted Critical Buckling Strength
The method presented in this paper can be easily implemented into a computer program. Sensitivity
analyses to the predicted critical buckling strength are carried out using the program and the results are
given in Table 2.
TABLE 2
SENSITIVITY OF THE CRITICAL BUCKLING STRENGTH TO BASIC RANDOM VARIABLES
°lll TJlli 0", TJ"I AI

Sensitivity
Variable
cry 32. I 859 -0.4847 -0.4277 32.2125 0.9290
T -0.4941 -0.0239 -0.06 I 5 0.0083 0.0102
E 1.06 I 0 -0.0678 0.1610 0.0399 0.0219
L -0.7823 -0.0079 -0.1182 0.0208 0.0 I 6 I
B -0.0728 0.0015 -0.0065 0.0002 0.0015
dw 0.6935 -0.0216 0.1 025 0.0167 0.0143
tw -0.0164 -0.0001 -0.0044 0.00001 0.0003
br O.I 420 -0.0016 0.0201 0.0007 0.0029
tr 0.1792 -0.0016 0.0255 0.0011 0.0037
Using these sensitivity results ranking of the variables can be made. A summary of the ranking of the
variables with respect to each of the sensitivity measure is given in Table 3. From table 3 it can be seen
that the yield strength of the material is the dominant parameter which affects the uncertainty of the
critical buckling strength. The next two important parameters are the Young's modulus and the length.
After that comes with the web height and the thickness of plating. The rest of the variables are very
984
insensitive to the uncertainty of the critical buckling strength.
TABLE 3
RANKING OF VARIABLES BASED ON THE SENSITIVITY STUDIES
Sensitivity 01'1 Tll'i Ocri Tlcri A.i

Ranking
I Yield strength Yield strength Yield strength Yield strength Yield strength
2 Young's Young's Young's Young's Young's
modulus modulus modulus modulus modulus
3 Length Plating Length Length Length
thickness
4 Web height Web height Web height Web height Web height
5 Plating Length Plating Plating Plating
thickness thickness thickness thickness
6 Flange Flange width Flange Flange Flange
thickness thickness thickness thickness
7 Flange width Flange thickness Flange width Flange width Flange width
8 Plating width Plating width Plating width Plating width Plating width
9 Web Web Web Web Web
thickness thickness thickness thickness thickness
5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
In reliability analysis and design of ship structures it is necessary to determine the probabilistic
characteristics for both the demand and the capacity. For ship structures deck buckling under wave
sagging bending moment is one of the most important failure modes to be considered and for this
failure mode the structural resistance is often modeled by the buckling of a longitudinally stiffened
sub-panel. In this paper a new method to calculate the mean and standard deviation of a function of
random variables is introduced and a new sensitivity vector which can describe both parametric
sensitivity and importance measure is proposed. Based on these, the sensitivities of the critical
buckling strength of a longitudinal stiffened sub-panel to some basic geometric and material
parameters are studied. Using these sensitivity results ranking of the variables have been made. It can
be seen that the yield strength of the material is the dominant parameter which affects the uncertainty
of the critical buckling strength. The next two important parameters are the Young's modulus and the
length. After that comes with the web height and the thickness of plating. The rest of the variables are
very insensitive to the uncertainty of the critical buckling strength.
References
Chen YK, Kutt LM, Piaszczyk CM, Bieniek MP. (l983).Ultimate strength of ship structures. Trans.
SNAME, 91, 149-168.
Cui WC, Xu XD, Qiu Q. (1998). A fast method to calculate the mean and the standard deviation of the
function of random variables. J of Ship Mechanics, 2:6,50-60 (in Chinese).
Cui WC. (2001). On consistent determination of structural capacity statistics for reliability analysis,
submitted to Journal of Ship Mechanics.
DNV Classification Notes No.30.6. (1992). Structural reliability analysis of marine structures. DET
NORSKE VERITAS Classification AS.
Guedes Soares C, Dogliani M, Ostergaard C, Parmentier G, Pedersen PT. (1996). Reliability based
ship structural design. SNAME Transactions 104, 357-389.
Hughes 0, Nikolaidis E, Ayyub B, White G, Hess P. (1994). Uncertainty in strength models for marine
985
structures. SSC-375, Ship Structure Committee.

Mansour A, Wirsching P, Luckett M, Plurnpton A et al. (1997). Assessment of reliability of existing
ship structures. SSC-398, Ship Structure Committee.
Mansour AE, Wirsching PH. (1995). Sensitivity factors and their application to marine structures,
Marine Structures, 8, 229-255.
Paik, lK. (1993). ALPSIISUM: A computer program for nonlinear analysis of large plated structures
using the Idealized Structural Unit Method. Pusan National University, Pusan, Korea.
Smith, C.S. (1977). Influence of local compressive failure on ultimate longitudinal strength of ship's
huH, Proc. Int. Symp. Practical Design in Shipbuilding (PRADS'77), Tokyo, pp.73-79.
Zhang W, Cui WC, Xu BH, Zhang SK. (1998). New method on calculating sensitivity factors, J of
Shanghai Jiaotong University, 32:11, 26-29 (in Chinese).
Zhou GH, Shu CG, Lu ZG, Chen RZ, Cui WC. (1997). Introduction to reliability research on oil tanker
huH structure and reliability analysis of longitudinal strength. Science and Technology of Ship Survey,
2, 108-123 (in Chinese).
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
ON ULTIMATE HULL BENDING MOMENT
Ph. RIGO 1.2, C. TODERAN I and T. YAO ]
I Department of Naval Architecture (ANAST), University of Liege

Chemin des Chevreuils nOI (B52/3), B-4000 Liege, Belgium
2 National Fund for Scientific Research of Belgium - NFSR
J Dept. of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering (NAOE), Osaka
University
2-1 Yamada-Oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS
Ultimate strength, Stiffened panels, Strain and stress curve, Ultimate bending moment, HuIl girder,
Progressive coIl apse analysis, Sensitivity analysis.
1 INTRODUCTION
Buckling, tripping, yielding, ... of plate, panels and longitudinal structural members affect the overaIl
coIlapse behaviour of a ship huIl cross-section under longitudinal bending moment. Figure I shows
several typical "average stress-average strain (a-c)" relationships of a stiffened panel composed of a
stiffener and attached plating under axial compression (beam-column). Even if all these curves
consider the buckling effect they differ by the value of the "au" compressive ultimate strength as weIl
as by the shape of the post-coIlapse residual strength. The models used to get these curves are the
foIlowing:
(MI) HULLST (Yao 1991,1999): Rational numeric analysis of the "a,," ult. strength and "a-E" curve,
(M2) RAHMAN (Rahman and Chowdhury 1996) + HUGHES (Hughes 1988): Rational formulation
for the ultimate strength "a,," and simplified rational "a-E" curve.
995
- Paik, JK, and Mansour AE. (1995). A Simple Fonnulation for Predicting the Ultimate Strength of
Ships. J of Marine Science and Technology. 1, 52-62.
- QuesneL Pradillon, Toderan, Rigo. (2000). Ultimate Strength of Longitudinally Stiffened Panels:
Multi-criteria Comparative Analysis. Proc. 8'h Int. Symp. PRADS, Elsevier Science Ltd., Shanghai,
China, 7p.
- Rahman R.K., Chowdhury M. (1996). Estimation of Ultimate Longitudinal Bending Moment of
Ships and Box Girders. Journal of Ship Research. 40:3,.244-257.
- Rigo Ph. (1998). Constraints - Ultimate Strength - Hull Girder. Chap IV of LBR-5 an Optimization
Model for Naval and Hydraulic Structures. Thesis: Agregation Enseignement Superieur, University
of Liege, Belgium, 378p. (in French)
- Smith C.S. (1977). Influence of Local Compressive failure on Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of
ship's hull, Proc. Int. Symp. PRADS?7. Tokyo, Japan. 73-79.
- ULSAP (2000). ALPS/ULSAP: User's Manual. Proteus Engineering (proteusengineering.com).
USA, 46p.
- Yao, T, and Nikolov, PI. (1991). Progressive Collapse Analysis of a Ship's Hull under Longitudinal
Bending (Part 1).1. Soc. Naval Arch. of Japan. 170,449-461. (Part 2 : 172,437-446 in 1992).
- Yao, T. (1999). Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of Ship hull Girder; Historical Review and state of
Art. Int. 1. Offshore and Polar Engineering. 9:1, 1-9.
- Yao et al. (2000). Report of Committee VI.2: Ultimate Hull Girder strength, Proc. ]4'h International
Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, Ohtsubo and Sumi (Eds), Elsevier. 2, 321-391.
ASSESSMENT OF ULTIMATE LONGITUDINAL STRENGTH

OF AGED TANKERS
A. Ikeda,l T. Yao,2 O. Kitamura,3 N. Yamamoto,4 M. Yoneda,2 and H. Ohtsubo5
IMaritime Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport,

2-3-1, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8918, Japan
2Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1, Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
3Nagasaki Research & Development Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.,
5-717-1, Fukahori-machi, Nagasaki, Nagasaki 851-0392, Japan
4Research Center, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, 1-8-3, Ohnodai, Midori-ku, Chiba, Chiba 267-0056, Japan
5 Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
ABSTRACT
The influence of thickness diminution due to corrosion on the ultimate longitudinal strength is
investigated. At the beginning, the characteristics of corrosion damage in existing single hull tankers
are investigated. It was found that the diminution ratio of the thickness at deck/bottom part is almost
the same as that of the section modulus of the hull girder cross-section. Then, two series of progressive
collapse analyses are performed on hull girders of eleven single hull tankers subjected to longitudinal
bending, and the ultimate longitudinal strength was evaluated. Both the FEM and the Smith's method
are applied for analyses. Almost linear relationship was found between the reduced section modulus
and the ultimate longitudinal strength of aged single hull tankers with corrosion damage. It was
concluded that the reduction of the section modulus should be within 15% of its original value to
prevent break-up of the hull girder in case of single hull tankers.
KEYWORDS
Aged ship, Thickness diminution, Ultimate longitudinal strength, FEM, Smith's method, Progressive
collapse analysis
1 INTRODUCTION
Casualty of M.V. Nakhodka in 1997 caused a serious environmental pollution by spilt oil along the
coast of Japan Sea. The investigation committee was established by the Japanese goverrunent to find
out causes of the casualty. It was found that one of the causes of this casualty was the thickness
reduction in panels and stiffeners due to heavy corrosion, which led to the reduction in ultimate
998
longitudinal strength.
It was considered that an international regulation is necessary to prevent the occurrence of similar
casualties. To provide technical data for the proposal of such regulation, a research panel was newly
established in Japan, and the ultimate longitudinal strength of aged single hull tankers was investigated.
This paper summarises the technical aspect of the results of investigations carried out in the panel.
First, the characteristics of thickness diminution due to corrosion was thoroughly investigated on the
basis of measured data on existing tankers. The influence of thickness diminution on section modulus
of the hull girder was analysed.
At the same time, progressive collapse analyses were carried out on three existing tankers applying the
FEM and on eleven tankers applying the Smith's method both considering the influences of buckling
and yielding of structural members. On the basis of the calculated results, the influence of thickness
diminution on ultimate longitudinal strength was investigated. The calculated ultimate longitudinal
strength was compared with the design bending moment specified by the lACS rule, and the safety of
the aged tankers is discussed in relation to the thickness diminution due to corrosion.
2 CHARACTERISTICS OF CORROSION DAMAGE IN EXISTING SINGLE HULL

TANKERS
2.1 Survey of Plate Thickness Measurement Record
Data of diminution of plate thickness were collected from the plate thickness measurement record. The
data at 184,899 points in total were obtained from 307 measurement records on 144 tankers (JG 2000).
Large scatter was observed in the measured data depending on the locations of measurements as well
as object ships. Stochastic characteristics of measured data were investigated including the
relationships among diminutions in different members and that between diminutions of structural
members and section modulus of a hull girder.
2.2 Correlation between Diminution of Sectional Area and Diminution of Section Modulus
Figure I shows the correlation between diminution ratios of the flange sectional area and the section
modulus. Here, flange is defined as the deck and/or bottom plating with longitudinal stiffeners and
girders. Figure 1 includes data from 25 tankers which are classified into Group 1 (over 150 kDWT),
Groupe 2 (80 to 150 kDWT), Groupe 3 (60 to 80 kDWT) and Groupe 4 (below 60 kDWT).
The correlation coefficient between two diminution ratios is 0.99 or more in both upper deck and
bottom parts of the vessel, and the correlations are very good. This indicates the possibility to estimate
the diminution ratio of the section modulus on the basis of the diminution ratio of the flange sectional
area.
999
3 SINGLE HULL TANKERS FOR STRENGTH ANALYSIS AND ASSUMED DIMINUTION
For strength analysis, 11 single hull tankers were chosen as object vessels, which are classified into 3
groups according to DWT. Principal dimensions and built years of individual vessels are indicated in
Table 1 (JSRA 1999,2000).
TABLE 1
PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS OF OBJECT SHIPS
Shin ID Built Year Lpp(m) Oem) OWT(ton)

A 1982 195 16.3 40,000
B 1989 265 23.8 146,000
C 1993 319 31.5 290,000
0 1992 315 30.53 281,018
E 1989 222 20.3 95,987
G 1991 215 20.4 70,887
H 1975 260 22.4 139,414
J 1975 265 21.5 134,970
L 1981 219 18.3 58,508
M 1979 200 18.7 59,535
N 1976 197 18.3 39,999
As for the degree of thickness diminution, an extreme case was considered, in which individual
structural members suffer the diminution of their limit values specified by classification society rule.
This diminution is denoted as I1tmax, and is called the case with full diminution. In this case, the
diminution is roughly 25% of the original thickness at the deck and bottom plating, and is about 30%
of the original for longitudinal stiffeners. The cases with diminution of a half of the extreme case and
without diminution are also analysed.
The minimal guaranteed value of the yield strength was not used; instead, lower bound of the actual
value was chosen for more realistic estimation.
4 METHODS OF ANALYSES
4.1 Finite Element Method
A series of detailed 3-dimensional finite element analysis was performed on Ships A, B and C
applying an explicit finite element code, LS-DYNA3D, which was specially customised for the
collapse simulation of the ship structure (JSRA 1999). In the present analysis, the panels were assumed
to be accompanied by initial deflection of a hungry-horse mode. For the longitudinal stiffeners, initial
deflections of flexural and torsional buckling modes were imposed. The welding residual stress was
not considered. Combined bending moment and direct pressure load were applied.
4.2 Smith's Method
Another series of progressive collapse analysis was also performed on 11 vessels in Table 1 applying
the Smith's method (Smith 1977). The computer code, HULLST (Yao et ai. 1992) was used for this
analysis (JSRA 2000).
In the Smith's method, the cross-section of a ship's hull is divided into stiffened plate elements
composed of a stiffener and attached plating. At the beginning, the average stress-average strain
relationships for individual elements are derived considering the influences of buckling and yielding.
Then, progressive collapse analysis is performed assuming that the plane cross-section remains plane
1000
during progressive collapse. A curvature is imposed incrementally. In this process, all the elements are
assumed to behave following their average stress-average strain relationships, and the shift of a neutral
axis of the cross-section caused by buckling and yielding of individual elements is considered.
In the present analysis, similar initial deflections as those in the FEM analysis were imposed on plates
and stiffeners. In addition to this, welding residual stress was given in the panel, although the influence
of direct pressure load on bottom and side shell plating was not considered.
5 RESULTS OF PROGRESSIVE COLLAPSE ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS
5.1 Results of Analysis Applying the FEM
Figure 2 shows the collapse mode obtained by the FEM analysis on Ship B with full diminution under
the sagging condition. It is seen that the buckling/plastic collapse takes place at a certain cross-section
with the concentration of plastic deformation. At this cross-section, tripping of the deck longitudinals
is observed as well as local collapse of the deck plating and overall collapse as a stiffened panel by
buckling. On the other hand, no collapse is observed in the remaining part, and this results in the
collapse of a jackknife mode. Analysis was performed for three cases assuming no, a half and full
diminutions, and the evaluated ultimate strength is plotted by solid marks against diminution ratio of
the section modulus of a hull girder in Fig. 4 together with those obtained by the Smith's method.
Figure 2: Collapse mode of Suezmax tanker in sagging
5.2 Results of Analysis Applying the Smith's Method
Figure 3 shows the relationship between the bending moment and the curvature for Ship D. It is seen
that the flexural rigidity of the hull girder and the ultimate longitudinal strength are reduced in
accordance with the magnitude of thickness diminution. With full diminution, the reduction ratio of the
ultimate longitudinal strength is about 33%.
In sagging, the ultimate strength is attained soon after the deck has been collapsed by buckling.
Contrary to this, in hogging, the buckling collapse of the bottom dominates the collapse of a hull girder
under longitudinal bending.
5.3 Comparison of Ultimate Longitudinal Strength Obtained by Different Methods
The ultimate strength obtained by the FEM analysis is compared with that by the Smith's method in
Fig. 4. A comparison of the ultimate strength proves that both results show good agreement each other
by a mean difference of about 5%. The FEM analysis gives higher ultimate strength than the Smith's
method in general. This can be attributed to the following caus~s: (I) The simplified analysis was
performed under the assumption that there was no interaction between adjacent elements and that the
1001
cross-section of the hull girder remains plane, i.e., compressive strain level should increase linearly
with respect to the distance from the neutral axis; (2) The FEM analysis has a tendency to give upper
bound strength because of the relatively coarse mesh of practical degree. Consequently, it can be
concluded that the actual ultimate longitudinal strength is intermediate between the results applying
the FEM and the Smith's method.
Figure 4: Comparison of the ultimate longitudinal strength applying the FEM and the Smith's method
5.4 Strength Assessment of Aged Single Hull Tankers
On the basis of the ultimate longitudinal strength evaluated by the Smith's method, the safety factor is
calculated, which is defined as the ratio of the evaluated ultimate longitudinal strength to the maximal
bending moment expected to encounter during the survice period.
The safety factors are plotted against the diminution ratio of the section modulus in Fig. 5. It is shown
that the upper limit of diminution ratio in terms of section modulus at which the ultimate longitudinal
strength coincides with the maximal bending moment corresponds to approximately 15 % of the
original value. Accordingly, the section modulus should not be less than 85 % of the original value
from the viewpoint of ultimate longitudinal strength. This implies that the diminution of the flange
area should be less than 15 % of the original value according to the results in Chapter 2.
1003
6 CONCLUSIONS
In the present paper, results of the research to assess the ultimate longitudinal strength of aged single
hull tankers are sumrnarised. It has been found that:
(1) Diminution ratio of the section modulus of hull girder is approximately the same as that of the
flange area of the deck and/or bottom plating with longitudinal stiffeners and girders
(2) The ultimate longitudinal strength evaluated by the Smith's method shows good agreement with
that obtained by the FEM.
(3) Linear relationship is observed between the diminution ratios of the ultimate longitudinal strength
and the section modulus.
(4) Diminution of 15% is allowable at the deck and the bottom plating from the viewpoint of ultimate
longitudinal strength.
References
JG (Japanese Government) (2000). Annex 2: Diminution of Section Modulus of Tankers due to

Corrosion in "Amendments to the Assembly Resolutions A.744 (18)." IMO DE43/INF3.
JSRA (Japan Shipbuilding Research Association) (1999) Investigation into Structural Safety of Aged
Ships. Report of No. 74 Rule and Regulation Committee (in Japanese).
JSRA (Japan Shipbuilding Research Association) (2000) Investigation into Structural Safety of Aged
Ships. Report of No. 74 Rule and Regulation Committee (in Japanese).
Smith C.S. (1977). Influence of Local Compressive Failure on Longitudinal Strength of a Ship's Hull
Girder. Proc. Int. Symp. on PRADS. Tokyo, Japan. 73-79.
Yao T. and Nikolov P.I. (1992). Progressive Collapse Analysis of a Ship's Hull Girder under
Longitudinal Bending (2nd Report). JSoc. Naval Architects of Japan 172,437-446
ULTIMATE STRENGTH AND RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT

FOR THE SHIP HULL GIRDERS
USED IN ISSC-2000 BENCHMARK STUDY
Hai-Hong Sun I and Yong Bai2
I Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430063, China

2American Bureau of Shipping, 16855 Northchase Drive, Houston, TX 77060, USA
ABSTRACT
Structural failure of ship hull girders due to extreme bending moments is the most catastrophic event.
The paper deals with the ultimate strength and reliability analysis of the hull girders that have been
used in the benchmark study by ISSC 2000 committee VI.2 (Yao et al 2000). A simplified method is
proposed based on Smith method to calculate the progressive collapse of the hull girders. An ultimate
strength equation is suggested and compared with the prediction of the present simplified method and
that by Yao et al (2000) is applied to assess the reliability of the hull girders of bulk carriers, container
ships, double hull VLCC tankers and single hull VLCC tankers, accounting for time dependent
degradation effects of corrosion and fatigue. Time-variant reliability of the hull girders is quantified
using the proposed reliability method.
KEYWORDS
Ultimate strength, Corrosion and fatigue, Time-variation reliability assessment; Response surface
method
1 INTRODUCTION
Structural failure of ship's hull girders due to extreme bending moments is the most catastrophic event.
In ship structural design, three types of hull girder failure modes are usually considered, namely fully
plastic moment, initial yield moment and progressive collapse moment. Of these failure modes, the
fully plastic moment and initial yielding moment failure of a hull girder may be easily calculated,
using explicit analytical equations. The progressive collapse moment of a hull girder is far more
complicated to predict because it is affected by buckling and post-buckling behavior of individual
plates and stiffened panels. In order to identify accurate evaluation methods for the ultimate strength of
hull girders, the committee VI.2 of ISSC 2000 selected five hull girders for benchmark study (Yao, et
ai, 2000). The scatter of results obtained from all committee members was not so large when the
stiffened panels with fabrication imperfections were given due considerations and degradation effects
due to corrosion and fatigue cracks were not included. There are four types of methods to analyze the
1006
progressive collapse of a hull girder: simplified method based on Smith method (Yao et ai, 1991,1992)
ISUM (Paik, 1996), plastic node method (Bai, 1993) and nonlinear finite element method (Chen et ai,
1983). In the first part of this paper, a simplified method using the formulas of effective width 01
plating by Guedes Soares( 1988) and three distinct zones of stiffened panel by Rahman and
Chowdhury(J 996) is applied to analyze the hull girders. Based on literatures and the authors'
experience, an ultimate equation is suggested. The results by the present simplified method and
ultimate strength equation agree well with those by ISSC committee VI.2 members.
The fabrication imperfections and the degradation effects due to corrosion defects and fatigue cracks
the hull experiences are of inherently random nature. It is therefore necessary to evaluate the ultimate
hull girder strength based on reliability methods. Moreover, because the degradation effects are
time-dependent, a time-variant reliability method should be applied. In carrying out the reliability
assessment based on progressive collapse analysis, the limit state function is very complex and may
only be expressed implicitly. Among the methods available in literatures for solving such a problem,
the response surface method is an effective and powerful tool, in which the limit state function is
approximated by a simple and explicit function at the sampling points (Bucher & Bourgound, 1990). In
the second part of this paper, the time-variant reliability assessment relative to the ultimate strength of
the ship's hull girders is conducted.
2 SIMPLIFIED METHOD AND ULTIMATE STRENGTH EQUATION
In this Section, a simplified method to calculate the maximum value of the bending moment of ship's
hull girders is proposed. The basic assumptions of the method are summarized as follows:
• The stiffened panel and comer elements, into which the cross section is subdivided, are considered
to act and behavior independently;
• The cross section is assumed to be plane and to remain plane when its curvature is increasing;
• The overall grillage collapse of the deck and bottom structures is avoided by using sufficiently
strong transverse rrames.
and for plate failure,

1007
The corrosion effect is time dependent. It has been generally assumed that corrosion defect
developments may be divided into three phases. In the first one, corrosion rate is zero because coatings
provide corrosion protection. The second phase is initiated when the protection coating is damaged and
the defect depth then increases. In the third phase, corrosion rate may be assumed to be constant. A
model for predicting corrosion depth was suggested as (Sun and Bai, 2001):
(6)
where T1 is the coating lifetime, Tt is the transition time and r, is the steady corrosion rate which should
be fitted by inspection results. The coating lifetime T1 may be assumed to follow Weibull distribution
and r, to be normal distribution.
From the viewpoint of engineering, a stiffened panel is considered ineffective when the crack size
exceeds the critical value determined by CTOD-method (Ghose et ai, 1995) or corrosion induced
thickness reduction exceeds 25% of the nominal plate thickness.
The ultimate moment capacity obtained from the simplified method is the maximum value on the
bending moment-curvature curve and so it is time consuming when reliability analysis relative to the
ultimate strength failure mode is carried out by means of the simplified method. Therefore, some
ultimate strength equations have been proposed based on various assumptions of stress distribution
over the cross-section. For instance, Xu and Cui (2000) assumed a stress distribution in which the
middle 1/3 ofthe hull depth is elastic while the rest of the hull depth is plastic/ultimate strength
The present authors suggest that the ultimate moment capacity Mu can be predicted by the following
equation:
Based on Eqn.(7), the ultimate moment capacity ofa hull girder may be estimated by following steps
(I) Subdivide the cross section into stiffened panels and hard comers;
(2) Estimate the ultimate strength of each stiffened panel according to Eqn. (I) or other recognized
formulas;
(3) Calculate the distance "g" from the ship bottom to the neutral axis by assuming the total force from
the stress integration over the cross-section is zero;
(4) Calculate the ultimate moment capacity ofthe hull girder using Eqn.(7).
4 ANALYSIS OF ISSC-2000 HULL GIRDERS
The ultimate moment capacity and time-variation reliability estimation of five hull girders used to
ISSC-2000 benchmark study are evaluated considering the degradations of corrosion and fatigue. The
relevant principal particulars are listed in Table I. Table 2 summarizes variable reference
measurements in this evaluation. The determination of the various variables is based on literatures and
engineering judgment.
TABLE I
PRINCIPALPARTICULARS
OF Issc-2000 SHIPHULLGIRDERS
DoubleHull SingleHull
Description Bulk Carrier Container Ship Frigate Model
VLCC VLCC
Length, L (m) 285 230 315 313 18
Breadth, B (m) 50.2 32.2 58.0 48.2 4.2
Depth, H (m) 26.7 21.5 30.3 25.2 2.8
Block coefficient,CB 0.82 0.60 0.86 0.83 -
Frame spacing, I (m) 5.22/2.61" 3.27 3.50 5.10 0.457
*Deck/bottom frame spacing
1011
**The external pressure is applied consistent with the analysis by Rutherford and
Caldwell(1990)
Fig 3 shows the conditional reliability index as a time function under sagging condition.
Fig.4 illustrates the conditional reliability index as a time function under sagging condition with the
initial crack size of 2mm. The time to unstable propagation of crack is significantly shortened and
takes at the 10th, 12th, 13th and 20th service year for the bulk carrier, double hull VLCC, single hull
VLCC and container ship respectively. The bulk carrier possesses the shortest duration and the single
hull VLCC receives the highest reduction. It implies that the two types of single hull ships with less
redundancy are vulnerable to sustain the fatigue damage.
Fig.S demonstrates the conditional reliability index as a time function under sagging condition with the
steady corrosion rate of 0.2mmlyear. The single hull VLCC, bulk carrier, double hull VLCC and
container ship reduce their the reliability index to 88.74%,83.33%,80.62% and 79.09% at 10th service
year when compared with the initial value respectively. It indicates that the two types of single hull
ships are also vulnerable to suffer corrosion wastage.
1012
The results trom the reliability assessment of different ship types might be used to explain why over
150 bulk carriers lost during past 20 years and the hull girder of "Energy Concentration" broke into
two.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The ultimate strength and reliability analysis of ISSC-2000 hull girders were carried out. A simplified
method combined with a formulas of effective width of plating by Guedes Soares(1988) and three
distinct zones of stiffened panel (Rahman and Chowdhury,1996) was applied to evaluate the
progressively collapse of the hull girders. An ultimate moment capacity equation was suggested for the
future criteria development for hull girder collapse. It was demonstrated that the results obtained by the
proposed simplified method and equation agree well with those trom Yao et al (2000).
A time-variant reliability assessment method is applied to assess the reliability of the hull girders
accounting for the time dependent degradation effects of corrosion and fatigue. It was found that the
bulk carrier and single hull VLCC are weaker to sustain fatigue damage and corrosion wastage.
However, the comparative study of different types of huH girders may not be generally interpreted, as
the number of calculations is very limited.
References
Bai Y et al. (1993). Collapse Analysis of Ship Hulls. Marine Structures 6,485-507.
Bucher C G and Bourgound U A. (1990). A Fast and Efficient Response Surface Approach for
Structural Reliability Problems. Structural Safety 7, 57-66.
Chen YK et al (1983). Ultimate Strength of Ship Structures. SNAME Transactions 91, 149-168.
DnV(2000). Structural Design of Offshore Ships. Offshore Standard OS-CI02, Draft 23.6.
Ghose, DJ et al. (1995). Residual Strength of Marine Structures. Ship Structure Committee, SSC-381.
Guedes Soares C. (1988). Design Equation for the Compressive Strength of Unstiffened Plate
Elements with Initial Imperfections. Journal of Construction Steel Research 9:4, 287-310.
Guedes Soares C and Garbatov Y. (1999). Reliability of Corrosion Protected and Maintained Ship
Hulls Subjected to Corrosion and Fatigue. Journal of Ship Research 43:2, 65-78.
Hughes, 0 F(1983). Ship Structural Design. New York: Wiley. 1983.
lACS rule.(1995). lACS Requirement Sl1, Longitudinal Strength Standards.
Paik J K et al. (1996). Ultimate Strength of Ship Hulls under Combined Vertical Bending, Horizontal
Bending, and Shearing Forces. SNAME Transactions 104, 31-59.
Rahman M K and Chowdhury M.(1996). Estimation of Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of Ships and
Box Girders. Journal of Ship Research 40, 244-257.
Rutherford S E and Caldwell J B. (1990). Ultimate Strength of Ships: A Case Study. SNAME
Transaction 98, 441-471
Sun H H and Chen T Y. (1997). Buckling Strength Analysis Of Ring-Stiffened Circular Cylindrical
Shells Under Hydrostatic Pressure. Proc. lh ISOPE, 4, 361-366. Honolulu, USA.
Sun, H Hand Bai Y. (2001) Time-variant reliability of FPSO's Hulls, Accepted for publication in
SNAME Annual Conference and Transaction.
Xu X D, Cui, W. (2000).An Experimental and Theoretical Study on Ultimate Strength of A Box Girder.
Journal of Ship Mechanics 4:5, 36-43.
Yao T et al. (2000). Report of Special Task Committee VI.2, Proc. of 14th ISSC, Oct., 2000. Nagasaki,
Japan.
Yao T and Nikolov P I (1991,1992). Progressive Collapse Analysis of A Ship's Hull under
Longitudinal Bending (Ist and 2nd Reports)". J SNAJ 171,449-461 and 172, 437-446.
AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ULTIMATE PLASTIC STRENGTH

OF THE SHIP'S AGED HULLS
Gennadiy V. Egorov and Vitaly V. Kozlyakov
Marine Engineering Bureau, 65045, Odessa, Ukraine
ABSTRACT
Plastic fracture of hulls at sea and under cargo operations in practical situation has more disastrous
natures than the theoretical pictures and occurs, as a rule, in one of the most weakened span with quick
spreading of corrugation to the tensioned strake with the contravention of the hypothesis of flat
sections. Maximum value of the ultimate moment is not stable and reduces to the nearly full release
because of essential change of the structure after buckling and possible forming the viscous cracks,
take-off longitudinals from the shell and etc. These particularities occurs very often in partly worn-out
structures. The most important reason of nearly full release of the ultimate moment is a sharp reduction
of the effective width of the compressed strake in the area of the plastic hinge. After nearly full release
of the ultimate moment both parts of the hull functions as two-pieces and have greater remaining
deflection.
In this paper some particularities of ships hulls of ductile collapses are considered, in connection with
the ductile hull's destruction of seagoing ships, river ships and floating dry docks. For stabilization and
realization upper rate limits of ultimate hull girder strength are offered some structural advantange,
ensuring high carrying capacity of compressed structures.
KEYWORDS
Ultimate hull girder strength, Initial imperfections, Service damages, Brittle and ductile fracture
1 INTRODUCTION
Problem of ensuring ultimate hull girder strength of seagoing cargo ship's became to be actual because
of growing ship's dimensions and using high tensile steel (Kozlyakov (1995». It is always interest for
river and river-sea ships because of difficulties in ensuring stability of thin-web structures (Ershov et
al.(l970), Kozlyakov et al. (2000), Papkovich (1941 )). In 1958 Russian Maritime Register of Shipping
introduced requirements to ensuring ultimate hull girder strength. Since 1974 in Rules of the Russian
River Register these requirements were stated for the new hull and with service damages at the end a
lifetime with reducing not only compressed, but tension-curved elements. Careful evaluation of the
ultimate moment in these requirements is based on the hypothesis of flat sections and terms that
stresses equal to yield point arises only in hard elements of one of the extreme strakes.
1014
Smith (1977) had proposed procedures of the full ultimate moment determination based on the idea of
Caldwell (1965). This procedure also used the hypothesis of flat sections using strength characteristics
of each panel of the hull taking into account geometric and physical non-linear functioning in post
buckling stage. So the ultimate moment is defined as the extreme of function relationship of bending
moment and curvature. Kutt et al. (1985), Paik (1992), Veda (1984) made programs, based on non-
linearity schemes of finite element method. Careful test of accuracy of offered schemes was executed
by Special Committee VI.2 ISSC-2000 (Yao (2000». For practical purposes, aproximate method of
Smith is recommended, which results in satisfactory comparison with experiments. In spite of these
successes, process of ductile collapse during cargo operations on still water, as well as at sea stays far
from clear. In this paper an attempt is made to explain some particularities of the hull ductile collapse
process during cargo operations and sharp reduction of the ultimate moment under constant load with
quick growing of deflection and to recommend some structural-technological and control actions for
stability of the ultimate moment.
2 PARTICULARITIES OF THE SHIP HULL DUCTILE COLLAPSE
The most severe collapses are events of hull break-up of ships under cargo operations and floating
docks. Very often break-up hulls of river ships, particularly non-self propelled (Kozlyakov et al.
(2000». But in connection with the growing of powers of cargo handling equipment more often break-
up and large cargo ships, for example, tanker "Energy Concentration" in 1980 (Rutherford et al.(1990»
at hogging and OBO-Ship "Trade Daring" in 1994 at sagging. Arrows of the hogging and sagging have
- 16 M and + 18 M accordingly.
For the clarification of main particularities of the process, let us consider the hull in the manner of the
floating parallelepiped with symmetrical load (Fig.la). Neglecting favourable influence of elastic
foundation, one will obtain the value of bending moment in midship section and the ultimate load.
When turning from the first condition to second bending moments decrease in 4 times, but energy of
bending in 14.2 times. Thereby, quick spreading of corrugation - pseudo-cracks eXplained either as in
brittle destruction, by releasing of the enormous internal energy and have catastrophic nature. For
quick spreading a brittle crack it is necessary combination of critical temperature of material crack
resistance and critical length of the crack, probably, for quick spreading of corrugation - pseudo-cracks
it is necessary combination of the critical initial length of corrugation-dents and initial imperfects of
structure in vertical and horizontal planes. In accordance with the noted analogy possible making a
new section of mechanics of the fracture, as follows mechanics of the plastic fracture of floating thin
web structures. Variability of ultimate moment's values is defined as degree of accuracy of used
methods and programs, so and actual technical condition of hulls after building and in the process of
operation. The most full study of accuracy of used methods was executed in the report (Yao (2000)).
Also for hulls of four real ships had been explored sensitivity to changing of thickness, yield point,
values initial deflection of plates and stiffeners in vertical and horizontal planes.
1019
necessary to connect pairs of longitudinals by anti-torsional brackets in the middle of the span. For
increasing stability of stiffeners and plates (for transverse framed system) reasonable to use efficient
slope bars on webs of transverse elements, Reut (1962). These bars greatly raise stiffeners of
transverses at the torsion. Welded seams must be double-sided and continuos, any holes in webs must
be as small as possible and compensated by reinforcements. For ensuring high ultimate strength of
ship's hulls necessary to ensure reliable regular supervision of structure's technical condition and
control loads during cargo operations and in stormy conditions .
.• CONCLUSIONS
Energetic analogy had been stated between brittle and ductile type of fractures (collapses) of hulls.
New factors determinate variation of ultimate moment for aging ships. Grounded necessity of unified
requirements to permissible values of ultimate moments and characteristics of initial and service
imperfections on the level ofIACS.
References
Caldwell LV. (1965). Ultimate Longitudinal Strength. Trans. RINA 107,411 - 430.
Ershov N.F., Svechnikov 0.1. (1970). Ultimate Condition and Reliability of River Ship Structures.
Leningrad, Shipbuilding Publisher, (in Russian).
Kozlyakov V.V. (1995). On the Way ofImproving the Strength Criteria in Design of Ship Structures.
Proceedings of the 7'h International Symposium on PRADS-95. Vol. 2, 2.1022-2.1034, Seoul, Korea.
Kozlyakov V.V. (1999). Some Problem Assessment of Ship Hulls Ultimate Plastic Strength.
Proceedings International Conference "Strength and Exploitation Reliability of Ships". Vladivostok,
Russia.
Kozlyakov V.V., Egorov G.V. (2000). An Analysis of River-Sea Going Ships Operation Experience
and the Way of Improving Requirements to the Strength and Reliability of Their Structures.
Proceedings of the IX Congress IMAM 2000, Ischia, Italy.
Kutt L.M. et al. (1985) Evaluation of the Longitudinal Ultimate Strength of Various Ship Hull
Configurations. Trans. SNAME vo1.93, 33 - 53.
Paik J.K. (1992). An Efficient Method for Ultimate Strength Analysis of Ship Structures - The
Idealised Structural Unit Method (ALPS/ISUM Theoretical Manual). Pusan National University,
Korea.
Papkovich P .F. (1939). The Theory of Elastisity. Leningrad, Oborongiz, (in Russian).
Papkovich P.F. (1941). Ship Structural Mechanics, 2, Leningrad, Sudpromgiz, (in Russian).
Reut V.L, Kholopzev V.V. (1962). Some Methods of the Increasing of the Ship Grillages Elements
Stability. NTO Sudprom. Ship Structural Mechanics Issue. No.42, Leningrad, Russia, (in Russian).
Rutherford S.E., Caldwell LB. (1990). Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of Ships, a case study, TSNAME
98.
Smith C. (1977). Influence of Local Compressive Failure on Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of a Ships
Hull. Proceedings International Symposium PRADS-77. Tokyo, Japan, 75 -79.
Ueda Y. et al. (1984). Plate and Stiffened Plate Units of the Idealised Structural Unit Method (lSUM)
- Under in-plane Loading. ISNAI. 156.
Yao T. et al. (2000). Special Task Committee V1.2. Ultimate Hull Girder Strength. Proceedings of the
14,h ISSC. 2. ELSVIER.
A NEW DESIGN MODEL FOR ULTIMATE AND BUCKLING

STRENGTH ASSESSMENT OF STIFFENED PLATES
EIVIND STEEN, TOM K. 0STVOLD AND SVERRE V ALSGARD
Marine Advisory Services, Det Norske Veritas, Norway
ABSTRACT
A new computerised design model for the buckling strength assessment of stiffened panels is presented.
The overall formulation is very general, and in principle, any type of stiffening arrangements of open
or closed profile type, corrugations etc. can be analysed.
The model is based on an orthotropic version of Marguerre's non-linear plate theory. The stiffened
panel is treated as an integrated unit, allowing for internal redistribution of membrane stresses between
component plates, while preventing overall buckling and permanent deformations/sets.
By using non-linear plate theory, the strength model is more theoretical consistent than existing code
formulations, which are mainly based on empirical curve fitting to a limited number of numerical and
experimental results. Complicated items such as bi-axialloading combined with in-plane shear loads
and non-linear mode interaction problems are dealt with in a sound physical framework, and empirical
approximations are reduced to a minimum.
The model also provides a set of reduced anisotropic/orthotropic macro material coefficients that can
be used in refined linear global FE analysis of ship hulls to reflect the increased membrane flexibility
experienced by compressed stiffened panels. This area of application allows for redistribution of loads
between gross elements such as stiffened panels, frames, girders and bulkheads and ensures a more
realistic assessment of the nominal stress flow in a ship hull.
The presented model is planned to constitute the basis for a new DNV buckling procedure for stiffened
panels.
KEYWORDS
Strength, Buckling, Postbuckling, Ultimate strength, Stiffened panels, Redundancy; Combined loads
1 INTRODUCTION
Existing rules, codes and guidelines for buckling design of stiffened panels in ship structures has been
developed at a time where it was of main importance to have simple formulas and rule formats
convenient for hand calculations. However, simple design rule formulas and codes, presently used by
classification societies, consultants and designers, can hardly be expected to cover all the complex
items necessary for the optimum and safe design of stiffened panels. Typical complex items are
1022
combined load situations, interaction between different buckling modes, effects from of out-of-flatness
size and shape, residual stresses, heat affected zones and support conditions. These facts, combined
with the present personal computer hardware and software capabilities, makes it possible to develop
more modem and direct type of computerised buckling code formulations.
A computerised buckling code must be based on a recognised theoretical basis, and the non-linear thin-
plate theories according to von Karman and Marguerre constitute such a set. Adopting these plate
theories, special features such as elastic buckling and ultimate strength boundaries, deflections,
stiffness properties and three-dimensional buckling mode and stress distributions may be visualised.
The present paper gives a brief introduction to a new computerised buckling code together with a very
limited selection of verifications and applications. For a more comprehensive documentation see DNV
(2000-seminar), DNV(2001).
2 PULS - COMPUTERISED BUCKLING MODEL FOR STIFFENED PANELS
Buckling of thin-walled stiffened plates is a non-linear phenomenon. However, from a global hull
strength perspective, practical design procedures have to be based on linear elastic structural stress
analyses with separate buckling checks of local elements. Such linearized design procedures are well
established today. Obviously, the linear method will work satisfactory as long as the structure behaves
linearly, i.e. as long as buckling failure of local elements is not accepted in any form. Though, to
exclude all types of buckling failures of stiffened panels in a hull structure design is rather unrealistic,
as it will lead to very conservative scantlings of plates and stiffeners. A design procedure should
therefore accept some types of harmless buckling, typically elastic buckling of plate components
between stiffeners. The consequence of accepting elastic buckling will be a change of the nominal
stress flow in the hull and it is of paramount importance to account for this in the design of the
surrounding structure.
In order to provide such a design procedure it is essential that the buckling model describe as closely
as possible the real non-linear structural behaviour. To accomplish such a task, a new computerised
buckling procedure called £anel!,!ltimate Limit .state (PULS) is proposed. The PULS procedure is a
simplified non-linear buckling model for assessing the strength of integrated hull elements. So far it is
developed for integrated stiffened flat panels as typically found in ship hulls between frames and
girders. It gives strength information at two levels:
i) Elastic buckling and design ultimate capacity of stiffened panels.

ii) Reduced stiffness properties of compressed and buckled panels.
The present PULS procedure is mainly constructed as an Ultimate Limit State design approach, i.e. the
stiffened panels is to be designed to resist the most probable highest load during the design lifetime of
the ship. The procedure is, however, based on some fundamental design principles, which eliminates
certain types of buckling failures and allows others. The purpose behind these principles is to limit the
probability for permanent buckles and to constrain the local panel flexibility to stay within reasonable
limits. This is in full compliance with the design principles given in existing rules and guidelines of
classification societies, e.g. DNV(2000), DNV CN30.1 (1995).
2.1 Design Principles
A consistent design procedure must be founded on some basic design principles, and for the present
PULS procedure three main principles apply
1023
i) Elastic local buckling of the component plates in a panel cross-section is accepted.

For open profiles (as analysed as a case study here, Figure 2), local elastic buckling means
buckling of plating between stiffeners, sideways/torsional buckling of stiffeners and stiffener
web plate buckling. Acceptance of this type of buckling assumes the stiffeners to be- strong, see
principle iii).
ii) Permanent buckles are not accepted.

By ensuring the maximum membrane stresses within a panel to stay below the yield stress
condition (von Mises), permanent sets and buckles are prevented. The maximum membrane
stress locations are typical intersections between component plates in a cross-section, and are
called hard comers. Maximum membrane stresses are the result of second order stresses from
local buckling adding to the direct applied stresses.
iii) Overall buckling of the panel is not accepted.

This principle ensures the panel as a whole (stiffeners) to have sufficient out-of plane bending
stiffness to avoid global (overall) buckling. Sufficient overall bending stiffness of the stiffeners
ensures lateral support to the component plates, which is a requirement for accepting elastic
buckling oflocal plate components (principle i)).
2.2 Theoretical Foundation
The present buckling model is based on an orthotropic version of Marguerre's non-linear plate theory,
see e.g. Washizu (1975). In its original form, the orthotropic plate theory is not suitable for calculating
the buckling strength of thin-walled stiffened panels, since local buckling effects of the component
plates in a cross-section is not included. In order to cope with these local buckling modes, separately
and in interaction with the overall panel mode, the general orthotropic plate theory is modified. This is
done by introducing the concept of reduced orthotropic macro material coefficients.
The PULS procedure is based on a six-dimensional orthotropic macro material law. According to non-
linear plate theory this macro material law takes the form of an incremental relation between the in-
plane loads (NpN2,N])and moments (MpM2,M]), and the corresponding strains (EpE2,E])and
curvatures (K1, K2, KJ) of a selected reference plane. In mathematical terms the orthotropic macro
material law takes the following form
In Eqn.1 the symbol L'1 indicates incremental quantities. Each of the coefficients in the stiffness matrix
can be written as a sum of a linear and a non-linear part as follows:
(2)
1024
The linear part is given a superscript L symbolising linear fixed values. The non-linear part is
symbolised with N as superscript. The latter part is the most interesting as it in addition to the
dependency of the applied loads also depends on the level of geometrical imperfections, residual
stresses, heat affected zones properties (e.g. in aluminium) etc. Most importantly, they depend on the
level of compactness of the thin-walled cross-section.
In order to fully account for the simultaneous growth of both local and global buckling modes in a
compressed stiffened panel, a full non-linear iterative solution should be implemented, Steen (1999).
However, in order to obtain a more computer efficient and fast procedure, a simplified approach has
been chosen here. The simplification amounts to use a fixed set of macro stiffness coefficients
evaluated at first hard comer yield. This is a generalisation of the standard effective width approach
used in most modem codes. The fixed macro stiffness values are then used as parameters in the overall
nominal strength assessment, using the orthotropic buckling theory. It is emphasised that in the present
design model we apply the macro tangent stiffness properties rather than the macro secant stiffness
properties. This is done in order to cope with the possible severe and unstable interaction between
local and overall panel buckling.
2.3 Limit States
Five limit state functions have been formulated in order to capture the possible collapse mechanisms in
the panel. They are based on stress control against material yield in critical selected hard corner
positions, and are typically related to plate and stiffener induced failure modes, as used in
DNV /CN30.1 (1995), in addition to a plate edge failure control criterion. The limit states are defined as
five independent functions
i = 1,2, .... ,5, Acceptable (3)
At the limit fli) (N I' N 2' N 3) = 0, each of the limit state functions describe a surface in load space
(N I ' N 2 ,N 3)' The inner envelope of all these surfaces will represent the ultimate design load capacity,
Figure I. The scaling of the loads in this his figure is with respect to the corresponding squash loads.
For a case by case evaluation of the strength, the distance from the applied load point (N 10' N 20' N 30)
to the collapse surface (N lu ' N 2u' N Ju) is evaluated, using a proportional loading history.
The ratio between the applied load radius vector and the corresponding ultimate load radius vector is a
direct measure of the safety margin, see Figure I. In ship rule terminology this safety parameter is
referenced to as the usage factor 11 (inverse of safety factor) and it follows that it is defined as
(4)
(5)
(6)
The present PULS procedure calculates the actual usage factor 11, which is to be measured against the
acceptable level given in the rules. This acceptance level will typically be related to the consequence
of panel failure. The discussion of acceptance levels belongs to the overall safety philosophy and is a
separate topic not discussed here.
1025
Figure 1: Inner envelope of the five PULS limit states
3 VERIFICATIONS OF PANEL STRENGTH
In order to have confidence in a new proposed model for buckling strength assessment, verifications
against results obtained with more sophisticated analysis tools are necessary. For this purpose an
extensive parameter study of stiffened panels subjected to bi-axial compression/tension loads were
carried out using the recognised non-linear finite element code ADVANCE (1999), which is a subset
of the well known ABAQUS(1998) code. The examples correspond to double bottom designs used in
Bulk and LNG carriers. A full documentation is given in DNV(2000-seminar) from which the LNG
carrier example in Figure 2 is extracted.
Figure 2 shows PULS 1.0 predictions together with ADVANCE/ABAQUS results for an out-of-
flatness level corresponding to the tolerance levels given for ship structures, DNV/(1995-IS). The
comparsions are resonable, but not perfect. One of the main problems encountered when doing non-
linear buckling analysis with bi-axialloads, are associated with non-linear mode changes in certain
regions of the load space. This effect is seen in the ABAQUS analyses as well as in the more
simplified PULS code model and is the main reason for the irregular ultimate buckling boundary
presented in Figure 2. The subject of mode change is very complicated and no attempt is made here to
discuss it in detail. However, some improvements in the PULS code are needed in this respect.
Added in Figure 2 is also the bi-axial plate buckling criterion in DNV Ship Rules and DNV CN30.1-
Chaper 3.4, stiffened panel strength criterion, even though they are not directly comparable. For this
example (thick plating; 23 mm) it is noted that for dominating transverse compression, the DNV Ship
rules formulas for bi-axial compression, gives optimistic strength estimates compared to both
ADVANCEl ABAQUS and PULS results. This can be explained by the fact the DNV ship rules only
calculate the strength between stiffeners, thus optimistically assumes that the stiffeners do not buckle.
Note that the steel ship rules has an explicit requirement to stiffener moment of inertia for transversely
compressed panels, which is not a part of the buckling assessment shown in Figure 2. This criterion is
satisfied for the present example.
4 REDUCED PANEL STIFFNESS IN GLOBAL SHIP HULL ANALYSIS

Studying load-redistribution between gross elements in a ship hull due to buckling can only be solved
1026
in full by using non-linear analysis of a large part of the structure. This type of analysis is not dealt
with in the present paper, as it requires a separate extensive study. However, by doing a sequence of
linear elastic analysis with different levels of stiffness reductions, the consequence of an incrementally
and continuously changing local panel flexibility can be simulated in a simplified manner. This is the
method used here and results for an outer bottom panel in the double bottom of the LNG Carrier, are
illustrated in Figure 2. As documented in DNV(2000-seminar), it is the membrane transverse and
coupling stiffness coefficients Czz and CI2that by far will be most reduced due to elastic local buckling
deformations of the plating between stiffeners. In the present example a minimum, an intermediate and
a maximum stiffness reduction level of 20, 40 and 60 percent are shown.
Figure 2: PULS Capacity boundaries curves, and stress check for outer bottom panel in LNG Carrier.
The global effect of these stiffness reductions is seen in Figure 2 illustrating a significant load
reduction of the nominal transverse component Nz (nominal stress (Jz) in the plating. By examining the
stresses in the surrounding frame structure it was found that the stress change in the transverse girders
were significant, while the stress change in the longitudinal girders was only marginal.
The aim with these studies was to show how linear FE models can be used for global hull redundancy
assessment applying a reduced stiffness macro material technique. A main result from the double
bottom study was the illustration of how loads redistribute between the plating and girders, as
compared to what is normally calculated using the full stiffness standard linear approach. Clearly, due
to the cellular construction with longitudinal and transverse frames, the double bottom construction has
high torsional stiffness and significant strength reserves were documented. More documentation on
this type of analysis, using linear reduced stiffness methods, can be found in Nissen-Lie, Steen &
0stvold (1999) and Bakken, 0stvold & Steen (2000).
It is concluded that in statically indeterminate plated hull structures, locally prone to plate buckling,
global redistribution of forces takes place. The redistribution of forces can be significant and it is of
equal importance to assess this effect as to assess the buckling capacity of individual stiffened panels.
Further documentation, using sophisticated non-linear finite element programs considering larger parts
of ship structures are needed, before firm conclusions on an acceptable design strength approach can
be made.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A new computerised buckling code for flat stiffened panels has been described. The model is based on
orthotropic plate theory, which makes the formulation applicable to all types of stiffening
1027
arrangements and materials. The results presented and discussed in this paper are for panels with
welded open steel profiles.
Computerised buckling codes like the present PULS model has the obvious benefit of predicting more
closely the real non-linear structural behaviour than existing rules and guidelines. This gives an
improved basis for weight optimisations, together with a more consistent control of the safety margin
against failure. It also provides additional valuable information, i.e. typically buckling mode shapes,
elastic buckling and failure boundaries in load space, stress distributions and stiffness properties.
The present PULS code is based on some basic design principles in order to constrain the panel
designs to have some minimum stiffness properties for efficient in-plane load transfer. Design
principles for control of maximum stresses and prevention of permanent sets and buckles are also
implemented. These design principles are consistent with the rules and guidelines given by
classification societies today, even though in the latter they are not explicitly stated and not
consistently included for complex load situations.
As a step in the direction of developing more consistent procedures for redundancy strength
assessments of larger parts of hull structures, a reduced stiffness approach using coarse linear FE
models, has been tested. This method has so far not been verified against large size non-linear analysis
of ship hulls, but it is believed to capture the main physical effects. Future verification of this
approach will rate its possible usefulness as a simple and practical approach for global hull strength
assessment.
Acknowledgements
A special thanks goes to our colleague G. Holtsmark at DNV for his continuous support of the present
work. Prof. J. Hellesland at the University of Oslo has also been an important inspirator and deserves
honour for his interest and backing. Thanks also to DNV for sponsoring several internal R&D buckling
and ultimate strength projects during the last years.
References
ABAQUS(1998), User's Manual, Version 5.8, Hibbit, Karlsson and & Sorensen, Inc.
ADVANCE (1999), SESAM User's Manual, ADVANCE/ABAQUS 5.8,1999, DNV.
Bakken K, 0stvold, T.K. and Steen, E. (2000). "Reduced stiffness modelling of double bottom in
MRV LNG Carriers", DNV Report No.2000-0322, H0vik.
DNV CN30.1 (1995), Classification Notes 30.1, Buckling Strength Analysis, July 1995.
DNV (1995-IS), Rules for Classification of Ships, Instructions to Surveyors, I-B3.3
DNV (2000), Rules for Classification, Part 3, Chap. 1, Hull Structural design, Steel, Jan. 2000.
DNV(2000-Seminar), Proceedings ofDNV Seminar "Buckling and Ultimate Strength of Ship
Structures", DNV- H0Vik, September 2000.
DNV(200l), DNV Report no. 2001-0420, PULS 1.0 User's Manual.
Nissen-Lie, A., Steen, E. and 0stvold, T.K. (1999)."Reduced stiffness modelling of double
bottom in Bulk Carriers", DNV Report No. 99-0517, H0vik.
Steen, E. (1999). "Buckling of Stiffened Plates using a Shanley Model Approach". University of
Oslo, Department of Mathematics, Mechanics Division, Report No. 99-1, ISBN 82-553-1182-3.
Steen E. and 0stvold, T.K. "Buckling analysis ofbeam-colurnns using an incremental
perturbation method", 13thNordic seminar on Computational Mechanics, Univ. of Oslo, 20-21
Oct. 2000.
Washizu, K. (1975). "Variational methods in elasticity and plasticity", Pergamon Press, Second
Edition, Bath, Great Britain.
ULTIMATE STRENGTH OF LONGITUDINALLY STIFFENED

PANELS: MULTI-CRITERIA COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
J.Y. Pradillon I, T. Quesnell, C. Toderan 2and Ph. Rigo 2
II.R.C.N (French Shipbuilding Research Institute), I rue de la Noe,

BP 72108, 44321 Nantes Cedex 3, France
2 Departement of Naval Architecture (ANAST), University of Liege,
Chemin des Chevreuils nOl (B52/3), B-4000 Liege, Belgium
ABSTRACT
Based on a recommendation of the ISSC 2000 Committee VI.2 (Yao et al. 2000) which has shown that
the main factor to assess the ultimate bending moment of a hull girder is the quality of the "cr-I;" curves,
we achieved an extensive comparison on the available methods providing the ultimate compressive
strength and the average "cr-I;" relationship of longitudinally stiffened panels. This assessment mainly
focuses on passenger ships (cruise ships, fast ferries) and naval vessels having the plate and column
slenderness of standard steel stiffened panels produced in France. At the first stage, we compared 18
different methods to assess the ultimate strength of a hull girder. These methods may be classed into 3
types: empirical, intermediate (analytical or semi-analytical) and generic (e.g. ISUM and FEM). Only
the methods able to rapidly provide "cr-I;" relationships are relevant for our purpose but others were
also considered as valuable references. From this comparison, a set of "cr-I;" models were selected
using a multi-criteria comparative analysis for advanced numerical tests. Then, the selected "cr-I;"
models were compared on different stiffened panels. In addition, comparative tests on simple box
girders were carried out to assess the effect of the "cr-I;" model capabilities (initial deflections, residual
stress, lateral loads, ... ) on the ultimate bending moment of a hull girder.
KEYWORDS
Ultimate strength, Axial compression, Longitudinally stiffened panel, Collapse analysis, Hull girder,
Buckling, Ultimate bending moment, Multi-criteria analysis.
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the main IRCN's concerns deals with the development of a new shipyard-oriented tool which
has at the design stage the capability to assess the ultimate bending moment of a hull girder. Our
purpose is not to implement a high sophisticated approach asking for long and time-consuming
numerical analysis but a method which gives a good compromise between accuracy and simplicity. In
order to meet this requirement, a multi-criteria analysis was performed. To compare the "average stress
References
• Adamchak J.C. (1984). An Approximate Method for estimating the Collapse of a Ship's Hull in
Preliminary Design. Proc. Ship Structure Symposium' 84, SNAME (Ed.), Arlington, US, 37-61.
• Beghin D., Jastrzebski T. and Taczala M. Result - a Computer Code for Evaluation of the Ultimate
Longitudinal Strength of Hull Girder. Proc. Int. Symp. PRADS'95, Seoul, Korea, 832-834.
• Caldwell J.B. (1965). Ultimate Longitudinal Strength. Trans. RINA 107, 411-430.
• Dow R.S., Hugill R.C., Clark J.D. and Smith C.S. (1981). Evaluation of Ultimate Ship Hull
Strength. Proc. Extreme Loads Response Symposium, SNAME (Ed.), Arlington, US, 133-148.
• Dowling and al. (1991). Design of Flat Stiffened Plating: Phase I report. CESLIC Report SP 9,
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Imperial College, London, UK
• Guedes Soares C. and Gordo J.M. (1997). Design Methods for Stiffened Plates Under
Predominantly Uniaxial Compression. Marine Structures 10:6, 465-497
• Gordo J.M. and Guedes Soares C. Approximate Method to Evaluate the Hull Girder Collapse
Strength. Marine Structures 9:3-4, 449-470.
• Hughes O.F. (1988). Ship Structural Design, SNAME, New Jersey, US
• Paik J.K. and Mansour AE. (1995). A Simple Formulation for Predicting the Ultimate Strength of
Ships, Journal of Marine Science and Technology 1, 52-62.
• Paik J.K., Thayamballi AK. and Che J.S. (1996). Ultimate Strength of Ship Hulls under Combined
Vertical Bending, Horizontal Bending, and Shearing Forces. Trans. SNAME 104, 31-59.
• Paik J.K. and Thayamballi AK. (1997). An Empirical Formulation for Predicting the Ultimate
Compressive Strength of Stiffened Panels. Proc. ih Int. Offshore and Polar Engineering Con!,
Honolulu, USA, 4, 328-338.
• Paik J .K. (1999). SPINE, A Computer Program for Analysis of Elastic-plastic Large Deflection
Behavior of Stiffened Panels by the Incremental Energy Method. User's Manual, Pusan National
University, Korea
• Rahman R.K. and Chowdhury M. (1996). Estimation of Ultimate Longitudinal Bending Moment
of Ships and Box Girders. Journal of Ship Research, 40:3, 244-257.
• Rigo P., Toderan C. and Yao T. (2001). Sensitivity Analysis on Ultimate Bending Moment. Proc.
8th Int. Symp. PRADS, Elsevier Science Ltd., Shanghai, China (to be published).
• Rutherford S.E. and Caldwell J.B. (1990). Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of Ships: A Case Study.
Trans. SNAME 98, 441-471.
• Smith C.S. (1977). Influence of Local Compressive Failure on Ultimate Longitudinal Strength of a
Ship's Hull. Froc. Int. Symp. PRADS'77, Tokyo, Japan, 325-359.
• Ueda Y. and Rashed S.M.H. (1991). ISUM (Idealized Structural Unit Method) Applied to Marine
Structures. Trans. JWRI20:1, 123-136.
• ULSAP (2000). ALPS/ULSAP User's Manual, Proteus Engineering, USA, 46p.
• Yao T. and Nikolov P.I. (1991). Progressive Collapse Analysis of a Ship's Hull under Longitudinal
Bending. J Soc. Naval Arch. of Japan 170,449-461. - (1992). 2nd Report, 172,437-446.
• Yao T. et al. (2000). Ultimate Hull Girder Strength: Report of Committee VI.2. Froc. 14th
International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, Ohtsubo H. and Sumi Y. (Eds.), Elsevier, 2,
321-391.
UL TIMA TE STRENGTH OF SUBMERSIBLE STRUCTURES
1. P. Pasqualino and S. F. Estefen
Department of Ocean Engineering, COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

P.O. Box 68508, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, CEP 21945-970, Brazil
ABSTRACT
Numerical and experimental study on the behavior of stiffened cylindrical shells under hydrostatic
pressure have been carried out. The structures analyzed are representative of the main body of
submersible vehicles. Local and overall collapse modes were studied with the aid of experimental tests.
Small scale models were constructed in order to evaluate their ultimate strengths and failure modes
through experimental tests using an hyperbaric chamber. The models were specially designed and built
to detect the local failure mode of the shell between ring frames or the overall failure mode involving
ring frames and shell. The small scale models were first mapped in a specific facility, so that the out of
roundness and eccentricity of the transverse sections could be evaluated. The material properties were
also determined through uniaxial tension tests. The theoretical behavior of the structure was obtained
through finite element analyses incorporating large displacements, plasticity and the arc-length control
in the post-collapse regime. Correlation between numerical and experimental results associated with
the structure ultimate strength showed to be very imperfection sensitive. The paper contributes to the
design of submersible vehicles with emphasis on ring stiffened shells under hydrostatic pressure.
KEYWORDS
Submersible structure, Collapse, Post-collapse, Experimental test, Numerical analysis.
NOMENCLATURE
1038
I INTRODUCTION
The typical failure modes of stiffened cylindrical shells under hydrostatic pressure are the local
collapse of the shell between ring frames and the overall collapse of shell and rings between rigid
sections such as flat heads. The local collapse is an interaction between elastic-plastic buckling and
axisymmetric membrane shell yielding at midbay. It may occur in one or more ring spacings. The
overall collapse is associated with the ring frames that are weak to resist the combined effect of out of
roundness bending and sideways tripping leading to its premature yielding.
The elastic-plastic instability of the shell between ring frames is characterised by the formation of
inward and outward lobes. This mode of failure indicates that the rings have greater resistance to
buckling than the shell between them. Axisymmetric shell yielding is characterised by longitudinal
compressive strains at the extreme fibbers at both the outer surface of the shell between ring frames
and the inner surface of the shell at the stiffeners. The hoop membrane strains of the shell at the ring
frames are partially prevented due to the stiffeners rigidity. However, the longitudinal bending strains
of the extreme fibbers at this region, tensioned at the outer surface and compressed at the inner, when
added to membrane strains due to the axial load, may lead to premature yielding of the shell. The
region of the shell at midbay is particularly critical because of the maximum hoop strains. In this case,
the compressive bending strains of the shell outer surface are added to compressive membrane strains
in longitudinal direction.
The overall collapse is normally verified between heavy stiffeners, such as large frames or bulkheads
of submersibles. Its occurrence increases if the spacing between these heavy stiffeners is enlarged. It is
characterised by the formation of one or more lobes involving shell and stiffeners. The out of
roundness of the ring frames contributes to the bending of transverse sections which may collapse due
to excessive plastic hoop strains. The bending of the transverse sections also contribute to the non
orthogonality of the ring frames in relation to the shell, which may lead to sideways tripping of the
stiffeners. Therefore, it may be concluded that the overall collapse is highly dependent of the initial
imperfections magnitude.
The collapse pressure of stiffened cylindrical shells is mainly influenced by the structure geometry, the
material, the boundary conditions, the residual stresses and the initial imperfections magnitude. The
overall collapse is more affected by the out of roundness than the local collapse. Therefore, these
structures are normally designed based on the local collapse pressure. Submersibles are designed in
order to minimise the structural weight, a critical requirement to achieve good operational performance.
Therefore, the optimised design of these structures must be carefully studied in order to preserve the
structural safety.
This paper presents a numerical and experimental study of the collapse of ring stiffened cylindrical
shells under hydrostatic pressure. The aim of the work is to evaluate the ultimate strength and the
failure modes of such structures. Small scale models were defined through geometric similarity with
the main body of a submarine prototype. These models were first evaluated with the aid of a finite
element framework to determine its collapse pressure. Afterwards, they were instrumented and tested
under hydrostatic pressure in a hyperbaric chamber.
2 LABORATORY TESTS
Laboratory tests were performed in order to identify the collapse behavior of ring stiffened cylindrical
shells under hydrostatic pressure. Small scale models were conceived in order to study the local and
the overall failures modes. Design, construction and instrumentation of the models are discussed below.
1039
2.1 Model Design
The small scale models were defined through linear geometric similarity with the main body of a full
scale submarine prototype. The ratios between radius and thickness (Rtt) and between ring frames
spacing and radius (l/R) were preserved.
Thin plates with thickness equal to 1.5 mm has been selected to construct the models, due to geometric
limitations of the hyperbaric chamber. Therefore, a scale factor (A) equal to 31.33, representing the
ratio between prototype and model thickness, was employed to establish the model geometry (Table I).
In order to simplify the construction of the models, flat bar stiffeners were considered instead of the T-
stiffeners of the prototype. The model ring stiffeners were designed with web thickness equal to 1.5
mm and the same inertia of the scaled T-stiffener.
TABLE I
MAIN PARAMETERS OF MODEL GEOMETRY IN MM
The models were designed to represent a ring framed cylindrical shell between a pair of transversal
bulkheads. Twenty four equally spaced ring frames and a uniform cylindrical shell represented the
submarine main body. Two robust lids were used to prevent water leak during the hyperbaric tests and
to simulate the bulkheads.
2.2 Model Construction
Two small scale models (MST3 and MST4) have been manufactured to conduct the experimental tests.
Based on Scott et al. (1987) proposal, a specially designed steel apparatus was developed to help with
the manufacturing process. Considering the tolerances established, this facility can keep the
longitudinal alignment between model bays as well as assure orthogonality between ring frames and
shell during the welding process in hoop direction.
The cylindrical shell of each bay was obtained conforming a sheet strip over a die and TIG welding it
longitudinally. The ring frames were directly cut from the steel sheets and positioned at its respective
bay to be welded. Finally, the TIG welding process was employed for joining the model bays that
compose each model. Specimens were cut in orthogonal directions of the steel sheet to perform
uniaxial tensile tests. These experiments have provided the material properties to be used in the
numerical analyses.
The initial geometric imperfections of the models were mapped with the aid of a special facility (Netto
et aI., 1991) designed to obtain radial displacements at measuring points of cylindrical shells. The
outer surface of the models were evaluated at 40 equally spaced points in hoop direction and 101
transverse sections. These data were processed by a computer program (Netto, 1987) specially
developed to generate the actual outer surface of a mapped cylindrical shell. The initial ovality (.do) of
the model sections were calculated with the aid of the following expression:
(I)
1040
where Dmax and Dmin are the maximum and minimum external diameters, respectively, of a particular
section considered. The average initial ovality of the models MST3 and MST4 were equal to 0.0937%
and 0.1443%, respectively.
2.3 Instrumentation and Test
The small scale models were provided with strain-gauges and sealed at its ends with the aid of robust
circular lids to be tested in the hyperbaric chamber of the Submarine Technology Laboratory - COPPE.
The tests were accomplished with the aid of a hydraulic pump which allows an increasing pressure at a
low rate of 0.25 N/mm2 per minute. The strain-gauges were installed on the inner and outer surfaces of
the shell as well as on the nearest ring frame webs of the model mid section. They were positioned in
both longitudinal and hoop directions spaced by 90 degrees.
Model MST3 was submitted to three consecutive hydrostatic tests designated as MST3-1, MST3-2 and
MST3-3. In the first test the failure occurred close to the model end (section 7) at a collapse pressure
of 4.31 N/mm2. It was probably caused by the structural discontinuity between the shell and the rigid
lid. The damaged region of the model (up to section 19) was cut off and the remained part was tested
again. A similar behavior was observed for the model MST3-2 at a collapse pressure of 4.57 N/mm2.
Again the damaged region (sections 19 to 38) was cut off to the accomplishment of a new test. The end
regions were reinforced by longitudinal stiffeners spaced by 45 degrees and welded on the ring frames.
Despite of the reinforcement of the model MST3-3 the failure occurred again close to the end at a
collapse pressure of 4.86 N/mm2 (Figure I).
Model MST4, nominally identical to MST3-I, was also reinforced at the end regions. In this case, the
number of longitudinal stiffeners was doubled and the L cross-section stiffeners increased from 12.7 x
12.7 x 3.2 mm to 19 x 19 x 3.2 mm. The model shell was also reinforced at its ends with sheet strips of
thickness equal to 1.5 mm. They were welded on the outer surface of the model shell between sections
2 to 17 and sections 85 to 100. The failure mechanism was then initiated at the central region of the
model at section 55, involving the ring frames located from the sections 53 to 57 (Figure 2). It was
registered a collapse pressure equal to 4.81 N/mm2.
Figure 1: Failure mode of the Figure 2: Failure mode of the model MST4
model MST3-3
1041
3 NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
The theoretical behavior of the small scale models under hydrostatic pressure was obtained with the
aid of the finite element method. The framework ANSYS release 5.3 was employed in the numerical
analyses. The geometric and material properties of the manufactured models were carefully defined in
order to simulate its collapse behavior.
The finite element mesh was generated with the nominal dimensions of the small scale models MST3
and MST4 presented in Table 1. The initial out of roundness was incorporated in the numerical model
through the modification of the shell node coordinates in the radial direction, using the mapped
geometry acquired before the experimental tests. Since the finite element mesh was discretized in the
hoop direction with 80 elements, the unknown points were obtained through linear interpolations.
No symmetries were adopted to simplify the finite element model. A detail of the mesh refinement
used can be observed in Figure 3. The four nodes square shell element STIF43 (DeSalvo, 1996) with
six degree of freedom per node (three translations and three rotations) was used in the numerical
analysis. Compatible two nodes beam elements BEAM3 were employed to simulate the rigidity of the
L stiffeners at the model ends. The straight lines over the web frame edges represent these elements in
Figure 3.
Figure 3: Detail of the mesh refinement used in the numerical model
Nonlinear capabilities such as large displacements and plasticity were included in the numerical model.
The uniaxial tensile tests of the experimental study provided the necessary data to define the material
properties. The stress-strain curve was inputted through a multi-linear approximation. The material
tests have furnished proportionality and yield stresses equal to 254.3 and 337.7, respectively. The
isotropic linear elastic constitutive model considered Young modulus equal to 205,000 N/mm2 and
Poisson ratio equal to 0.3. The elastic-plastic behavior was modeled through a potential flow law
theory with isotropic hardening.
In this case, the hydrostatic load comprises a radial pressure applied on the shell outer surface plus an
axial compressive force applied on the constrained edges of the model. The axial force was calculated
considering the external pressure value and the lid area. The axial translations of the edge nodes were
let free so that this force could be applied, while its remained degrees of freedom were made
constrained. Also, some nodes at the model central section were constrained in axial direction to avoid
rigid body movements. The arc-length control method was used to defined the load increments to
overcome the limit load point as well as to configure the post-collapse load history.
1042
4 RESULTS
The finite element mesh was adapted to simulate the four experimental tests carried out (MST3-1,
MST3-2, MST3-3 and MST4). Not only the model length but also its end reinforcements were
changed in relation to a base mesh. All the analyzed models verified the local collapse mode. The
failures have initiated at the shell between frames with considerable deflections inward. The adjacent
ring frames were also affected forming a localized lobe involving two or more stiffeners. The
deformed shape of Figure 4 shows the localized collapse of the model MST4 which occurred close to
the point observed in the experimental test. The failure of the models MST3-1, MST3-2, MST3-3 was
initiated very close to the model extremities
Figure 4: Deformed shape of the model MST4
The numerical and experimental results of the collapse pressure are compared in Table 2. The
differences obtained may have been occasioned by the boundary conditions used to simulate the robust
lids (clamping of the edge nodes with exception to the axial translations). This restriction has not
allowed the longitudinal bending of the model, as experimentally verified in Figure 2. This effect is
minimized to shorter models, resulting in decreasing differences between numerical and experimental
results (see Table 2). Moreover, the numerical models have not considered the effects of residual
stresses, material anisotropy and sideways imperfections of the ring frames
The post-collapse behavior was analyzed with the aid of Figures 5 and 6 which show the load history
of the models MST3 and MST4, respectively. These graphs represent the applied pressure versus the
edge axial displacements. It can be verified that the edge displacements further increase after the limit
point and natural unloading of the models MST3-3 and MST4. The models MST3-1 and MST3-2, with
lighter reinforcements at its edges, presented the opposite behavior.
TABLE 2
COMPARISON BETWEEN NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Model Collapse Pressure (N/mm') Difference

Experimental Numerical (%)
MST3-1 4.31 5.30 18.7
MST3-2 4.57 5.33 14.3
MST3-3 4.86 5.36 9.0
MST4 4.81 5.29 9.1
The small scale models MST3-1, MST3-2 and MST3-3 have undergone local collapse of the shell
close to its extremities, because of the severe structural discontinuity between the shell and the rigid
lids. The small scale model MST4, correctly reinforced at its end, has undergone a local collapse of the
shell at mid section, that also affected the adjacent ring frames. The finite element model has estimated
larger collapse pressures than the experimental ones because of the simplification assumed to simulate
the rigid lids. Nevertheless, a more sophisticated model including the rigid lids can overcome this
problem. Qualitatively, the theoretical model represented adequately the failure modes verified in the
experimental tests. Further improvements of the numerical model can generate a reliable tool to predict
the collapse behavior of ring stiffened cylindrical shells. It can be used to the development of design
equations based on limit states.
References
DeSalvo, G.J., Gorman, R.W. (1996). Ansys User's Manual (Release 5.3). Ansys, Inc., Houston,
Pennsylvania, USA.
Netto, T.A. (1987). IGOR Computational Program to the Evaluation of Initial Geometric
Imperfections of Small Scale Models of Semi Submersible Platform Columns. f' Congresso Regional
de Iniciar;iio Cientijica e Tecnol6gica em Engenharia, UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (in Portuguese).
Netto, T. A., Pasqualino, I. P. e Estefen, S. F. (1991). Development of Tests Facilities. Buckle

Propagation in Submarine Pipelines, Phase I, Vol. I, Coppetec Report ET-170176, COPPE/UFRJ, Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil (in Portuguese).
Scott, N.D., Harding, J.E. and Dowling, P.J. (1987). Fabrication of Small Scale Stiffened Cylindrical
Shells. Journal of Strain Analysis 22:2, 97-106.
A REPORT ON FATIGUE FAILURE OF A HIGHLY SKEWED

FIXED PITCH PROPELLER
Hochung Kim, Keunjae Kim, Sungpyo Kim and Moonchan Kim
Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd

CPO Box 6208, Seoul, Korea
ABSTRACT
This paper reports a propeller blade damage case of a large ro-ro ship due to fatigue failure and
describes the joint efforts followed by the builder, propeller maker, class and the owner to resolve the
problem. Comprehensive investigations had been made and it was revealed that the fatigue failures
were initiated by stern operation when stress at the trailing edge of a highly skewed blade can rise
dramatically and the cracks were then continued to propagate during normal ahead operation. The
major conclusions drawn is that sufficient fatigue margin must be reserved in case of propeller design
for ro-ro ship operating frequently in astern mode during the port call.
KEYWORDS
Fatigue failure, Highly Skewed Fixed Pitch Propeller, FEM, Corrosion Fatigue Diagram
1 INTRODUCTION
A highly skewed propeller has been used more often in recent years and has been particularly
successful in overcoming the possible risk of vibration problems arising from propeller cavitation
excitation forces. However, for the propeller design with increased skew angle and especially intended
for ro-ro ships making a frequent port call, special attention should be paid to the fatigue strength.
When a propeller undergoes a transient manoeuvre, considerable changes occur in blade stress levels
and this may lead propeller blades to fail by fatigue action.
Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd(DSME) has signed a contract with Wallenius
Lines for the building of three 6,000 units pure car/truck carriers with the option of three vessels on
January 19, 1993. The Vessel is a multi-purpose single screw ro-ro ship capable of carrying out 6,000
units pure car/trucks for worldwide service. The main dimensions are; Length overall(LOA) 199.0m,
Length between perpendiculars(LBP) 190.5m, Breath, moulded(B) 32.26m, Depth, moulded up to
upper deckeD) 32.98m and design draft, moulded(Td) 9.5m. The ship is equipped with convensional
low speed diesel engine propulsion system composing of one set of B& W 8S60MC of MCR 22,420PS
at 105.9 rpm together with a fixed pitch propeller and a Schilling rudder. The propeller has been
1046
designed jointly by the builder and the maker paying particular attention to fatigue strength under LR
requirements. The builder was responsible for the hydrodynamic design while the propeller maker was
responsible for the strength calculation. Figure I shows the original propeller drawing. The maker has
carried out FEM calculations and reported that the propeller has the normal safety factor 2 against
fatigue. LR has independently made FEM analysis in 1993 for the approval, and they found even
somewhat lower stresses than calculated by the maker.
The ships have been constructed smoothly under good cooperation between the owner and the builder,
and delivered successfully on Nov. I, 1994 for the first ship with two months interval for the later
ships. The ships have been proved to be very excellent in overall performances including speed and
vibration characteristics through sea trials and have been in service with full satisfactions. As the result,
repeat order was followed to build four more ships based on the same hydrodynamic design on hull
form/propeller of the said series. Unfortunately, however, the first ship has lost part of the propeller
blade tip on one blade after one and half years in services
2 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
In January 1997, two blade tips of the propeller of the second ship in the series were reported to be
bent due to ice impact. The spare propeller was then mounted, and the original propeller subsequently
repaired. In April 1998 one blade tip was broken from the propeller of the first ship after about 4 years
in service, of which the last 1.5 years were reported to be at 100% MCR. The propeller was replaced
by the repaired propeller of the second ship. In July 1998 two blade tips of the propeller of the third
ship were reported bent. These blades were repaired. In August 1998 one blade tip of the propeller of
the second ship was broken.
3 INVESTIGATION ON DAMAGED PROPELLER
Comprehensive investigations were made to find possible cause of the propeller blade damage. The
following works have been performed during the investigation.
3.1 Underwater Inspection
All propellers of the series vessels were checked very carefully by diver inspection. During the
inspection ofH4411 and H4412, it was noted that the tip of one of the propeller blades was missing. A
photo of one of the damaged propellers is shown in Fig. 2.
3.2 Material Analysis
A part including the fracture surface of the broken propeller has been analysed by the Swedish
National Testing and Research Institute with regard to chemical composition, hardness and fracture
characteristics. In conclusion the material composition and hardness was found to be normal for a
propeller nickel aluminum bronze. An examination of the fracture surface revealed that the probable
cause for fracture is fatigue initiated at the trailing edge. The fatigue failures of the broken blades were
initiated by astern operation. The cracks are then propagating during normal ahead operation and also
at backing manoeuvres with low rpm. No macroscopic defects were found at the initiation point. No
traces of cavitation erosion were evident on the propeller blade.
3.3 Strength Analysis by FEM
FE stress calculations were made in 1993 by the propeller maker for the 100% MCR condition. These
1047
calculations were approved by Lloyd's Register of Shipping. The results of stress analysis indicated
that the calculated stresses are within the safety limit of a factor 2. The calculation was repeated in
1998 after the reporting of the two failures. Approximately the same results as in 1993 were found.
Next, the propeller maker ordered the German research institute SV A in Potsdam to calculate both the
hydrodynamic load, and the stresses. The stresses were calculated with the well known program
ANSYS. Meanwhile, the shipowner ordered the Swedish research institute SSPA to make the same
calculations. All results are summarized in Table 1. Various calculations indicated large differences as
to the levels of stress; the stress calculations by SSPA show that the local stress level are extremely
high in the region of trailing edge where the blades were broken, and the ANSYS calculation also
predict higher stresses than the propeller maker own calculation. This may demonstrate the sensitivity
of FE analysis depending on hydrodynamic loading, FE modeling and the method used. Whichever
method is used between SSPA and SV A, the stress levels calculated based on today's knowledge are
much higher than normally accepted merchant ships and the fatigue safety margin is less than 1.0.
3.4 Cause of Failure
The conclusion drawn from the above investigation is that the fatigue failure was attributable to three
main features:
1. The stress level in trailing edge is too high and this is the cause of fatigue failure,
2. One cause of high stress level is due to the thin trailing edge which implies high stress originated
from not only the external load but also the built-in residual stress from the casting procedure,
3. The fatigue failures of the broken blades were initiated by astern operation. The cracks are then
propagating during the normal ahead operation and also at backing maneuvers with low rpm.
4 CORRECTIVE MEASURES
Based on the increased knowledge accumulated through the above investigation on the behavior of
highly skewed fixed pitch propellers, the following two corrective measures were prepared:
4.1 Propeller Blade Modification
The first modification to change the contour line for the blade tip was proposed by the propeller maker
based on their earlier experiences with success. Three more subsequent modification proposals were
followed by SSP A and LR. The chosen trailing edge modification is shown in Fig. 3 and compared to
the original design. This modification is aimed to enhance the blade strength properties in both the
ahead and astern operating conditions.
4.2 New Propeller Design
A new propeller was designed in accordance with more enhanced class rule of today and additional
requirement specified by the owner for sufficient safety margin against fatigue in the astern mode. The
ship owner recognized that some compromise on propulsive efficiency and cavitation performances
might be necessary in order to achieve the specified fatigue criteria. The most suitable means of
achieving this was to increase the thickness at trailing edge and to change blade contour line by
controlling the effective skew angle and chord distribution. The propeller geometries are shown in Fig.
4.
4.3 Model Tests
Towing tank and cavitation tests have been performed with the modified and new design propellers at
SSP A. The self-propulsion tests showed that very small differences in predicted shaft power between
1048
all three propellers including the original propeller. The propeller cavitation for both modified and new
propellers mainly appears as reasonably stable back sheet cavitation extending from approximately
0.8R to the tip. The cavitation characteristics on the new design propeller is very stable while that on
the modified propeller is of a more bubbly character. The extent both in the circumferential and radial
direction are somewhat larger for the modified propeller. The measured pressure pulses were of a
. moderate magnitude for all propellers. The modified propeller shows about 15% higher pressure pulse
levels when compared to the original and new design propeller. In conclusion, all propellers are
considered to be acceptable from a cavitation and vibration point of view.
4.4 Strength Analysis
The proposed LR modification to the original propeller design has been shown to give a satisfactory
margin against fatigue failure in the ahead condition and against bending in the astern mode of
operation. Comparing to the original design the blade stress in the ahead condition are reduced by
about 38% and 18% for the mean and fluctuating components as shown in Table 2. In the astern
condition the computed bollard astern stress reduces by 51%. As such, factors of safety of 1.87 and
1.38 are estimated against fatigue failure in the ahead condition and plastic failure in the astern
condition respectively(see Figure 5). The Figure 6 compares the distribution of stress on blade at 100%
MCR ahead condition and provides a graphic illustration of significant reduction of local stress level at
trailing edge, 0.7R in the modification design
The results of FE analysis with the new design propeller confirmed its achievements of the design
objectives - a reduction of normal stress level of 75% was predicted for a penalty on pressure pulses of
5% in comparison with the original design.
After consideration, the ship owner has decided in favor of the new design for the ships, They were
approved by LR, manufactured and fitted to a complete series of these ships. Each of the ships has now
successfully entered into service, and no fatigue problems have been encountered.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In case of propeller design for ro-ro ship where the full beam is carried right aft, forming large flat
stem overhang above the propeller with small propeller-tip clearance, special attention should be
focussed to the fatigue strength. More sophisticated procedure should be employed to ensure that the
prepared design is fulfil the fatigue based stress criterion. Due allowance must also be made for
operation in astern mode when stresses at the trailing edge of a highly skewed blade can rise
dramatically.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the support and cooperation of Mr. Ulf Alexanderson and Mr. Per Croner
from the Wallenius Lines over the various phases of work.
References
Calton J. S.(l984).Marine Propeller Blade Stress, Trans. I. Mar. E

1049
TABLE 1
CALCULATEDSTRESSSLEVEL AT FULLSPEEDAHEAD 21.4 KNOTS
Stress
Power Thrust
Method Mean Fluet. RPM Remarks
[kW] [kN]
rMpal r%l
Propeller Maker(1993) 52 54 16030 105 - T.E. 0.60R
Propeller Maker(1998) 53 48 16030 105 1410 T.E. 0.60R
SV A ANSYS 104 25 16030 105 156 T.E.0.63R
SSPA 193 15 15907 III 1354 -
TABLE 2
MAXIMUMVON MIESES EFFECTIVESTRESS[MPA] ATT.E. AT 0.6R
Blade Design Original Modification New Design

56 at root
Normal Stress 132 86
30 at T.E. 0.6R
Maximum Stress 155 119 97 at root
Minimum Stress 115 72 35 at root
Mean Stress 135 96 66 at root
C 200 I Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF ALUMINIUM BOX-STIFFENER LAP

JOINTS BY NOMINAL, STRUCTURAL AND NOTCH STRESS
RANGE APPROACHES
Naiquan Yel, Torgeir Moanl and Bard Wathne Tveiten2
1 Department of Marine Structures, Faculty of Marine Technology,

Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
2 Halliburton AS, Structural and Marine Department, Stavanger, Norway
ABSTRACT
Fatigue behaviour of an aluminium box-stiffener lap joint is systematically investigated in this study.
Fatigue analysis based on nominal stress range approach, two local approaches based on structural (hot
spot) as wel1as notch stress respectively are applied. The structural stress range approach depends on
how the structural stress concentration factors (SCFs) are obtained by means of several stress
extrapolation methods. Different stress extrapolation methods are discussed. Stress analysis is
performed by the finite element (FE) method. Twelve ful1-scaletest specimens are included in the test
program. The results show that the notch stress range approach is the most conservative one among the
three approaches. The nominal stress range approach, however, gives the least conservative approach
to the joint.
KEYWORDS
Fatigue, Box-stiffener, Lap joint, Aluminium, Nominal stress, Structural stress, Notch stress, SCF
I INTRODUCTION
Fatigue is a highly relevant failure mode for welded structural components that have high stress
concentration and are subjected to a large number of variable stress cycles. Traditional1y, fatigue
design is a stress-based procedure even though some strain-based and fracture mechanics methods
have been developed. In this study, three stress-based fatigue analysis and design approaches are
reviewed. Furthermore, the fatigue strength of a welded box-stiffener lap joint used in high speed light
crafts (HSLCs) is systematically investigated by a nominal, a structural, and a notch stress range
approaches.
The stress experienced in a weld joint is mainly determined by the fol1owingfactors: global geometry,
structural geometry and the weld. Correspondingly, three different definitions of stress are applied,
namely: nominal stress, structural stress ( that is also called "hot-spot" stress) and notch stress are
1054
defined by respectively taking the above factors into consideration. Figure I schematically illustrates
these three stresses experienced in a single plate lap joint.
Figure I: Stress components in a welded lap joint and structural stress extrapolation methods
1.1 Nominal Stress Range Approach
The nominal stress crn is defined such that only the effect of the global structure is taken into
consideration. This stress can normally be estimated by applying elastic strength of materials (beam)
theory, frame analysis, or coarse FE analysis. The stress-raising factors due to the structural geometry
and the weld are implicitly included in the fatigue strength curves (SN-curves). This implies that a
database which includes several typical structural details ("detail classes") is established in each design
code. A characteristic stress level is assigned to each "detail class" referring to a fatigue life of 2x 106
cycles. The fatigue analysis is then greatly simplified by using only the nominal stress. However, the
"detail class" database can only be established by a significant amount of experimental work.
Therefore, only a limited number of standard joint types is possible to include in the database.
However, when new and efficient joints are proposed and produced, they are unable to be satisfied by
the limited database. Thus, there is a need for a fatigue assessment method that can deal with these
geometrical "irregularities". This situation becomes even more evident when aluminium extrusion
fabricating technique is used to produce complicated cross sections and joints to optimise the structure
design. Moreover, people have admitted long since before that fatigue is an extremely localised
phenomenon which depends heavily on the local geometry of the joint and especially the weld. The
embarrassment here is that it is difficult to find a comparable "detail class" in the design codes for
those well-behaved new joints.
1.2 Structural Stress Range Approach
The structural stress is an attempt to advance further to account for the effect of the structural
geometry on the fatigue strength of the joints. As stated above, the structural geometry of the joint
plays an important role in the local stress level. In order to reflect its influence, a structural SCF Kg is
introduced as:
1055
The effect of the structural geometry on the stress at the weld toe is then accounted for by this factor,
but the notch effect of the weld is taken into account implicitly by the corresponding structural stress-
based SN-curves, the "hot spot" fatigue strength curves. Compared to the nominal SN-curve database,
much less experimental work is required for a structural stress SN-curve database. For instance,
compared with the 22 nominal stress SN-curves, Eurocode 9 (1998) proposed only 6 structural stress
SN-curves for all the joints (classified by the thickness of the stressed member). However, the
structural stress method normally includes some kind of extrapolation procedure of the stress to the
weld toe (hot spot). The challenge is how to exclude the stress-raising effect due to the weld (notch)
and only include the local structural effect in the stress calculation. In order to describe the structural
stress at the weld toe, various extrapolation methods have been proposed (Figure 1), either linear
extrapolation (Hobbacher 1996, DNV 1997), quadratic extrapolation (Niemi 1994, Hobbacher 1996),
or by a "singularity check" (Tveiten and Moan 2000).
Stress extrapolation methods are usually based on an assumption that the effect of the weld is localised
within a distance close to the weld. This distance is normally expressed as a function of the main plate
thickness. In addition, the extrapolation methods are quite joint dependent. In other words, the method
is easily calibrated to a given joint type, but fails to get a right answer for a different configuration and
dimension of the joint. Obviously, the assumption can not guarantee that the real influence of the weld
on the structural stress has been removed. Furthermore, the joint-dependence narrows the application
range of the methods because many joint types usually differ greatly from the proposed one .
• to separate the zone solely influenced by the structural geometry as the distance from the end of the
singularity-affected zone to the point where the structural stress and the nominal stress coincide .
• to fit a curve to the stress field influenced by the structural geometry by means of a polynomial of
second order and extrapolate to the weld toe.
The proposed extrapolation method eludes the weakness of the extrapolation methods suggested by e.g.
Niemi (1994) and Hobbacher (1996) in that the extrapolation method is independent of any structural
dimension to determine the region influenced solely by the structural geometry and thus the location of
the extrapolation points. The proposed method is instead dependent on a numerical stress singularity,
which is possible to reproduce in all structural components normally found in ship structures
independent of the actual geometrical dimensions of the detail. A drawback with the proposed
extrapolation method is that it requires a rather detailed (time consuming) FE analysis to ensure that
the local singularity at the notch (weld toe) has been properly accounted for.
1.3 Notch Stress Range Approach
With respect to stress calculation, the state-of-the-art notch stress range approach goes even further
than the structural stress range approach. The stress referred to is the notch stress (total stress) at the
1056
weld toe that compromises all the possible stress-raising effects due to the structural geometry and the
notch effects at the weld. Theoretically, only one SN-curve based on the plain material is needed for
all the joints in practice. Actually, only 4 SN-curves were proposed in the ONV classification note
(ONV 1997). A proper notch stress calculation is then a critical issue when this approach is applied.
Two alternatives to calculate the notch SCF are proposed in the classification notes (ONV 1997). One
is direct FE analysis and the other is parametric formulae. Good experience on FE analysis would be
beneficial in using the former technique to manage the mesh size and element type close to the weld
toe. Besides, a suitable weld toe radius must be specified in the FE model otherwise an infinity will
occur when the mesh size decreases to zero (ONV 1993). The latter, however, requires the relevant
joint to match the geometry that serves as basis for the parametric SCF. A poor matching may result in
an unacceptable error.
2 FATIGUE BEHAVIOUR OF THE BOX-STIFFENER LAP JOINT
2.1 Specimen Description
Lap joint is a widely used structural detail to join individual components. In aerospace industry, many
lap joints are used to joint sheets either by adhesive or bolt. With the development of section
fabrication technique, box-stiffener lap joints are used to join the pre-fabricated panels in the
production ofHSLCs and bridges. Figure 3 represents a typical box-stiffener lap joint.
1057
where m is the negative inverse slope of the SN-curve, logA represents the intercept of the logN-axis
by the SN-curve. Nand S refer to the fatigue life and the corresponding stress range respectively.
A characteristic fatigue life is normally set to be 2x I 06 cycles and the corresponding stress range is
correspondingly called a "detail class". It has been stated previously that the definitions of the stress in
the three approaches for the fatigue assessment are different. With respect to the box-stiffener lap joint,
Table I lists the characteristic SN-curves corresponding to each approach.
TABLE I
SN-CURVES FOR THE BOX-STIFFENER LAP JOINT
Approach Detail class') m Classification

Nominal stress 25 3.2 Eurocode 9
Structural stress 44 3.2 Eurocode 9
Notch stress 55 4.32 DNV
I) Refers to stress range at N=2x I 0" cycles.
It should be pointed out that among existing aluminium fatigue design codes such as ECCS, IIW, and
BS8118, Eurocode 9 (1998) assigns the highest "detail class" to the load carrying fillet weld in the lap
joints. Not every design code provides a possibility to use the structural stress as a design stress.
Eurocode 9 (1998) supports this design concept by providing a series of structural SN-curves based on
the thickness of the stressed member. However the DNV (1997) is the only design code that provides
the alternative to use the notch SN-curves. The "detail class" in the DNV (1997) is not explicitly given
but it can be directly derived by the given parameter logA through equation (3). Theoretically, the three
SN-curves should be equivalent to each other for one given joint type.
2.3 Stress Calculation
Figure 4: FE model of the box-stiffener lap joint
Three different levels of stress calculation were carried out to obtain the nominal stress, structural
stress and notch stress. A FE model was established for this purpose. A sub-model was also built to
1058
calculate the notch SCF at the weld toe. Figure 4 shows these models together with an illustration of
the weld detail. A IS-nodes solid element was chosen to model the weld and the other parts were
modelled by a 20-nodes solid element. The mesh sizes near the weld were tl2x tl2x tl2 and tl32x tl32x
tl32 (t=3.0 mm) so that the for the structural and notch SCFs could be obtained properly. In addition,
while attempting to calculate the notch stress by direct FE analysis, the weld toe radius was taken form
the measured mean value (0.2Smm) so that the infinity stress singularity at the weld toe was avoided
(DNV 1993). Stress calculations were performed at Gaussian points and then extrapolated to the nodes.
Table 2 surnmarises the results. However, it should be emphasised that the contact between the lap
plate and the parent plate (Figure I) must be carefully dealt with. Obviously, no contact and full
contact would result in two extreme bounds for the contact problem. By first leaving a small gap (no
contact) and then checking the displacements and stresses of adjacent nodes of the lap plate and the
parent plate, it was found that contact did exist. Compared with no contact assumption, a full contact
reduced the SCFs by a factor of IS percent. Since precisely describing the contact problem is a
complicate issue and beyond the scope of this paper, a full contact was assumed in the calculation
because this assumption would give conservative assessment to the fatigue strength ofthe joint.
1059
It can be seen that the mean-2STDEV line exactly meets the requirement of the nominal stress SN-
curve from Eurocode 9 (1998). At the point of 2x 106 cycles, the difference in the characteristic stress
range is only 0.3 percent. Therefore, it looks that the two lines almost overlap each other in the figure.
However, when the structural stress range approach is used, Eurocode 9 (1998) seems to give a slightly
more conservative assessment to the fatigue strength of the joint. The test data came out with a stress
range of 5.5 percent over the SN-curve at the point of 2x106 cycles. It should be noted that the
structural SCF adopted in Figure 5 is from the extrapolation method by Tveiten and Moan (2000). The
margin will be greater if the other extrapolation methods are applied. Also, the margin will increase if
it is assumed that there is no contact.
Finally, it is found that the notch stress range approach of the DNV urtderestimates the fatigue strength
of the joint with at least 14 percent. It should be pointed out that the notch SCF in Figure 5 is based on
direct calculation by using FE analysis. The DNV provides also another alternative to obtain the notch
SCF by parametric formulae that are related to individual joints. However, it is hard to find a
comparable joint in the code to match the joint investigated here. Both an overlap connection and
cover plate on beams in the code would give two high notch SCFs that seem to be much more
conservative if it was applied to the fatigue strength assessment.
3 CONCLUSIONS
The fatigue strength of a box-stiffener lap joint has been assessed using a nominal, a structural, and a
notch stress range approach. The fatigue strength of the investigated box-stiffener lap joint was shown
to be conservatively predicted by all the three approaches. However, the nominal stress range approach
provides the lowest margin of safety and the notch stress range approach underestimates the fatigue
strength more than the other two methods. As the notch stress range approach, the structural stress
range approach gives lower estimation to the fatigue strength but the safety margin depends on how
the extrapolation is performed to calculate the SCFs at the weld toe.
References
DNV. (1993). Fatigue Assessment in Ship Structures, Det Norske Veritas Classification AS., No 93-
0432, H0Vik,Norway
DNV. (1997). Fatigue Analysis of High Speed and Light Craft, Det Norske Veritas Classification AS.,
CN 30.9, H0Vik,Norway
Eurocode 9. (1998). Design of Aluminium Structures Part 2 Structures Susceptible to Fatigue. CEN -
European committee for Standardisation, Brussels, Belgium
Hobbacher, A (1996). A Recommendations for Fatigue Design of Welded Joints and Components.
Technical Report IIW-XIII-1539-96/XV-845-96, IIW - The International Institute of Welding,
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Niemi, E. (1994). On the Determination of Hot Spot Stresses in the Vicinities of Edge Gussets.
Technical Report IIW-XIII-1555-94, IIW - The International Institute of Welding, Cambridge,
United Kingdom
Tveiten, B. W. and Moan T. (2000). Determination of Structural Stress for Fatigue Assessment of
Welded Aluminium Ship Details. International Journal of Marine Structures 2000:13,189-212.
Williams, M.L. (1952). Stress Singularities Resulting from Various Boundary Conditions in Angular
Comers of Plates in Extensions. Journal of Applied Mechanics 19, 526-8
FATIGUE STRENGTH ASSESSMENT OF CRUCIFORM JOINTS
W. Fricke and R. Wernicke
Dept. of Ship Structural Design and Analysis

Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Hamburg, Germany
ABSTRACT
A large number of cruciform joints can be found in ship structures. In case of high dynamic loading,
full or partial penetration welding is usually applied. The fatigue strength of this detail, with or
without weld penetration, depends on several influence factors, including plate and weld throat
thickness, width of the root gap as well as fabrication effects such as weld shape and misalignment.
The fatigue strength assessment is reviewed on the basis of earlier and more recent investigations on
small scale test specimens and some large scale tests. Different approaches are applied, which are
able to consider relevant factors affecting the fatigue life. As misalignment is a stochastic variable
not known during design, a probabilistic approach is applied which allows its rational consideration
in fatigue design.
KEYWORDS
Welded joint, Cruciform joint, Fatigue, Fabrication effect, Misalignment, Local stress, Fracture
mechanics
1 INTRODUCTION
The cruciform joint is one of the 'standard cases' of welded connections. Its fatigue strength was sub-
ject of several investigations in the past. Fatigue strength data were collected and re-analysed a. o. by
Gurney & Maddox (1973) and Olivier & Ritter (1979). An interesting feature of this joint is that in
case of incomplete root penetration, different crack initiation sites exist, i. e. at the weld toes, leading
to plate fracture, and at the ends of the non-welded root gap, leading to a fracture through the weld
(see Fig. I). The question, where the first crack will appear, depends mainly on the geometrical
configuration, in particular on the amount of weld penetration and throat thickness, and on the type of
loading.
The danger of root cracking, which can only be detected after the whole weld has been separated, has
resulted in preferring full or at least partial penetration welding for structures which are subjected to
cyclic loading. This is supported by corresponding guidelines and partly stringent fatigue strength
requirements for joints only with fillet welds.
1062
On the other hand, these fillet-welded cruciform joints without weld penetration are typical for large
plated structures such as ships and mobile units. Partial or full penetration welding would require
additional preparation of plate edges which is expensive and, therefore, normally limited to areas
where it is absolutely required. Wherever possible, weld reinforcement would be preferred over plate
edge preparation by many shipyards.
Therefore, the fatigue strength assessment of cruciform joints without and with partial or complete
weld penetration is of great interest for practical application. For this reason, cruciform joints have
been further investigated in two research projects, in the European project FatHTS and a national
R&D project. After a short review of the current fatigue design procedures for cruciform joints, the
results of the R&D projects will be described, showing the effects of several influence factors on
fatigue strength, based on small scale tests. These are supplemented by some large scale tests
showing the behaviour of cruciform joints in complex structures. Finally, a probabilistic
consideration of misalignment is presented, offering a rational assessment of this important, but
uncertain influence factor.
t thickness
e axial misalignment
<p .•• angular misalignment
a throat thickness
f incomplete root penetration
c unwelded root face
s root gap
Figure 1: Geometry of a Cruciform Joint
2 FATIGUE STRENGTH ASSESSMENT
The fatigue strength of cruciform joints can be evaluated using any of the available approaches. One
possibility is offered by the nominal stress approach, which is used in many codes and guidelines. In
accordance with the two possible crack initiation points, two nominal stresses are assessed:
a) the nominal stress in the interrupted plate, for which detail category FAT 63 is specified by IIW
(1996), defining the fatigue strength reference value of the design S-N curve at 2 million cycles.
FAT 63 is slightly higher than the corresponding class F2 ofBS 5400 (1980).
b) the nominal stress in the weld throat, i. e. the stress in the plate multiplied by 2 x throat thickness
and divided by the plate thickness, which is classified by IIW (1996) as FAT 45, corresponding
to class W ofBS 5400.
In case of full penetration, only (a) is applicable, but with an increased fatigue class (FAT 71 or F,
respectively). The design curves incorporate an allowance for increased stress due to misalignment,
which amounts up to 45% according to IIW (1996).
The hot spot stress approach allows only the assessment of the crack initiation at the weld toes, i. e.
crack initiation site (a). IIW (1996) classifies 45° fillet welds into FAT 100. However, some codes
1063
such as Germanischer Lloyd (2000) propose a reduced fatigue class for fillet welds carrying the
whole load of the attached plate, i. e. also for cruciform joints without weld penetration. The
difference between the fatigue classes of the nominal and the hot spot stress approach is due to the
fact that in the latter any stress magnification due to misalignment has to be considered in the applied
stress.
A more refined approach is the effective notch stress approach, which allows the consideration of
specific geometry and load parameters. According to Radaj (1990), the effective notch stress at weld
toes and roots in steel structures can be analysed using a fictitious radius of 1 mm. IIW (1996)
defines a corresponding fatigue class FAT 225 for these notches. Radaj (1990) and Anthes at al.
(1993) derived parametric formulae for the notch stress at cruciform joints. Possible stress
magnification due to misalignment has to be considered in the applied stress here as well.
Finally, the fracture mechanics approach is mentioned, which has been applied particularly to the
assessment of cracks initiating from the notch root. The root gap is considered as initial crack and the
crack propagation through the weld is computed using a crack propagation law such as that of Paris
and Erdogan. The geometry function required to account for the effect of the weld toe and root can be
found in several handbooks, such as IlW (1990).
3 FATIGUE TESTS WITH SMALL SCALE SPECIMENS
In the projects mentioned, additional fatigue tests have been performed using small scale specimens
of cruciform joints. The main objective was to investigate fabrication effects, in particular axial mis-
alignment, as well as the effect of steel strength in view of applying higher and very high strength
steel with yield point up to 690 MPa. Cruciform joints with almost full penetration welds were
considered, so only toe cracking was expected.
Axial misalignment creates secondary bending stresses under axial (membrane) loading. As shown
by several authors before (a. o. Maddox, 1985; Berge and Myrhe, 1977), the increased stress range
!1cr can be calculated from the membrane stress range !1crM with the following formula for
unrestrained cruciform joints with constant thickness t for both fixed and pinned ends:
!1cr = !1crM (1 + 3 eft) (1)

Additional external bending stresses of the cruciform joint is not affected by axial misalignment e.
The test specimens were fabricated by two different shipyards (series A, L) from plates 300 x
600 rom with different thickness and cut into 60 rom wide specimens. Three levels of axial
misalignment were realised: S - small: eft'" 0.1; U - usual: eft'" 0.3; L - large: eft'" 0.5
Fig. 2 shows typical sections of the joints. Several of the L-series had to be re-welded with additional
passes to avoid root cracking. In total 15 test series, each with 11 - 28 specimens, were investigated.
Table I gives an overview together with the series designation formed by four letters or numbers,
indicating the manufacturer (A, L), the plate thickness in rom, the steel strength (M = mild steel; H =
higher tensile steel with nominal yield strength 355 - 390 MPa; V = very high tensile steel with
690 MPa) and the level of misalignment as given above.
Figure 2: Sections through specimens

1064
The load-controlled fatigue tests were carried out with pulsating axial load (R = 0) in air at
frequencies between 20 and 30 Hz. The load level corresponded in most cases to a membrane stress
of 140 MPa, while 80 and 100 MPa were chosen for series AlOH-L. The number of cycles until
failure, which was defined as fracture of the specimen, was statistically analysed. Almost all failures
were due to cracking from the weld toe, except for a few specimens of A25-series showing
fabrication-related weld defects.
TABLE I
AVERAGE GEOMETRICAL VALUES OF SPECIMENS (SEE ALSO FIG. I)
Series ReH t e <p e It c+f a Number of

[MPa] [mm] [mm] r01 [mm] [mm] specimens
AIOH-S 355 10.6 1.3 0.1 0.13 1.2 5.2 II
AIOH-L 355 11.6 6.2 0.3 0.53 1.7 5.3 II
A25H-S 355 26.0 3.6 1.2 0.14 7.7 7.3 II
A25M-U 235 25.5 6.6 0.4 0.26 4.5 6.8 11
A25H-L 355 26.0 9.1 1.7 0.35 6.7 8.2 II
Ll2M-U 235 12.5 3.1 0.2 0.25 4.6 5.9 14
Ll2H-S 390 12.2 2.8 0.2 0.23 5.8 4.3 14
Ll2H-U 390 12.2 4.3 0.4 0.35 5.6 6.4 27
LI2H-L 390 12.2 7.4 0.2 0.61 5.9 6.0 14
Ll2V-S 690 11.8 1.3 0.2 0.11 5.6 7.1 14
Ll2V-U 690 11.8 1.3 0.3 0.33 - 6.9 14
L25H-S 390 24.8 4.2 0.2 0.17 8.0 9.7 14
L25H-U 390 24.7 7.5 0.2 0.30 9.2 10.0 28
L25H-L 390 24.7 9.5 0.9 0.39 8.4 10.0 14
L25V-S 690 24.9 2.1 0.3 0.09 7.4 10.3 13
1066
the A-series the cracks started at one point and propagated with elliptical front through the thickness.
The L-series in contrary, which were mostly re-welded with additional passes, showed a quite
different behaviour. Due to small defects in a depth 0.03 mm below the toe, several initial cracks
grew together and formed a long and shallow crack propagating through the thickness. Fig. 5 shows
examples of the different crack surfaces.
Crack propagation analyses based on IIW (1990) as well as on Bell et al. (1987) and Seeger et al.
(1991) regarding the coalescence of cracks showed a good agreement between measurement and cal-
culation including the effect of secondary bending. More details are described by Wernicke (200 I).
These findings underline the fact that the scatter in fatigue life largely depends on the quality offabri-
cation which may differ considerably between the manufacturers.
4 LARGE SCALE FATIGUE TESTS
In real structures the situation is often not as simple as in the small scale specimens, owing to rather
complex geometry and loading. This was investigated on three models of uame comers in a scale
close to reality (Fig. 6). Two misaligned connections of flanges were investigated in one symmetrical
model. The uame comers consisted of 3850 mm long branches, made of 12 mm thick plates, while
the flanges were fabricated from flat bars 300 x 20 mm. The vertical flange is interrupted and
connected with a full penetration weld. The built-in misalignment was 7 mm, i. e. 35% of the flange
thickness.
The load was applied by a diagonally acting hydraulic cylinder creating mainly bending and shear in
the branches. The tests were carried out at load levels between 300 and 380 kN. The stress state in the
vicinity of the connection was measured by strain gauges. For comparison, finite element calculations
were performed with a 3D model of the structure.
Fig. 7 shows the comparison between the measured and computed stress distribution in both flanges
close to the welded connection. Generally a good agreement is observed. The interrupted flange clearly
shows higher stresses, although the difference is much smaller than in unrestrained specimens having
the same misalignment, where the bending stress would even be larger than the axial stress. In the
large scale test models, high restraining is caused by the web and the continuous flange. Furthermore,
a stress reduction towards the edges can be observed which is due to the reduced effective breadth.
Therefore, the highest stress occurs close to the web, however, in a distance of approx. 30 mm away
1067
from the web. The stress increase towards the weld toe is very steep. The hot spot stress at the weld toe
has been calculated by applying quadratic stress extrapolation over three points (0.5, 1.5 and 2.5 x
plate thickness away from the hot spot).
During the fatigue tests the cracks appeared at the weld toes of the interrupted flanges. These cracks
were detected when they reached a length of 1 - 2 mm. Subsequently several small cracks coalesced to
a shallow surface crack. Failure was defined for a crack length of approx. 50 rom. The fatigue lives
were above the hot spot design S-N curve defined by IIW (1996) and GL (2000).
In summary the large scale tests have shown that rather complex stress distributions occur in 3D struct-
ures. The assumption of a stress magnification factor as given e. g. by IIW (1996) might be too con-
servative. However, the fatigue strength of misaligned joints can be well assessed by the hot spot stress
approach in such structures, if both misalignment and effective breadth are taken into account.
5 PROBABILISTIC CONSIDERATION OF MISALIGNMENT
The S-N approach offers a relatively simple way to consider the uncertainties on the strength and load
side. The strength is characterized by the S-N curve, i.e.:
(2)
The high scatter in fatigue life is usually considered by assuming K to be a stochastic variable, while m
is set to 3.0. But also the load side, which is represented by I1cr and the number nmax of applied load
cycles, may contain high uncertainties, especially if variable amplitude loading occurs. In this case a
damage accumulation law such as Miner's rule is needed, creating additional model uncertainties.
As shown above, misalignment magnifies the stress, e. g. acc. to eq. (1). If misalignment eft is a sto-
chastic variable, I1cr will also be stochastic and include the uncertainties.
Observations in practice indicate that the frequency distribution of axial misalignment may be
approximated by an exponential distribution (Berge and Myrhe, 1977). If we assume that the "permis-
sible misalignment" epft is a characteristic value, which is exceeded in 5% of all cases, the frequency
distribution, illustrated in Fig. 8, can be written as
(3)
Using the stochastic variables K and eft, if appropriate together with others, the probability of failure Pr
can be calculated for a given fabrication quality. The same can be done for an enhanced quality, char-
acterized by a reduced "permissible misalignment", allowing higher stresses if the original failure
probability shall be maintained. This can be of great interest if high tensile steel is applied.
In the nominal stress approach, the probability of failure for this case is assumed to be 2,3% (IIW,
1996), because this detail is related to FAT 71 with a corresponding design S-N curve located two
standard deviations below the mean curve. In the probabilistic analysis, the probability of failure is
computed for various "permissible misalignments eplt", applying the hot spot S-N curve acc. to FAT
6 CONCLUSIONS
Crucifonn joints are typical elements in ship structures. Their fatigue strength is influenced to a large
extent by the amount of weld root penetration and other fabrication effects such as misalignment. From
the investigations described, the following conclusions can be drawn:
• The tests confinn that steel strength has no (beneficial) effect on the fatigue behaviour.
• Axial misalignment affects the fatigue strength due to secondary bending, as already shown by
other investigators.
• As axial misalignment is an unknown quantity during design, it should be treated in a probabilistic
manner using characteristic values for fabrication quality.
• In complex 3D joints, the effect of axial misalignment might be fairly small, which can be verified
by hot spot stress analyses.
1069
• The large scatter in fatigue lives is highly affected by fabrication quality in terms of weld shape
and small defects close to the weld toe.
Acknowledgement
The investigations were partly performed within the joint research project "Life Cycle Design" (Pro-
ject E3), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMB+F), while the
major part was carried out in the years 1996 - 2000 within the European research project FatHTS,
funded by the European Union under the Industrial and Materials Technology Programme Brite Euram
III. The partners of this project were: AF/Industritechnik (S), Bureau Veritas (F), Chalmers University
of Technology (S), Chantiers de l' Atlantique (F), Fincantieri (1), Germanischer Lloyd (D), Instituto
Superior Tecnico (P), Lisnave (P), Odense Steel Shipyard (OK), RINA (I), Royal Schelde Shipyard
(NL), Technische Universitat Hamburg-Harburg (D) and VTT (FI). The EU-project was coordinated
by mo. An overview of the project was given by Janssen (2000).
References
Anthes, R.J.; Kottgen, V.B. and Seeger, T. (1993). Notch Factors of Butt and Cruciform Joints (in
German). SchweiBen und Schneiden 45, pp. 685 - 688.
Bell, R.; Vosikovsky, 0.; Burns, D.; Mohaupt, U. (1987). A Fracture Mechanics Model for Life Pre-
diction of Welded Plate Joints. Proc. of3rd Int. Offshore Conf. Steel in Marine Structures, Delft.
Berge, S.; Myhre, H. (1977). Fatigue Strength of Misaligned Cruciform and Butt Joints. Norwegian
Maritime Research; No. 1/77
BS 5400 (1980). Code of Practice for Fatigue. British Standard Institution.
Germanischer Lloyd (2000). Rules for Classification and Construction, I - Ship Technology, Part I:
Seagoing Ships, Chapter 1 - Hull Structures. Self-Publishing, Hamburg.
Gurney, T.R. and Maddox, SJ. (1973). A Re-Analysis of Fatigue Data for Welded Joints in Steel.
Weld. Res. Int., Vol. 3, No.4, pp. 1 - 54.
IIW (1990). IIW Guidance on Assessment of the Fitness for Purpose of Welded Structures - Draft for
Development. FORCE Institutes, Copenhagen.
IIW (1996). Fatigue Design of Welded Joints and Components. Ed. A. Hobbacher, International Insti-
tute of Welding, Abington Publishing, Cambridge (UK).
Janssen, G.T.M. (2000l. Fatigue Based Design Rules for the Application of High Tensile Steel in
Ships. Proc. of the 7 Int. Marine Design Conference, Kyongju.
Maddox, SJ. (1985). Fitness-for-purpose assessment of misalignment in transverse butt welds subject
to fatigue loading. IIW-Document XIII-l 180-85, International Institute of Welding (IIW)
Maddox, SJ. (1991). Fatigue Strength of Welded Structures. Abington Publishing, Cambridge
Olivier, R. and Ritter, W. (1979). Catalogue ofS-N Curves of Welded Joints in Structural Steels - Vol.
1- 5. Report 56, Deutscher Verband fUr SchweiBtechnik (DVS).
Radaj, D. (1990). Design and Analysis of Fatigue-Resistant Welded Structures. Abington Publishing,
Cambridge (UK).
RCP Consult (1998). STRUREL - A Structural Reliability Analysis Program System, User Theoretical
Manual. RCP GmbH & RCP ApS.
Seeger, T.; Olivier, R.; Kottgen, V. (1991). Fatigue Strength Analysis of Welded Joints on Basis of
Local Stresses (in German). DVS-Report 133, DVS-Verlag, Dusseldorf.
Wernicke, R. (2001). Assessment of cyclic loaded Cruciform Joints with Geometrical Imperfections
(in German). Doctoral Thesis at TU Hamburg-Harburg (to be published).
FATIGUE STRENGTH ASSESSMENT OF

HULL DETAILS FOR AN FPSO
S. Berge', A. Johansen2 and Lars G. Bjorheim3
, Department of Marine Structures, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

2 MARINTEK, Trondheim, Norway
3 Statoil, Stavanger, Norway
ABSTRACT
The aim of the work reported herein was to make an assessment of the fatigue strength of typical
connections between longitudinal stiffeners and transverse frameslbulkheads along the ship side of a
Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO). Two identical models with full size
details of the stiffener/frame connections were tested. Experimental stress analysis was carried out on
the models. The sections were fatigue tested to failure with loads representing the hydrostatic pressure
from wave action on the ship side. Finite element analysis was carried out to investigate the effect of
boundary conditions being different for the sections in the tests compared to in a ship side. The finite
element analysis of the detail geometry was verified against the experimental stress data. The results
were analysed using the DNV fatigue design procedure based on finite element analysis. A major
uncertainty was identified to be related to the definition of "fatigue life" for ship structural details.
KEYWORDS
Ship structures, FPSO, Ship design, Fatigue design, Fatigue strength, Finite ~lement analysis,
Experimental stress analysis, Fatigue testing.
1 INTRODUCTION
Until some few years ago, there was no explicit fatigue design of cargo ships. Based on service
experience, ships were designed against ultimate loads with the implicit assumption that fatigue would
- at worst - be a maintenance problem.
During the 1980's new grades of steel with improved weldability and increased tensile strength were
developed for ship structures. Thus, the allowable stress level increased and scantlings were decreased
to minimise fabrication costs and weight of structures. As is well known, fatigue strength of welded
joints is relatively insensitive to the tensile strength of the steel, and it turned out that implicit fatigue
design based on static strength criteria was not sufficient to cater for the increased stress level.
1072
Another development was the advent of floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) ships for
oil and gas. These structures are moored offshore and operated in a stationary mode for the production
life of an oil and gas field, typically up to 20 years. Docking for inspection and repair is very costly
for an FPSO, and design is thus aimed at uninterrupted operation. Fatigue design should thus be based
on a safe life approach.
For these reasons, during the latter half of the 1990's several major classification societies have issued
new or revised rules and recommendations for fatigue design of ships, ISSC (1997). Various methods
are prescribed for assessment of load and load effects, from simplified design wave approaches to full
spectral analysis. For strength assessment, a range of schemes are applied, based on different
formulations and families of SN curves for welded joints.
A comparative study has shown that for a rather simple weld detail, subjected to nominal ship girder
stress only, the variability in fatigue life prediction using different rules and recommendations, was a
factor of 10, ISSC (2000).
The purpose of this paper is to present the main results from a study on fatigue strength of a ship hull
detail, with full scale fatigue test results, and finite element analyses.
2 EXPERIMENTAL STRESS ANALYSIS
2.1 Test Models
Two test models were built to the same dimensions and specifications. The essential feature of the test
models was the transition between longitudinal stiffener and transverse frame, Figure!. The global
geometry of the test models is shown in Figure 2. The models were fabricated according to
shipbuilding specifications.
Figure I: Dimensions of stiffener/frame transition

The figure is oriented with ship side shown as top horizontal plate. Location of Hot Spot I (stiffener to
lug weld) and Hot Spot 2 (stiffener to web) are marked as HS I and HS2 respectively.
1073
Dimensions, cf. Figures I and 2:

• Shipside: 6400 x 800 x 16 mm (L x B x T)
• Frames: 1300 x 800 xl2 mm (H x B x T)
• Longitudinal stiffener: HP 320 x 14
• Stiffeners on frames: HP 260 x 12
• Lug: 12 mm
2.2 Test Set-up
The models were welded to a steel plate which was bolted to the strong floor. The actual load on a
ship side is hydrostatic pressure. As an approximation, two equal point loads at mid-span were applied,
Figure 3. The effect on hot spot stress due to the approximate load application and other effects, was
assessed by finite element analysis.
Strain gauges were applied to measure strain at different locations, on top of the stiffener bulb
(nominal stress), and at various locations on the stiffener/frame transition (hot spot stress locations).
Static stress was measured with an applied load of200 kN (2 x 100 kN point load, cf. Figure 3).
1074
3 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS - GENERAL
Finite element analyses were carried out using the computer program ABAQUS, with a linear elastic
material model. Two different geometries were modelled, the geometry of the laboratory test, and the
geometry of a full size ship side. The purpose of the former model was to compare FEA with
experimental stress analysis. The purpose of the latter was to investigate the effect on hot spot stress
due to boundary conditions, which were different in the laboratory tests compared to in a ship side.
Herein results from the former model is reported only.
3.1 Laboratory Model- Computed vs. Measured Stress
The purpose of this model was to simulate the test conditions and to verify the hot spot stress
calculations against experimental data.
The stress analysis yielded a large volume of data. Only the most significant results are presented here.
The test model was modelled with 9356 4-noded shell elements. Elements with thickness variation
were used to model the stiffener bulbs. Eccentricity of lug was modelled. Welds were not modelled.
A refined mesh was used in the instrumented areas. Two point loads, 100 kN each, were applied to the
side shell at mid-span, directly above the longitudinal stiffeners. This corresponds to the load applied
in the tests, Figure 3. The model was fixed in all translational and rotational degrees of freedom at the
end of the three transverse frames, as for the experimental model.
The stress analyses produced a large volume of data. Only the most significant results for the fatigue
tests are presented herein. As a general comment, computed and measured stress in non-welded
regions of the model, e. g. at top of the stiffener (bulb), were in very good agreement. For welded
components (lug, web, etc.) subjected to more complicated loading, the agreement was somewhat
poorer. This is typical, due to the limitations of alignment and fabrication tolerances in welding
fabrication, and the associated secondary bending stresses. The welds were not modelled in the FE
analysis, also contributing to errors in the analysis.
The computed stress distributions for HS I and HS2 are shown in Figures 4 and 5, along with the
measured stresses.
At HS 1 (Figure 4) the gradient of stress towards the weld toe and the bending component due to
eccentricity is reasonably well represented by the FE analysis. The analysis appears to underestimate
the peak stress by approximately 20%, essentially due to an underestimation of the bending component
in the lug.
At HS2 (Figure 5) the bending component towards the weld (right hand side of graph) is clearly
underestimated. The reason could be the underestimation of bending stiffness at the joint due to the
omission of the weld fillet in the FE model. The gradient towards the hot spot is reasonably well
represented.
In the same graph (Figure 5) is shown a large stress concentration at 90° angle. However, this stress is
compressive, and at a location with no weld. Fatigue crack growth from this point is therefore quite
unlikely, as was verified in the fatigue tests.
4 FATIGUE TESTS - CRACK INITIATION AND GROWTH
The model was mounted as shown in Figures 2 and 3. The load range was 40 - 440 kN, i.e. a load
range ~P = 400 kN with a mean load of 240 kN, and an R-ratio Pmin/Pmax = 0.091. The cyclic rate of
loading was 0.5 Hz. The environment was laboratory air at ambient temperature.
The hot spot regions were inspected regularly for crack detection and crack size measurements, by
spraying with white spirit. With this method, cracks become easily visible and can be detected when
the crack depth is less than I mm.
Figure 5: Measured stress in Hot Spot 2 (cf. Figure 1).
4.1 Crack Initiation and Growth
Crack initiation was observed at two locations, HS I and HS2, cf. Figure 1. In both cases the crack was
initiated at the weld toe and grew through the fillet of the weld causing gradual detachment from the
transverse frame of the lug (HSl) and stiffener web (HS2) respectively.
In Modell, the first crack initiation was observed at HS 1. After some time, crack growth at HS 1
appeared to slow down, while the crack at HS2 continued to grow and to cause detachment of the
entire weld. In Model 2, crack initiation and growth at HSI was observed only. Life to initiation and
life to failure was not significantly different for the two models.
1076
In Tables 2 and 3 the observed crack lengths are shown, for different stages of the test. For the initial
stage, the surface crack length is given, Figure 6. For the through weld stage, the length of cracked
weld is shown. The crack tended to grow at different rates at the respective sides of the weld. The
length of the longest crack is given.
The test was terminated when the crack had grown through the full cross section of the weld. At this
stage the model was still fully load carrying with respect to the fatigue loading. Vertical load through
the severed weld was apparently transmitted by shear, due to the roughness of the fatigue crack surface.
Measured and computed stress was largest at HS I, and SN data is plotted in terms of stress at this
location. Stress range at HS 1 was assessed by strain gauge measurements and from FE analysis. The
stress component normal to the weld was taken at distances t/2 and 3t/2 from the weld toe and
extrapolated to the location of the weld toe, DNV (1998). The lug at the weld was subjected to
significant secondary bending, stress range was taken at the side of the lug with maximum stress. The
extrapolated measured stress and the stress calculated by FE are shown in Table 1.
TABLE I
STRESS RANGE AT HOT SPOT HS I (WELD TOE) FOR A LOAD RANGE bP = 400 KN
Modell, measured 200 Mpa

Model 2, measured 190 Mpa
FE analysis 154 Mpa
5 DISCUSSIONS
In Figures 7 and 8 the results are plotted into the SN design curves given by DNV (1998). For welded
joints in air Curve I applies. The hot spot stress was multiplied by the factor Fw = 1.5 to take care of
the weld geometry factor.
Observations:
Life to crack initiation in the tests was significantly less than the design life. At this stage the
cracks were innocuous surface cracks with depth of the order of one millimetre. These cracks would
be of no concern for strength or integrity of a ship. With normal inspection procedures cracks at this
stage would not be detected.
Life to the stage where through weld cracking was initiated (cf. Figure 6) is close to the design
curve. Fatigue life at this stage was non-conservative in relation to a "mean life SN curve" (design
1077
curve plus two standard deviations). However, also at this stage a crack would be innocuous. A crack
would be detectable by magnetic particle inspection and similar methods, but not by visual inspection.
- Life to complete cracking of the weld (end of test) indicates a safety factor of the order of 2 on
measured hot spot stress range, corresponding to a factor of lOon fatigue life. This implies that at this
stage the fatigue life was conservative in relation to the mean life criterion underlying the DNV design
curves. At this stage the crack would be detectable by visual inspection, provided the joint had been
cleaned. In the constant amplitude tests, the joint was fully load-carrying even at this stage. For a ship
structure subjected to randomised loading, this may not be true.
- The crack growth stage constituted more than 90% of the fatigue life. Throughout the entire crack
growth stage the joint was fully functioning as a load carrying member, albeit in constant amplitude
loading at a level considerably less than the ultimate state load. There is a need for establishing
criteria for "end of fatigue life" of ship details. This issue was not addressed in the present study.
Legend (Figures 7 and 8):
- First detection of surface crack, initiation

- Through weld cracking
- End of test, weld fully cracked
Open symbols: Measured hot spot stress (DNV extrapolation x 1.5)
Closed symbols: Hot spot stress calculated by FE (DNV extrapolation x 1.5)
TABLE 2
CRACK DEVELOPMENT, MODEL I
Hot Spot 1 Hot Spot 2

Cycles Surface crack Surface crack length Comments
length (mm) (mm)
122.300 Surface crack No crack First detection of crack
2mm
420.000 Through weld Surface crack
crack 10 mm 7mm
638.000 Through weld Through weed crack Crack growth at HS 2 is considerably faster
crack 20 mm 50mm
762.000 Through weld Through weld crack Crack growth at HS 2 is dominating.
crack 22 mm 65mm No further growth of crack at HS I.
1.422.000 No crack growth Weld fully cracked End of test
TABLE 3
CRACK DEVELOPMENT, MODEL 2
Hot Spot 1 Hot Spot 2

Cycles Surface crack Surface crack length Comments
length (mm) (mm)
72.000 Surface crack No crack First detection of crack
8mm
404.000 Through weld No crack
crack 10 mm
2.250.000 Weld fully No crack End of test
detatched
6 FATIGUE STRENGTH CRITERIA - CONCLUSIONS
The analysis and test data discussed in the preceding sections give the following information
pertaining to fatigue design:
Assuming that some through weld fatigue crack growth is allowed, the fatigue design criteria of
DNV were verified by the model tests. If "end of life" is determined by crack initiation, the DNV
criteria appear to be non-conservative.
A finite element analysis of the test model with the same loading and boundary conditions gave hot
spot stresses at the critical details in fair agreement with experimental data. Discrepancies were of the
order of 20% and less, and were attributed to effects of secondary bending due to the eccentric lug
connection between longitudinal stiffener and transverse frame. In finite element modelling, due
attention should be paid to non-ideal geometry due to eccentricities and possible fabrication tolerances,
which tend to give additional stress concentrations.
For the same critical details in a ship side different loading and boundary conditions will apply.
These conditions could be simulated using finite element analysis. The effects on hot spot stresses
1079
were relatively modest. It is assumed that by simply scaling the hot spot stress, the fatigue properties
would be represented by the model test data (hot spot locations, crack growth, fatigue life).
These conclusions refer to in-air environment. For design of details subjected to a corrosive
environment, an SN curve adjusted for corrosion fatigue effects should be used.
Acknowledgement
This study was financed by Statoil. Financial support, technical input and permission to publish the
paper are gratefully acknowledged.
References
Det Norske Veritas (1998), Fatigue assessment of ship structures, Class Notes No. 30.7
Hibbit, Karlsson & Soerensen Inc., ABA QUS/Standard Users manual.
ISSC (1997): International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, eds. T. Moan and S. Berge, Report
of Committee III.2 Fatigue and Fracture.
ISSC (2000): International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, eds. H. Ohtsubu and Y. Sumi,
Report of Committee III.2 Fatigue and Fracture.
Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures 108!
EVALUATION OF SIMPLIFIED PREDICTION METHOD OF

STRESS RESPONSE FUNCTION FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF
FATIGUE STRENGTH ANALYSIS OF A SHIP
T. Fukasawa', K. Hashimot02 and y. Tomita2
IDivision of Mechanical Engineering, Kanazawa Institute of Technology,

Nonoichi, Ishikawa 921-850 I Japan,
2 Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Osaka University,
Suita, Osaka 565-0871 Japan
ABSTRACT
Similar Response Function Method is proposed as a simplified prediction method of the frequency
response function of stress fluctuation caused by wave pressure. With the use of the method,
computational efforts in FEM analysis to calculate the stress response function can extraordinary be
reduced. The accuracy of the method is evaluated from the viewpoint of fatigue strength analysis of a
ship. Fatigue crack growth analyses are carried out, where the storm model is used as the time history
of wave elevation and the occurrence probability of wave encounter angle is taken into account.
Comparing the results calculated by the simplified method and the exact method, the accuracy and the
applicability of Similar Response Function Method in fatigue strength design are discussed.
KEYWORDS
Fatigue Strength Design, Stress Response Function, Crack Growth Analysis, Simplified Prediction
Method, Similar Response Function Method, Wave Pressure, Storm Model, Sailing Model
1 INTRODUCTION
Fatigue strength design is currently carried out by applying the linear cumulative damage law, the
Miner rule, on the basis of crack initiation life. However, the Miner rule is unsatisfactory, because the
actual fatigue damage is accumulated nonlinearly during random stress cycles; in other words, the
fatigue damage strongly depends on the order of stress occurrence. To overcome this shortcoming,
fatigue strength should be evaluated by means of crack growth analysis. Tomita (2000) has proposed a
fatigue strength evaluation method in which the fatigue crack growth is analyzed according to the Paris
law. A storm model is introduced as the time history of stress occurrence, and the probability of
occurrence of wave encounter angle is taken into account according to the sea condition.
In order to analyze the fatigue crack growth by means of the Paris law, it is necessary to know the
1082
stress time history of a certain structural member of a ship in waves. The stress response function can
be available to generate the stress time history. However, in order to calculate the frequency response
function of stress fluctuation caused by wave pressure (the stress response function), enormous
numbers of FEM calculations are necessary. That is, since not only the pressure magnitude but also
the pressure distribution pattern along ship's hull vary in time according to wave condition, FEM
analysis should be conducted in every wave condition to obtain the stress response function in this case.
To reduce this computational effort in FEM analysis, Fukasawa (2000) have proposed a simplified
method called as the Similar Response Function Method (abbreviated as SRFM hereafter), by which
the frequency response function of stress fluctuation caused by wave pressure can easily be estimated
with the use of pressure response functions with much less number of FEM calculations.
In the present paper, firstly the frequency response function of stress fluctuation caused by wave
pressure is calculated by SRFM as well as the exact method. The crack growth analyses are then
conducted according to the Paris law with the use of the storm model. Comparing the results of the
exact method and of SRFM, the accuracy and the applicability of SRFM are discussed from the
viewpoint of the fatigue strength analysis of a ship.
2 FATIGUE STRENGTH EVALUATION PROCEDURE
Firstly, the sea condition which ocean-going ships encounter is categorized into two groups; a calm sea
condition and 6 kinds of storm conditions, which are specified by the wave height. The North Pacific
route is chosen as the sailing route in this paper. Considering 20 years life time, the occurrence
probability of calm sea condition is taken to be 199I12084, while that of storm sea conditions is
93/2084 in total (Tomita, 2000). Occurrence of wave is assumed to be time independent in the calm
sea condition. Time history of wave elevation is determined with the use of exponentially distributed
random numbers, and the wave period is assumed to be constant in the calm sea condition. In the
storm condition, on the other hand, occurrence of wave is assumed to be time dependent and the storm
model (Tomita, 1992) is incorporated as a time history of wave elevation. The occurrence probability
of wave period in the storm condition is determined according to the wave height, which is given in
the wave scatter diagram provided by Ship & Ocean Foundation (1992), and the wave period is
determined with the use of random numbers. The wave encounter angle is also determined using
random numbers according to the occurrence probability given in weather reports (Tomita, 2000).
Time histories of working stress can be calculated by means of the stress response function. Once the
wave height and the wave period are determined both in the calm sea and the storm conditions and the
wave encounter angle is fixed as mentioned above, the nominal stress can be obtained from the stress
response function. Assuming the stress concentration factor, the fatigue strength is then evaluated
according to the Paris law, instead of the Miner rule, in this paper. With the use of this method, the
amount of crack growth under a certain working stress and the amount of crack length at any given
moment can be calculated taking account of the effect of the order of stress occurrence.
3 STRUCTURAL MODEL
In FEM analysis, the structural model shown in Figure 1 is used in the present paper, which is a
sub-structure model of a 210,000 DWT bulk carrier. The stress evaluation points and the definition
of stress directions are also shown in the figure. MSC.NASTRAN is used for the solver in the
structural analysis. Since the external forces are not balanced themselves, counterbalance forces are
added to avoid the stress concentration at the constraint points. The counterbalance forces can be
obtained so as to balance the reaction forces at each constraint point which are come out in FEM
calculation when the external forces are only applied.
1086
In Figure 4, the long-term probability of occurrence of stress fluctuations of the slant plate at lower
stool and the slant plate at bilge knuckle are shown. Although the results of SRFM differ from the
exact one according to the k-value, the case of "square (k=2)" may be the best one in the accuracy, and
is used in the following crack growth analysis.
7 COMPARISON OF CRACK GROWTH
Crack growths are computed for 12 loading patterns. The plate thickness is assumed to be 12mm in
every stress point, and simulations are conducted for 20 years time span; however, in case where a
surface crack comes to a thickness-through crack in 20 years, the simulation is stopped at the moment.
Growths of crack length are shown in Figures 5 and 6. In Figure 5, the crack does not come to a
thickness-through crack in 20 years, while the crack grows through the plate thickness within 20 years
in Figure 6. It can be seen from the figures that the amounts of crack growth estimated by SRFM are
lower than that by the exact method on the whole. This means that the fatigue life of structural
members is overestimated by SRFM. However, there are some scatters of the amount of crack
growth according to the loading pattern, and the results by SRFM and the exact one are somewhat
overlapped. The crack growth behavior largely depends on the number, the order and the size of
storm, and there exists a loading pattern which makes cracks grow much faster or much slower. The
estimation error in SRFM is inside the scatter range caused by the difference of loading pattern.
Figure 6: Crack growth curve (Slant Plate at Bilge Knuckle)
The crack length/depth and the fatigue life averaged over 12 loading patterns are listed in Table!,
where the fatigue life is defined as the year which is necessary to increase the surface crack to the
thickness-through crack. The difference of crack length obtained by SRFM and the exact method is
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at most 2.5mm in 20 years, while the difference of the depth is at most Imm. In the case of
thickness-through crack, the difference of fatigue life between these two methods is about 2-3years.
TABLE 1
AVERAGE CRACK LENGTH/DEPTH AND AVERAGE FATIGUE LIFE
Exact Method SRFM

Crack Growth in 20 years
Length [mm] Depth [mm] Length [mm] Depth [mm]
Lower Part of Hold Frame 7.86 2.78 5.41 1.75
Slant Plate at Lower Stool 1.80 0.52 1.16 0.36
Inner Bottom at Lower Stool 0.49 0.21 0.46 0.21
Exact Method SRFM

Fatigue Life
Length [mm] Fatigue Life Length [mm] Fatigue Life
Slant Plate at Bilge Knuckle 22.73 3, I years 20.23 5.0 years
Inner Bottom at Bilge Knuckle 18.74 5.8 years 26.79 8.5 years
SRFM was proposed as a handy method to estimate the frequency response function of stress cause by
wave pressure, with which the number of FEM calculation is only 4 times to obtain the stress response
function at a certain wave encounter angle, including the counterbalance force calculations. The
fatigue life of structural members are a little bit overestimated by SRFM, however, the estimation error
of SRFM is inside the scatter range caused by the difference of loading pattern. The averaged error
of SRFM in estimated crack length is at most 2.5mm in 20-year life of a ship, while the error in the
depth is at most Imm. As for the thickness-through crack initiation, the difference of the fatigue life
obtained by these two methods is about 2-3years. These results show that SRFM can be used in
fatigue strength design
References
Fukasawa T., Morikawa M., Fukuoka T., Shibazaki K. and Ito A. (2000). On the Approximation of
Stress Response Function and Long-Term Probability of Occurrence of Stress caused by Wave
Pressure. J Soc. Naval Architects of Japan 187,241-251. (in Japanese)
Fukasawa T., Morikawa M., Fukuoka T., Shibazaki K. and Ito A. and Tomita Y. (2000). On the
Simplified Method to Predict the Long-term Probability of Occurrence of Stress caused by Wave
Pressure acting on a Ship. Int. Can! on Ship and Shipping Research (NAV2000) 2, 7.4.1-7.4.10.
Kawata N. (1996). Experimental Study on Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior under Storm Model,
Graduation thesis, Dept. of Naval Arch. and Ocean Eng., Osaka University, JAPAN (in Japanese)
Ship & Ocean Foundation. (1992). Windsand Waves of the North Pacific Ocean (1974-1988), Ship &
Ocean Foundation, JAPAN
Ship Research Panel 219. (1996). Study on Practical Use for Fatigue Crack Growth Analysis,
Shipping Research Association of Japan, JAPAN (in Japanese)
Tomita Y., Kawabe H. and Fukuoka T. (1992). Statistical Characteristics of Long-Term Wave-Induced
Load for Fatigue Strength Analysis for Ships. Practical Design of Ships and Mobile Units (PRADS) 2,
2,792-2,805.
Tomita Y., Hashimoto K., Osawa N., and Terai K. (2000). Fatigue Strength Evaluation of Ship
Structural Members Based on Fatigue Crack Growth Analysis. Int. Can! on Ship and Shipping
Research (NAV2000) 2,10.4.1-10.4.11.
You-Sheng Wu, Wei-Cheng Cui and Ouo-lun Zhou (Eds)
COMBINATION OF FATIGUE DAMAGES PRODUCED BY

SEVERAL WAVE-INDUCED LOADS BASED ON CORRELATION
COEFFICIENT METHOD
H. Kawabel and K. Shibazaki2
INational Maritime Research Institute, 6-38-1 Shinkawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0004, Japan
2NKK Co, l-banchi, Kumozukokanmachi, Tsu, Mie, 514-0393, Japan
ABSTRACT
This report is concerned with the combination method for ship hull structural fatigue damages produced
by several wave-induced loads based on correlation coefficient method. Several loads, such as dynamic
water pressures, cargo inertia forces and hull girder bending moments, act on ship's hull structural
members at the same time with different amplitudes and phases. The correlation coefficient method is
proposed as one method to combine these extreme loads in the long-term distributions. Authors extend
the correlation method to combine not only extreme values but also the whole shape of wave-induced
long-term distribution. If properties of the most severe short-term wave conditions which dominates the
long-term distribution of wave-induced load are almost same condition in each wave-induced loads, the
long-term distributions can be combined using correlation coefficient. Based on S-N curves (J = C Nn,
long-term distribution of wave-induced stresses by the loads and Miner's rule, fatigue damages in each
stress components can be calculated by following equation.
Where DI and D2 are fatigue damages obtained from each stress components, DI2 is combined fatigue
damage caused by two stress components and p is the correlation factor between loads. Some
numerical examples are demonstrated.
KEYWORDS
Fatigue, Miner's Rule, S-N curve, Wave-induced load, Long-term distribution, Correlation coefficient,
Combination of load, Design wave condition,
INTRODUCTION
Several loads, such as dynamic water pressures, cargo inertia forces and hull girder bending moments,
act on ship's hull structural members at the same time with different amplitudes and phases. A standard
1090
calculation method of a long-tenn distribution of wave-induced stress combined loading is conducted

as following procedures. First, we calculate the stress response amplitude function in regular waves by
using strip method and FEM structural analysis. Then, combining with wave spectrum, we can get the
short-tenn response within the scope of linear theory. The long-tenn probability distribution of
wave-induced stress is calculated in account of operating condition and long-tenn probability wave
distribution. The greatest advantage of these calculation methods is that the response amplitude
function of wave-induced stress on the ship structure could be calculated while the several kinds of
loads with various phase differences act on the structure. However, these methods require great
number of calculations, manpower and costs. As another method of calculating the long-term
distribution of wave induced stress on the ship structure where several kinds of load act at the same
time, the 2l6th Research Panel organized in the Shipbuilding Research Association of Japan (SR2l6,
1994) proposed three simple methods, such as, the peak value ratio method, the correlation coefficient
method and the design wave method. These methods calculate each long-tenn distributions of
wave-induced stress components respectively. Then, the extreme values of each stress components are
combined by using the above methods. SR 216 reported that there is not a significant difference among
these three combination methods.
In this report, authors extend the correlation coefficient method to combine not only the extreme
values but also the whole shape of long-tenn distribution of wave-induced stress. Authors examined
which factor of wave condition decide the whole shape of the long-tenn distribution, such as
significant wave height, average wave period and relative angle between ship course and wave
direction. To investigate the effect of wave condition and operating condition on the long-tenn
distribution, the long-term distribution is decomposed into every these factors and a contribution rate
analysis method for these factors in each load levels in the long-tenn distribution was introduced. By
using the method, authors clarify the governing wave condition and operating condition over long-tenn
distribution and the most severe wave condition to decide the extreme value of wave-induced load. If
the governing wave conditions in each stress components have same characters, the long-tenn
distributions can be combined by using the correlation coefficient method. Based on S-N curves cr = C
Nn, long-tenn distribution of wave-induced stresses by the loads and Miner's rule, fatigue damages in
each stress components can be combined by using the stress correlation coefficient. For numerical
examples, the combination oflong-tenn distribution of wave-induced stresses and fatigue damages in a
210,000 DWT bulk carrier structure are demonstrated.
2 GOVERNING WAVE CONDITION OVER LONG-TERM DISTRIBUTION OF

WAVE-INDUCED LOAD
Under short-tenn irregular wave condition, characterized by the significant wave height H and the
mean wave period T, and sailing ahead relative angle between ship course and wave direction e, a
spectrum of wave-induced loads shows narrow band characteristics. A short-tenn probability
distribution of wave-induced loads can be approximated by the Rayleigh probability function with a
parameter R(H, T, e). The long-tenn distribution of wave-induced load consists of a large number of
short-tenn conditions. The equation of the long-tenn distribution function Q(cr) is as follows.
(I)
where Q{ cr IR(H,T, en is short-tenn probability Rayleigh distribution. p{R(H,T, 8)} is the long-tenn
probability density function of parameter R(H,T, 8).
From above fonnulation of long-tenn distribution, the equation implicitly has a infonnation of
1091
short-term wave conditions (H,T) and operating conditions (e).

To observe the effect of these conditions on the long-term probability distribution, the distribution is
discretized in each wave component and wave direction and is decomposed into following three type
of distributions.
(2)
where QH{ cr IR(Hi)}PH{ R(Hi)}i1RH(Hi) denotes the decomposed long-term distribution into
significant wave height. Qr{ cr IR(Tj)}pr{ R(Tj)}i1Rr(TJ) and Qs{ cr IR(ek)}Pr(ek) ek,is component of
long-term distribution divided into mean wave period and wave direction.
The contribution rate of the short-term wave condition or operating condition to the long-term
distribution with load level cr can be obtained by dividing the above equation with Q(cr).
(3)
The right hand side terms in the first equation gives the contribution rate of significant wave height H
to the long-term distribution at the load level cr. The second and third equations mean the contribution
rate of mean wave period and operating condition to the long-term distribution.
By using the method, we can examine the governing wave condition that a specific mean wave period,
T m, and wave direction, em plays a key role over the long-term distribution. Also we can pinpoint the
most severe short-term wave condition that the maximum wave height, H m, with mean period T m in
the supposed long-term wave statistics decides the extreme value of wave-induced load.
3 RELATION BETWEEN LONG-TERM DISTRIBUTION PARAMETER AND THE MOST

SEVERE WAVE CONDITION
The long-term distribution of wave-induced load can be described by Weibull distribution function.
The Weibull distribution parameters can be estimated from the governing wave condition and the most
severe wave condition. So that the parameters are function of ( H m, T m, em ). For example, the relation
between the Weibull shape parameter and the mean wave period of governing wave condition are
shown in Table 1.
(4)
where DI and D2 are fatigue damages obtained from each stress component, DI2 is combined fatigue
damage caused by two stress components
5 NUMERICAL EXAMPLES
For numerical examples of combination of long-term distributions and fatigue damages, authors
examine double bottom structure stress of a 280,000 DWT bulk carrier (L *B*d = 250m*50m*26.3m).
Assumed conditions are as follows; (1) wave condition: wave statistics in the North Atlantic reported
by Hogben (1986) and ISSC wave spectra. (2) operating condition: All Headings.
Figure I shows contribution rate of mean wave periods and wave directions at bottom plate stress at
hopper produced by wave pressure. The contribution rates around lower stress levels are widely
distributed over each wave periods and wave directions. The contribution rate of a specific wave
period and a wave direction increases with increasing the stress level in the long-term distribution.
Figure I : Contribution rate of mean wave period (left) and wave direction (right) on inner bottom
plate stress at hopper produced by wave pressure
From these results, we can pinpoint the governing wave conditions and the most sever wave condition
in the long-term distribution. Table 2 shows the governing wave conditions in each load. As the
governing wave conditions for wave pressure and internal load are the same condition, the long-term
distributions can be combined using a correlation coefficient. Figure 2 shows the combined long-term
1094
distribution based on the correlation coefficient method and the exact distribution which is calculated
using stress response amplitude function considering phase difference between each loads. Table 3
shows correlation coefficients for extreme value with Q=IO-s in the long-term distribution and fatigue
damages. These values are calculated from equation (6) and (8). From these results, if the governing
wave conditions on long-term distribution have the same properties, we can combine not only the
whole shape of the distributions but also the fatigue damages.
6 CONCLUSIONS
To examine which factor gives influence by load level in the long-term distribution, such as significant
wave height, mean wave period of supposed wave condition and wave direction, the long-term
distribution is decomposed into every factor and a contribution rate analysis method in the long-term
distribution is introduced. The governing wave condition and the most severe wave condition on a
long-term distribution is clarified by using contribution rate analysis. Authors extend the correlation
method to combine not only the extreme values but also the whole shape of long-term distribution of
wave-induced stress. Moreover, if the governing wave conditions on long-term distribution have the
same properties, we can combine the fatigue damages.
References
Fukuda, J., Shinkai, A. and Moriyama, A. (1978). Long-Term Prediction of the Longitudinal Stresses
Induced on a Ship Hull in Sea Waves. Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan 144, 230-239.
Report of the 2l6'h Research Panel organized in the Shipbuilding Research Association of Japan.
(1996 ).
Hogben, N., Dacumha, N. M. C. and Oliver, G. F. (1986). Global Wave Statistics. Unwin Brothers
Limited, UK.
FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AGED JACK-UP PLATFORM

STRUCTURE REFITTED TO CANTILEVER-BEAM TYPE
WU Nie, Yu-Wu Sun and Li-Ping Sun
Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering

Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China
ABSTRACT
The fatigue problem of a jack-up platform refitted from slot type to cantilever-beam type, Bohai 10
jack-up platform, is discussed in this paper. According to the problems met in service and the
particularity of the platform, the fatigue life is analyzed and calculated from a new aspect, which can
provide new information for safe service and reasonable refitment of this kind of aged platform
structures.
The fatigue analyses on platforms are mostly focused on tubular joints, but also on new fatigue hot
points appearing in the platform due to the refitment mentioned above. To deal with this problem,
fatigue analyses different from previous tubular joint fatigue are carried out based on the calculation
model of Bohai 10 jack-up platform, which has been refitted and operated over 12 years.
Firstly, comparing the region where crack occurred in service and the finite element analysis results,
one point at the 120-degree angular welding line in yoke house is defined as fatigue hot point. Then
cyclic loading that leads to fatigue is obtained. Through stress analyses and comparative studies, it is
shown that wave loads have little effect on the fatigue accumulated damage and can be ignored, cyclic
bit pressure is the main reason that causes fatigue in the special case discussed in this paper. By
statistical analysis the distribution of the cyclic bit load ranges is normal. The factors such as welding
residual stress and stress concentration and mean stress are taken into account. The stress
concentration factor is obtained through finite element analysis. At last, the accumulative damage is
calculated by using P-S-N curves and the remained fatigue life of this platform is predicted.
Many jack-up platforms are refitted from cantilever-beam type to slot type and most of them are aged.
The fatigue life of this kind of platforms is estimated from a different point of view in this paper. The
approach presented in this paper has a practical meaning to the costly platforms refitting and it also can
be extended idea to fatigue analyses of aged platform structures.
KEYWORDS
Jack-up platform, Slot type, Cantilever-beam type, Fatigue life, Yoke house, Aged platform structures,
Cyclic bit pressure
1098
1 INTRODUCTION
In the exploitation of oil under sea, various kinds of offshore platfonns are indispensable, especially
the jack-up platfonns. In the past most of jack-up platfonns are designed as slot type, because the
moving area of its oil derrick is limited due to the structure fonn, it can drill few wells during each
jacking up operation and has low efficiency. Cantilever-beam type Jack-up platfonn can deal with the
problem well because it has a more advantage structure fonn, which can enlarge the moving area of
the oil derrick and so the number of wells to be drilled increases. This brings great economic benefit to
offshore oil drilling company, so there are more and many cantilever-beam platfonns in the world. But
it is well known that it costs much financially to construct a new platfonn, so the method of refitting a
slot type jack-up platform into cantilever-beam type is chosen first. Presently there are recordings of
cantilever-beam type jack-up platfonns in the world and most of them, for example, Bohai 8 and Bohai
10jack-up platfonns, are refitted from slot type [I].
Although the refitment mentioned above improves the drilling efficiency, it brings some structural
problems. The structures of the refitted platfonn and the loads they carried changed. If the resistance
change of the platfonn caused by structural refitment cannot match the change of load, some problems
will gradually appear during the service of the platfonn. The problems met in service of Bohai 10
platfonn are summarized as follows:
(I) serious defonnation of the machinery deck

(2) cracks initiated and propagated in the yoke house
To deal with these problems, analysis and calculation of static strength, fatigue strength and buckling
strength are carried out based on the calculation model of Bohai 10 jack-up platfonn. The content of
this paper is focused on the second problem and the fatigue accumulative damage is analyzed, fatigue
life is calculated from a new point of view.
2 FATIGUE OF PLATFORM AND FATIGUE HOTSPOT ANALYSIS
A great deal of work has been done on the fatigue problem of platfonns [2], but most of the analyses
are focused on tubular joints of the platfonn leg caused by wave load: For the jack-up platfonn refitted
from slot type to cantilever-beam type, Bohai 10, a new fatigue problem in its
main part has been found after inspection in dock.
2.1 Analysis of the Reason that Causes Cracks in the Yoke House Area
For offshore structures, wave loads are the main reason that causes fatigue, but after comparative study,
this is not true to the fatigue problem of the refitted jack-up platfonn analyzed in this paper. Jack-up
platfonn is generally in drilling state and the main hull is all above water. Based on this state, the finite
element model is established and loads such as wind, wave and current are applied according to
operating manual. Through analysis, it shows that wave load has little effect on the stress variation in
the perpendicular 1200 welding line in yoke house and cannot fonn cyclic load to cause fatigue
damage. It is reported that this kind of cracks only appeared after the platfonn refitted, so it is doubt
that refitment maybe the reason. Fig.1 shows that the cantilever-beam extends far backward and the
distance between the oil derrick on the beam and the stem is more than 10 meters in drilling. FEA
results show that the perpendicular load at there can lead tensile stress in the top part of the welding
line and the amplitude variation of bit pressure can cause relative bigger cycling load, which can
induce fatigue damage as time goes by.
1099
Figure 1: Bohai 10 Element Model
2.2 Determination of the Fatigue Calculation Area
After pointing out the reason that caused fatigue damage in the
platform, varying loads are applied to the drilling area on the
cantilever-beam to find the area where stress range is the
biggest. After FEM analysis, the node that has the biggest stress
range is found at the top comer of the inside perpendicular 1200
welding line in the stem yoke house (shown in Fig.2). This is
consistent with the case found during an annual inspection in
dock, so this area is taken as the fatigue calculation hotspot to
analyze the fatigue accumulation damage of the platform and to
estimate its fatigue life.
Figure 2:Fatigue Calculation Point
3 FATIGUE CYCLING LOAD
A random distributed fatigue load model is obtained in this paper, in which the influence of welding
residual stress, mean stress and stress concentration is taken into account.
3.1 The Source of Cyclic Load
Presently tricone bit is commonly used in drilling [ 3, 4 1. During the drilling process, periodic
perpendicular vibration happens when single and double cones of the bit touch the well bottom
alternatively. The intense vibration of the bit can make the bit pressure varied in a great range. Its value
can be zero or several times of the average bit pressure and is distributed randomly. The varying of bit
pressure is transferred from the hole toe to the main hull of the platform and cause cyclic stress at the
hotspot.
3.2 Cyclic Bit Pressure at Pit Bottom
3.2. J Analysis of a record
Fig.3 is a bit pressure variation curve of a tricone bit recorded in a site [5]. It shows that it is a
stochastic process and needs statistical analysis. Before analysis, the load ranges are handled by
modified rain-flow method. Then the sampling data are divided into groups according to the value of
3.3 Cyclic Stress in Hotspot
After having load input, the distribution function of hot spot cycling stress can be obtained, by taking
account of some parameters.
3.3.1 Transmissibility between pit bottom bit pressure and structure load
When calculating node stress through finite element method, the pressure is applied on the
cantilever-beam. Because of friction and other reasons, there is a loss of the bit pressure when it
transfers from pit bottom to the main hull. It is difficult to calculate the loss of bit pressure theoretically.
Analysis of site record shows that the transmissibility is relevant to mean bit pressure and rotational
frequency of the bit. So the transmissibility is obtained by statistical analysis and by interpolation of
the site measuring data. The transmission rate is determined as
r= 0.6
3.3.2 Relation between perpendicular load and hotspot stress
A liner elastic structural finite element model is assumed and adopted in this paper. The relation
between the perpendicular cycling load N(ton) transferred form pit bottom and hotspot cycling stress
range S is
S = -6.95N x 10-2 (MPa)
3.3.3 Frequency of cyclic stress in hotspot
The investigation data show that bit pressure changes three times while the bit rotates one circuit. So
the frequency of the fatigue stress range in hotspot can be represented as
f, = 3fb = 150 (r/min)

where
f, : cycling stress frequency fb: bit rotation frequency
3.3.4 Stress concentration factor (SCF)

1102
The fatigue life of a detail is governed by the notch stress range. For components other than smooth
specimens the notch stress is obtained by multiplying the nominal stress by SCE
(5)
where
Kg = SCF due to the gross geometry of the detail considered
Kw = SCF due to the weld geometry. Kw =1.5 if not stated otherwise
K'e = additional SCF due to eccentricity tolerance (normally used for plate connections only)
K'a = additional SCF due to angular mismatch (normally used for plate connections only)
Kn = additionalSCF for unsymmetrical stiffeners on laterally loaded plates, applicable when the and
nominal stress is derived ITom simple beam analysis.
The stresses of the hotspot in yoke house are derived ITom finite element analysis. As the structure of
the platform is very huge and it is composed of too many details so that it is impossible to make mesh
fine enough everywhere. Mostly geometry stress concentration exists in structure discontinuities. The
local structure of yoke house is taken out to compute geometry concentration factor using finite
element method. Finite element analysis software NASTRAN is adopted in this paper and geometry
concentration factor is obtained as
K""'5.5
3.3.5 Welding Residual Stress
3. 3. 6 lrifluence of Mean Stress
where
L'.cr st : maximum cyclic stress range of standard cycling curve of the material at given cycles
1104
Bohai 10 is an aged jack-up platform and it is approaching its fatigue life limit. It should be maintained
carefully to prolong its service time.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Many jack-up platforms in the world today are refitted from slot type to cantilever-beam type, like
Bohai 10. Some of them are in later stage of service. But the fatigue problems caused by refitment
have not been widely realized. Quantitative fatigue analysis of this kind of platforms from a different
point of view is presented in this paper. The fatigue damage and fatigue life caused by bit pressure
loading different from others can be estimated through the approach presented here.
Reference
[I] Marine Company. (1988). Handbook of BohaiJ 0 - a mobile offshore jack-up platform, authorized
by ABS on January 4th.
[2] Mohri,M. Uemura. (1996). Fatigue strength of welding joints under variable amplitude load,
lshikawajina Harima Engng Rev, V.36 n4,292-297.
[3] France Petroleum Institute. (1995). Drilling data handbook(Sixth Edition), Beijing, Geology
Publisher. (in Chinese)
[4] «Ocean drilling handbook» editor, (1996). Ocean drilling handbook, China Ocean Petroleum
Company. (in Chinese)
[5] Zhao Guozhen, Gong Weian. (1988). Elementary drilling mechanics, Beijing, Petroleum Industry
Publisher. (in Chinese)
[6] D.Lardaii. (1994). Fatigue strength of welded structures, Beijing, Mechanical Industry Publisher,
(in Chinese)
[7] Tian Xitang. (1997). Welded structures, Beijing, Mechanical Industry Publisher.
[8] Classification Notes. (1993). Note No. 30.2, Norway, Det Norske Veritas.
[9] Draft DNVC Classification Note, Fatigue assessment of ship structures, Client DNVC/JTC Report
NO.93-0432. (in Chinese)
[10] Hu Yuren, Chen Bozhen. (1996). Fatigue Reliability Analysis of Ship and Offthore Structure,
People's Marathon Letoumean Communication Publisher. (in Chinese)
ANALYSIS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL CRACKS IN SHIP

STRUCTURES SUBJECTED TO AN ARBITRARY LOADING
BY NUMERICAL WEIGHT FUNCTION METHOD
Y. Sumi
Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering

Yokohama National University, Yokohama240-8501, Japan
ABSTRACT
In the present paper a numerical weight function method for the stress intensity analysis of cracks in
ship structures is proposed by applying the Maxwell-Berti's reciprocal theorem. In addition to an
original problem, the auxiliary problems are introduced, which are subjected to three kinds of force
couples acting on the crack surfaces near the limiting periphery of a crack front line. In the present
formulation, a weight function can be approximated by using a finite element solution combined with
an analytical expression near the condensation point, where hyper-singularities occur. A general-
purpose finite-element codes can be used for the numerical calculation. This method has successfully
been applied to through-the-thickness cracks in three-dimensional plate structures and also to a surface
crack in a detail of a double hull structure. The weight function method is extremely useful for the
fatigue strength assessment of cracks in ship structural details, because a quite large number of the
same structural details subjected to wide varieties of loading exist in a ship structure.
KEYWORDS
Crack analysis, Weight function, Computational method, Ship structures
1 INTRODUCTION
A new computational method is proposed for the calculation of stress intensity factors of cracks in
plate structures and ship structural details by using weight functions. Traditionally weight functions
are defined in two ways; the one is defined as the hyper-singular term of the eigen-function expansion
of the displacement field of a cracked body (Bueckner, 1970), and the other, the variation of
displacement field with respect to a virtual extension of a crack tip (Rice, 1972). Recently, Sumi (2001)
has proposed a new numerical weight function method. The original problem and the auxiliary
problems subjected to three kinds of force-couples acting on the crack surfaces near the limiting
periphery of a crack front line are first defined. Then the numerical weight functions are derived for
the three modes of stress intensity factors by applying the Maxwell-Berti's reciprocal theorem to the
original and auxiliary problems.
1106
This approach is a generalization of the weight function method, which was presented by Paris et al.
(1976) for a two-dimensional crack problem by using a finite element method with the special
treatment near a crack tip. In the present formulation, weight functions of two- and three-dimensional
cracks are approximated by finite element solutions combined with analytical expressions near the
condensation point, where hyper-singularities exist (Bueckner 1970, 1987). The proposed method does
not require any special numerical treatment for the hyper-singularities at the condensation point so that
general-purpose finite-element codes can be used to obtain the three-modes of weight functions of the
stress intensity factors at any point of an arbitrary three-dimensional crack front-line. Having obtained
the weight function for the given geometry of a structure, stress intensity factors for an arbitrary
loading can easily be calculated by an integration of the inner product of the weight function and the
applied load. This method will be successfully applied to through-the-thickness cracks in
three-dimensional plate structures and also to a surface crack in a detail of a double hull structure. The
weight function method could be extremely useful for the fatigue strength assessment of cracks in ship
structural details, because a quite large number of the same structural details subjected to wide
varieties ofloading exist in a ship hull.
2 WEIGHT FUNCTIONS FOR A THREE-DIMENSIONAL CRACK
2.1 Three-Dimensional Crack Problem
Figure I shows an arbitrary three-dimensional crack in an elastic body, whose crack surfaces are
assumed to be smooth and their crack front-line forms a smooth curve. We shall consider the stress
intensity factor at point P on the crack front line, and introduce a coordinate system P-xlx2x3, where
the xraxis directs normal to the tangential plane of the crack surface, and the xraxis directs to the
tangent of the crack front-line at the origin P. The governing equation and the boundary conditions are
expressed by
1109
where x is the distance from the crack tip. In order to define the weight function of the problem, this
lII1alytical expression is used in the region ria < 0.15, where r is the radial distance from the crack tip.
The finite-element solution of the weight function is applied in the rest of the domain.
In Table 1, the results of the stress intensity factors by the proposed method are compared with those
obtained by the direct displacement method. They show good agreement with each other so that the
validity of the method has been confirmed.
1110
3.3 A Surface Crack in a Critical Detail of a Double Hull Structure
In order to investigate a surface crack in a critical detail of a double hull structure, a semi-circulat
crack of radius a at a bilge knuckle is analyzed by the present method. The numerical weight functions
are evaluated by solving the auxiliary problem by using the finite element method with cia = 0.04,
where the analytical expression of the weight function (Bueckner, 1987) is applied in the vicinity of
the condensation point.
Figure 4 shows the structural model used in SR245-project, in which the model was used for fatigue
crack propagation tests at the bilge knuckle (SR245, 2000). The finite element model used for the
crack analysis is illustrated in Figure 5, where solid hexahedron elements are used only in the region
near the crack. The degenerated wedge-shaped singular elements having the wedge angle of 22.5" are
allocated along with the crack-front line. The radial size of the elements are taken as 2% of the crack
radius at the crack tip. The stress intensity factors at the surface and at the deepest point are compared
in Table 2, where the stress concentration due to the structural discontinuity results in a relatively high
stress intensity factor at the surface.
1111
Figure 5: Finite element model of bilge knuckle with a surface crack
•• CONCLUSIONS
In the present paper, a new combined analytical and finite-element weight function method has been
proposed for three-dimensional crack problems. Having compared the results with those obtained by
the direct crack tip opening, the accuracy of the method has been confirmed. Since stress intensity
factors are calculated by the simple integration of the inner product of a weight function and a loading
vector, the proposed method is especially useful for cracks in same structural details with a variety of
loading conditions.
Acknowledgement
TIris work was supported by Grant-in-Aid of Scientific Research B-2-10555338 from the Ministry of
Education, Science and Culture to Yokohama National University, and in part by SR245-project,
Shipbuilding Research Association of Japan. The author is grateful to Mr. T. Kashiuchi, Mr. K. !to,
and Mr. A. Okura for their assistance in numerical calculations.
ll.eferences
Bueckner H.F. (1970). A novel principle for the computation of stress intensity factors. ZAMM 46,
529-545.
Bueckner H.F. (1987). Weight functions and fundamental fields for the penny-shaped and the half
plane crack in three-space. Int. J Solids Structures 23-1,57-93.
Paris P.C., McMeeking R.M., and Tada H. (1976). The weight function method for determining stress
intensity factors. In: ASTM STP 601, 471-489
Rice J.R. (1972). Some remarks on elastic crack-tip stress fields. Int. J Solids Structures 8, 751-758.
SR245 (2000). Research on the structural lives of double hull tankers. Shipbuilding Research
Association of Japan. (in Japanese)
Sumi Y. (2001). Numerical weight function method for arbitrary three-dimensional cracks. In:
Proceedings of the Idh International Conference of Fracture (in press).
EFFECT OF MEAN STRESS CHANGES ON THE FATIGUE

STRENGTH OF SPECTRUM LOADED WELDS
Gary B. Marquis, Timo PJ. Mikkola
VTT Manufacturing Technology, P.O. Box 1705, FIN-02044 VTT, Finland
ABSTRACT
Fatigue tests have been performed on high and very high strength steel I-beam type structures using
constant amplitude loading and three spectra considered as representative for ships. Both "usual"
quality, representing normal shipyard fabrication practices, and improved ground welds were tested.
Special attention was given to the effect of mean stress of the spectra. Material strength did not
significantly influence fatigue strength but grinding improved fatigue strength by 30% at 2x106 cycles
to failure. Comparison of the spectrum loading test data showed that the most suitable analysis
hypothesis is that that nominally compressive portions of the loading cycles were non-damaging.
KEYWORDS
Welded structures, Spectrum fatigue, High strength steel, Improved welds, Mean stress
1 INTRODUCTION
Welded structures generally contain high residual stresses which significantly influence their fatigue
behaviour. Even when the nominal loading on a structure is compressive, the presence of residual
stresses may result in local tensile stresses near the weld toe where failure is likely to occur.
Consequently, the fatigue life of welded structures is normally assessed on the basis of stress range
regardless of the nominal applied stress ratio. Some test data suggests that stress ratio does influence
fatigue strength of welded structures and this has led some committees responsible for developing
fatigue design recommendations for welded structures to include correction factors for fatigue loading
which allow for higher stress amplitudes when significant potions of the fatigue cycle are compressive
[1-3 ].
Damage accumulation rules found in many design codes assume that the damage caused by a single
stress cycle is independent of the other stress cycles in the spectrum. However, the fatigue damage
caused by small stress range cycles is different in spectrum loading from that in a constant amplitude
(CA) loading [4]. Typically ship structural details are loaded by wide banded stress spectra due to wave
loading. Some types of ships which are also subject to cargo loading which is characterised by block-
1114
wise variations in mean stress as the operation alternates between fully loaded and ballast conditions.
These slowly changing mean stresses are superimposed on the wave induced loading. In highly stressed
regions this may cause reversed plastic deformation and affects the local mean and residual stresses.
The damaging effect of small fatigue cycles in the presence of large mean stress variation has not
received significant attention in the open literature. Matsuoka and Takahashi [5] tested longitudinal
non-load carrying fillet weld specimens using spectrum loading with superimposed constant tensile,
constant compressive and block-wise varying tensile / compressive mean stresses. They found that the
compressive mean stress cycles as part of a block-wise varying mean stress spectrum contributed
fatigue damage for cracks up to I mm in depth, but they did not contribute to the propagation of cracks
longer than I mm.
Several researchers have studied the effects of spectrum loading where cycles in the spectrum have
stress ratios of either R=O or R=-I [6-11]. It is generally found that spectrum loading with R=O
spectrum is less damaging than spectrum loading with an R=-I spectrum. Even though R=O will
produce a spectrum with higher mean stresses, Gurney [7] notes that the maximum stress is much less
for the R=-I spectrum as compared to R=O with the result that lower compressive residual stresses will
be built up at the crack tip. In a Gaussian distributed load spectra, for example, the largest stress cycle
will be several times larger than the characteristic stress level with the result that plastic deformation at
the weld toe may occur. Dahle [10] and Borgren et aI. [11] report tests for longitudinal non-load
carrying fillet weld specimens using spectrum loading with superimposed tensile mean stress in
addition to R=O and R=-I spectra. While the number of data is not large, it was found that the spectrum
with a tensile mean stress was most damaging and the R=O spectrum was least damaging and the R=-I
spectrum had about 25% longer life than the tensile mean stress spectrum.
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME
2.1 Test Specimens

I I 15
2.2 Load Spectrum

Load controlled three-point-bending was applied to the I-beam type specimens. Loading was both CA
and spectrum loading using three alternate spectra with varying mean stress combinations. Blocks 12
and 13 of the WASH spectrum, Wave Action Standard History [12], were chosen for testing. The final
spectrum is defined by the stress ranges in the original WASH spectrum with either superimposed
block-wise varying mean stress, constant mean stress, or near-zero mean stress. Characteristics of the
spectra are presented in TABLE 1. The spectrum with block-wise varying mean stress is illustrated in
Fig2.
TABLE 1
LOADSPECTRACHARACTERISTICS
Figure 2. Block-wise changing mean stress spectrum.
23 FaJigue Results
Data for both the spectrum and CA fatigue tests are shown graphically in Fig. 3. Failure in all cases
was defined as the number of cycles when the crack penetrated through the 10 rom thick flange. This
corresponded to a surface crack length (2c) of about 35 rom.
]]]7
3 DISCUSSION
3.1 Effect of Material Strength
In the current investigation the yield strength of the base material did not greatly affect the fatigue life
of either the usual quality or the ground welds. In both cases the higher strength material had only a
few percent greater fatigue strength. This, however, was not statistically significant based on the
number of specimens tested. This lack of dependence on material strength is not surprising for usual
quality welds [13] but is contrary to some published data for improved welds. Weld improvement
techniques such as grinding normally show greater fatigue strength improvement as material strength
increases [14,15]. Figure 3a shows CA and tensile mean stress spectrum fatigue data collected for
usual quality welds of both materials. Usual quality welds fabricated with VHTS 690 steel had a
slightly higher mean strength than did welds fabricated from HTS 390 steel but when considering the
number of data points, the greater strength is not statistically significant.
Figure 3a also shows the CA and tensile mean stress spectrum fatigue data collected for ground welds
produced from both material grades. Ground VHTS 690 welds had a slightly higher mean strength than
did welds fabricated from HTS 390 steel but the strength improvement is not statistically significant.
One possible explanation for this observed lack of influence on material strength is the presence of
sub-surface welding defects. Finite element analysis showed that the most highly stressed location for
the ground welds was along the gusset as compared to at the weld toe for the usual quality welds. A
large number of failures, however, were observed at the region of the weld toe which had been ground
away. Sub-surface welding flaws in this region propagated causing failure. Full penetration welds were
specified but not completely achieved in the structures tested so that improved welding processes
would be expected to improve the fatigue strength of the improved welds fabricated from the very high
strength steel.
Both CA and spectrum loading data for usual quality welds tends to fall along a single S-N line with
slope of 3. This is often observed for welded structures where equivalent stress range is used to
compute stress [4]. It should be noted, however, that the degree of conservatism of this approach
depends on the load spectra [7,16]. For ground specimens tested with spectrum loading there is a
tendency for S-N curves to alter slope at about 2xlO6 cycles to failure. This reduced slope is not
observed for CA test data because of the fatigue limit effect which means that specimens will either
fail prior to 2xlO6 cycles or will not fail at all within a reasonable test interval. This illustrates one
advantage of spectrum loading which provides the means to investigate long but finite fatigue lives that
are common for many structures. Spectrum loading also provides a means for observing the damaging
effect of small cycles in the presence of larger load events. Large cycles in a spectrum have been
shown to affect the residual stress distribution near the weld toe [17,18].
3.2 Effect of Grinding
Figure 3a shows that the usual quality welds tended to follow a straight line S-N curve down to at least
a stress level corresponding to 4xl06 cycles to failure. Other studies have shown straight line S-N
curves for gusset attachments out to fatigue lives as long as lxl08 cycles [16]. On the other hand the
ground welds show a tendency for the S-N curve to change slope at about 2xl06 cycles to failure. The
number of data points, however, is small and further testing is need to confirm this observation. The
reduced S-N slope indicates either crack growth threshold effect for the large number of small cycles in
the spectrum or the presence of a crack initiation period for the welded joint.
1118
As compared to the usual quality welded specimens, the ground welds showed an improved fatigue
strength of about 30% at 2xlO6 cycles to failure. At longer lives the degree of improvement is even
greater due to the difference in S-N curve slopes. Similar or even higher degrees of improvement have
been reported by other researchers [14,15,17,18].
3.3 Effect of Mean Stress
The effect of block-wise changing mean stress can be assessed by referring to Fig. 3b. This figure
shows the mean life for usual quality HTS390 and ground HTS690 welds for both constant tensile
mean and block-wise changing mean spectrum. If all cycles in the spectra were equally damaging
regardless of mean stress level, the changing mean stress data would be expected to lie on top of the
constant mean stress data. For both specimen types, however, the fatigue life of specimens subject to
block-wise changing mean stress was about double the fatigue life of specimens subject to the constant
tensile mean stress spectrum. For the usual quality HTS 390 specimens the mean fatigue life for the
block-wise changing mean stress spectrum was 2.2 times greater than for the constant tensile mean
stress spectrum while for ground VHTS690 specimens the comparable ratio was about 3.3. In the
block-wise changing mean stress spectrum the number of cycles with compressive mean stress was
equal to the number with tensile mean stress so the easiest explanation for Fig 3b is that the cycles with
compressive mean stress contributed no fatigue damage. This assumption is consistent with
observations made by Matsuoka and Takahashi [5] who found that the compressive mean stress cycles
as part of a block-wise varying mean stress spectrum did not contribute to the propagation of cracks
longer than I mm for longitudinal non-load carrying stiffeners.
It is interesting to note that for the ground VHTS 690 specimens the ratio in fatigue life was even
greater that a factor 2. This may mean that occasional compressive overloads are actually beneficial.
This effect is not observed for the usual quality welds. This is observation will require further study.
The case of near-zero constant mean stress is illustrated in Fig. 3c. Results are consistent with the
assumption that the compressive cycles do not contribute to fatigue damage. These tests were
conducted using a spectrum where a portion of many cycles was compressive. If all cycles in the
spectra were equally damaging regardless of mean stress level, the near-zero mean stress spectrum data
would be expected to lie on top of the constant tensile stress spectrum data. In fact, all specimens had
fatigue lives greater than that predicted in based on this assumption. It is also possible to hypothesise
that only the portion of the fatigue cycles where the applied stress is tensile contributed to fatigue
damage. The equivalent stress for the "effective" spectrum obtained by truncating all computed damage
from the applied spectrum at zero load is 74% of the equivalent stress for the entire spectrum assuming
that the full stress range is damaging. Consequently the fatigue lives are expected to be significantly
longer. Figure 2c shows the expected mean life based on the assumption of a truncated effective
spectrum. This predicted mean life overlaps the mean life computed from the data so in this case it is
more accurate to assume that only the tensile portions of cycles are damaging.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Fatigue tests have been performed on high and very high strength steel I-beam type structures. In
addition to constant amplitude loading, spectrum loading with both constant tensile, alternating tension
/ compression, and near-zero mean stresses were used. Both "usual" quality, representing normal
shipyard fabrication practices, and improved ground welds were tested. Special attention was given to
the effect of mean stress of the spectra. For both "usual" quality HTS welds and VHTS ground welds
the spectrum loading with alternating tension and compressive mean stresses resulted in about twice
1119
the fatigue life as compared to spectrum loading with constant tensile mean stress. This indicates that
the best analysis assumption is that the portion of the spectrum with compressive cycles was non-
damaging.
Acknowledgements
Specimens were manufactured at Fincantieri SpA Trieste, Italy. Spectrum tests were performed at VTT
Manufacturing Technology and were partially funded by the European Commission as part of the
project "FatHTS - Fatigue based design rules for the application of high tensile steels in ships" contract
BE95-1937. Risto Laakso and Heikki Laukkanen are acknowledged for their assistance in performing
the tests. Some CA results were performed at the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Laboratory
of Steel Structures directed by Prof. Teuvo Partanen.
References
1. GL: Rules for Classification and Construction. I-Ship Technology, Part I - Seagoing Ships,
Chapter 1 - Hull Structures, section 20 - Fatigue. Hamburg. Germanischer Lloyd, 1996, 13 p.
2. DNV: Fatigue Assessment of Ship Struictures, Class. Notes No. 30.7, 1998, 134 p.
3. Hobbacher A.(l996). Recommendations for the Fatigue Design of Welded Joints and Components.
IIW Document XIII-1539-96/ XV-845-96, 138 p.
4. Marquis, G. (1996). Long Life Spectrum Fatigue of Carbon and Stainless Steel Welds. Fatigue
Fract Eng Mater Struct 19:6, 739-753.
5. Matsuoka K and Takahashi 1. (2000). Effect of Loading History on Fatigue Crack Initiation Life of
Welded Joint, IIW Document XIII-I 833.
6. Blom A. (1989). Fatigue Strength of Welded Joints Subjected to Spectrum Loading. Scand J of
Metal!. 18,181-4.
7. Gurney TR. (1992). Comparative Fatigue Tests on Fillet Welded Joints Under Various Types of
Variable Amplitude Loading. ETSU WN 601450.
8. Gurney TR. (1989). Cumulative Damage of Welded Joints: II Test results, Joining & Mat 2:8,390-
5.
9. Gurney TR. (1993). Comparative Fatigue Tests on Fillet Welded Joints Under Various Types of
Variable Amplitude Loading in Air. OMAE V. III-B, 537-542.
10. Dahle T. (1993). Spectrum Fatigue of Welded Specimens in Relation to the Linear Damage Rule.
In: Blom AF(ed.) Fatigue Under Spectrum Loading and in Corrosive Environments, EMAS. 133-
147.
II. Bogren J, Lopez Martinez L and Brunnberg M.(l991). The Influence of Various Spectrum
Parameters on Fatigue Life and Residual Stress Relaxation. The Aeronautical Research Inst. of
Sweden, Stockholm FFA TN 1991-44,31.
12. TSG, User Manual and Documentation for WASH (Version W. 1.02) Time History. Technical
Software Consultants Ltd., Milton Keynes, UK 1989, 72.
13. Maddox S. (1991). Fatigue Strength of Welded Structures, Abington, Cambridge, 198.
1120
14. Haagensen PJ, Dragen A, Slind T and Orjasaeter O. (1987). Prediction of the Improvement in
Fatigue Life of Welded joints Due to Grinding, TIG Dressing, Weld Shape Control and Shot
Peening, 3rd Int Con{ on Steel in Marine Structures, Delft, Elsevier.
IS. Huther I, Lieurade HP, Soissi R, Nussbaumer A, Chabrolin B and Janosch J.J. (1996). Analysis of
Results on Improved Welded Joints, Welding in the World. 37:5, 242-266.
16. Dahle T. (1994). Long Life Spectrum Fatigue Tests of Welded Joints, Int J Fat. 16:2, 130-136.
17. Lopez Martinez L, Blom AF, Trogen H and Dahle T. (1997). Fatigue Behaviour of Steels with
Strength Levels Between 350 and 900 MPa - Influence of Post Weld Treatment Under Spectrum
Loading, Welded High Strength Steel Structures, A.Blom (Ed.), EMAS, London, 361-376.
18. Lopez Martinez L, Lin R, Wang D, and Blom AF. (1997). Investigation of Residual Stresses in as-
Welded and TIG Dressed Specimens Subjected to Static/Spectrum Loading, Welded High Strength
Steel Structures, A.Blom (Ed.), EMAS, London, 377-390.
lid 200 I Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
A NEW LOOK AT THE EFFECT OF BANDWIDTH AND

NON-NORMALITY ON FATIGUE DAMAGE
Lei Yu, P. K. Das, and Nigel D. P. Barltrop
Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering,

University of Glasgow, UK
ABSTRACT
A new attempt is made in this paper to quantify the effect of bandwidth and non-normality in fatigue
damage analysis. For want of real time history of stress response, a series of non-Gaussian and
homogeneous random fields are generated first. FFT technique is used to guarantee a large sample size
and high efficiency. The stress range is then counted by rain-flow method and its moment estimates
are obtained statistically. Finally, a factor is calculated to correct narrow-band and normality
assumption. In this process a mathematical family of distribution is employed to study the variation of
the correction factor with kurtosis, skewness and the moments of stress range. It is shown that fatigue
damage evaluated through conventional method may be either conservative or rather unconservative.
According to the result of simulation, the upper bound of the correction factor is found.
KEYWORDS
Random field generation, Fast Fourier transform (FFT), Fatigue analysis
1 INTRODUCTION
The widely used spectral fatigue analysis in ocean engineering is based on the assumption that the
stress response is normal and narrow-banded (DNV 1998). Effective as it is in many cases, the
assumption becomes vulnerable whe~ the structure-fluid system is non-linear and the randomness of
structural parameters needs to be taken into account. Wirsching et al. (1980) are among the first to
study the effect of bandwidth in fatigue damage. In their work a generated Gaussian field is used as
stress response. The wide band fatigue damage is calculated by rain-flow counting and a correction
factor is obtained for narrow band assumption. This sets the very frame for succeeding researches.
Later Lutes et al. (1984) extended the idea to account for the effect of non-normality. In the paper of
Winsterstein(1985), an effort is made in analytical approximation. However, none of them gave any
details of generated stress history, such as sample size, peak rate, and zero-crossing rate. All these
properties playa decisive part in the final results. In addition, the effect of skewness in the early
studies is totally ignored. In the present study, a long stress history is generated through spectrum
representation and FFT. The parameters of random field generator are chosen in such a way that the
1122
properties of sample are all converged to the target statistically. Moreover, Jonson's family of
distribution is used to cover a wide range of kurtosis and skewness in generating non-Gaussian stress
history. Finally, the upper bound of correction factor is obtained and presented by a set of curves.
2 GENERATION OF GAUSSIAN FIELD
A wide prospective of the methods in Gaussian field simulation has been given by Spanos and Zeldin
(1998), with each possessing both advantages and disadvantages. In structural stochastic analysis,
spectral representation distinguishes itself from the others by its high efficiency and ease to implement.
According to Shinozuka and Deodatis(l991), a stationary and ergodic random field x(t) with zero
mean, and two-sided power spectral density S(m) can be simulated by the following expansion
1123
(8)
where Fx is the c.d.f of normal distribution. Given target spectrum of y(t), if the spectrum of x(t) is
obtained, the spectral method in the previous section can be used again to generate y(t). So it is by
nature an inverse problem and can be usually solved numerically. Here arises a problem. That is the
specified distribution of target field may not be compatible with the specified target spectrum S. As a
result the calculated spectrum of x(t) will not be necessarily positive definite. The problem has been
studied systematically by Liu and Munson (1982). They suggested a truncation and an optimisation
approach to make the spectrum of generated field close to the target as much as possible. However, the
gain often does not deserve the efforts when a large sample is needed. As in other non-linear problems,
iteration method is also feasible in the generation of non-Gaussian field. Typical of them is that
proposed by Yamazaki and Shinozuka (1988). But its convergence can not be guaranteed and not
suitable for large sample problem either. In fact, in the sense of first order approximation, we might as
well use the target spectrum to generate x(t). The error introduced is fairly tolerable for the present
study.
4 CORRELATION OF BANDWIDTH AND NONLINEARITY
The model of fatigue damage predominantly used in ocean engineering is based on S-N curves and
linear damage accumulation rule due to Palmgren and Miner. For a component subject to random
loading of single mode the fatigue damage can be expressed by
(9)
where N is the number of stress cycles, P is the probability density function of stress range, S is the
stress range, E[] is a calculator of mathematical expectation, and C and m are constants in S-N curve.
For short-term narrow band Gaussian stress response, the local maximum has Rayleigh ~istribution.
Hence, Eq. (14) becomes
(10)
To take into account the effect of bandwidth and non-normality a correction factor X can be applied to
Eq. (10), which yields
(II)
(12)
1124
(13)
where X is stress history, Xm is the average stress level. Apparently the definition of Ds and DRS is very
helpful in random field generation. Now the correction factor can be calculated by
(15)
(16)
(17)
5 EFFECT OF BANDWIDTH
To study the effect of bandwidth Gaussian field is generated. The spectral density used is
(18)
(19)
I. The accuracy of moment estimates of stress range by rainflow counting is decided by both sample
length and time step.
2. Though Nyquist condition can prevent overlap in frequency domain, it is not enough to prevent the
imperfection of peaks and troughs in the generated stress time series. To reduce the imperfection a
smaller time step is needed, which will give rise to higher resolution in frequency domain.
3. The rain-flow cycle rate is very close to theoretical peak rate. From practical point of view, the latter
can be used in place of the former.
References
Det Norske Veritas. (1998). Fatigue assessment of ship structures, Classification Note No. 30.7.
Johnson, N. 1. and Kotz S. (1970). Distributions in statistics: continuous univariate distributions, New
York: Houghton Mifflin.
Liu B. & Munson D. C. (1982). Generation of a random sequence having a jointly specified marginal
distribution and autocovariance. IEEE Transaction on Acoustics. Speech. and Signal Processing.
ASSP 30:6,973-983.
Lutes, L. D., et al. (1984). Stochastic fatigue damage Accumulation, Journal of Structural Engineering,
110:11. 2585-2601.
Shinozuka M. & Deodatis G. (1991). Simulation of stochastic process by spectral representation.

Applied Mechanics Reviews, 44:4, 191-204.
Spanos B. & Zeldin B. (1998). Monte Carlo treament of random fields: A broad perspective. Applied
Mechanics Review, 4:5, 219-237.
Wirsching, P. H., & Mohsen Shehata A. (1977). Fatigue under wide band random stresses using the
rain-flow method. Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, 99:3, 205-211.
Wirsching, P. H., ASCE, A. M., and Light, M. C. (1980). Fatigue under wide band random stresses.
Journal of the Structural Division, ASCE, 106:ST7, 1593-1607.
Winterstein, S. R. (1985). Non-normal response and fatigue damage. Journal of Engineering

Mechanics. 111:10, 1291-1295.
Yamazaki F. & Shinozuka M. (1988). Digital generation of non-Gaussian stochastic fields. Journal of
Engineering Mechanics, 114:7, 1183-1197.
AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON
FATIGUE BEHAVIOR OF INVERTED ANGLE AND
T-TYPE SIDE LONGITUDINALS IN TANKERS
Jinsoo Park " Kuk Bin Kim " Wha Soo Kim 2, and Doe Hyun Kim 2
, Structure Research Department and 2 Hull Initial Design Department

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., I, Cheonha-Dong, Dong-Ku, Ulsan, Korea
ABSTRACT
Results of a comparative experimental study on fatigue performance of two types of side longitudinal
stiffeners in tankers are presented. One is an inverted angle stiffener supported by a soft-toed web
stiffener with a soft-toed backing bracket. The other is a T-type stiffener supported by a flat bar web
stiffener without a backing bracket, as an alternative to the angle type stiffener. Six full-scale structural
models (three for each type) were tested under fully-reversed constant amplitude cyclic loading,
resulting in fatigue lives ranging between about 5x I 04 and 2x 106 cycles. Crack growth data as
observed on the surface are presented and discussed. Finite element analyses were also conducted to
evaluate the two types of longitudinals based on calculated hot spot stresses. Overall, the T-type
longitudinal stiffener showed superior fatigue performance.
KEYWORDS
Side longitudinal, Tanker, Fatigue strength, Inverted angle stiffener, T-type stiffener, Full-scale fatigue
test, Finite element analysis, Hot spot stress, Crack initiation, Crack growth
1 INTRODUCTION
Long-term operability with less maintenance cost for ship structures is a great concern of shipbuilders
as well as ship owners in line with economical ship design. Among numerous aspects of design and
construction, which influence the long-term operability of a ship, adequate fatigue performance of hull
structures is one of the most critical items. Design of structural details for extending fatigue lives is
always in connection with productivity and it is usually very hard to fulfill both fatigue-enhanced
structure and moderate shipbuilding cost. In the late 1980s and early I 990s, a large number of serious
fatigue damages were reported in the side longitudinals of single hull VLCCs, where the section of the
side longitudinals was unsymmetrical. Most of these damages occurred at the intersection between the
face plate of the longitudinal and the heel of the transverse web stiffener (Fig. I). Side shell area
between the load and ballast waterlines is most frequently subjected to fatigue damage due to cyclic
wave loading (Hansen and Winterstein, 1995). In consideration of applied cyclic loading and fatigue
1130
damages experienced, various designs of

structural details such as soft-toed web
stiffeners with either a soft-toed bracket or
a reversed radius at the heel of the web
stiffener have been proposed to reduce the
risk of fatigue cracking during service.
In this research, fatigue tests of full-scale

structural models of a VLCC have been
carried out to investigate comparative
fatigue strength between two selective
types of side longitudinals and their
connections to the web frame. One is an
inverted angle stiffener supported by a
soft-toed web stiffener with a soft-toed
backing bracket (Fig. 2), where the .. , .. "
backing bracket is often demanded to FIgure I: TypICal fatIgue cracks m sIde longitudmais
reinforce fatigue strength. From now, this
structure is briefly called "Angle-Type" longitudinal. The other is a T-type stiffener supported by an
ordinary flat bar web stiffener without a backing bracket (Fig. 3), as an alternative to the angle type
stiffener to reduce construction cost. From now, this structure is called "T -Type" longitudinal in short.
The fatigue tests were aimed at investigating the rational structural design of side longitudinals
considering fatigue-enhanced structure as well as cost-effective production. Finite element structural
analyses were also conducted to evaluate the two types of side longitudinals based on calculated
stresses.
2 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
Finite element analyses were conducted to compare fatigue strengths of the Angle-Type and T-Type
side longitudinals based on calculated hot spot stresses. A side shell structure of a double hull tanker
was chosen as a subject structure and a finite element model for each type was made using shell
elements (Fig. 4). The size of the inverted angle is 450xI25xl1.5/l8mm and the T-type longitudinal
has the equivalent vertical stiffness by moving the flange part of the inverted angle horizontally to
make aT-shape. The sizes of the web stiffener and bracket were decided by the yard practices. The
analysis models range three web frames, induding three side longitudinals, a longitudinal bulkhead,
and a side shell (Fig. 4). Stress concentration areas in the center longitudinal were very finely meshed
to the size of plate thickness in order to calculate hot spot stresses. As loading, a uniform side pressure
of 3.2-meter water head was applied for both cases on the outer side shell to evaluate comparative
fatigue strength. Symmetry boundary conditions were imposed at the model boundaries.
MSC/NASTRAN and PATRAN were used for the analysis.
Figure 4: Finite element model of the double hull side shell structure
For the typical stress concentrated locations, hot spot stresses were calculated as in TABLE I using the
procedure widely used in fatigue evaluation, i.e., the linear extrapolation using the stresses of the two
neighboring thickness(t)-sized elements at the distances t/2 and 3t/2 from the hot spot point. Locations
A-I and T-I in TABLE 1 are the areas where fatigue cracks usually occur. Comparing these two
locations, hot spot stress of the Angle-Type longitudinal is about 30% larger than that of the T-type
one. Stress at location T-3 was calculated to be a maximum of 89.0 MPa; however, fatigue damages at
this area usually have been much less compared to location T-1.
TABLE 1
CALCULATED HOT SPOT STRESSES FOR SIDE PRESSURE LOADING (MPA)
Figure 5: Stress distributions at A-I and T-l Figure 6: Stress distributions at A-2 and T-2
Figures 5 and 6 compare longitudinal (x-dir.) stress distributions on the face plate of Angle-Type and
T-Type (See TABLE I for locations A-I, A-2, T-l, and T-2), where the terms x and y are distances
from the connection and face plate (or flange) edge as illustrated in the figures, respectively. The term t
indicates the plate thickness. It can be seen that stress gradients are steeper in Angle-Type, resulting in
larger hot spot stresses.
3 FATIGUE TESTS
In order to investigate fatigue strengths of the Angle-

Type and T-Type side longitudinals, fatigue tests were
conducted using six (three for each type) full-scale
single hull side shell structural models. The model size
was determined from a VLCC built in the yard and the
main dimensions are as follows:
- model size: 4400xl600xl200mm

- side shell thick.: 16mm
- side longi.: 300x90xll/16 LA. (Angle-Type)
- side longi.: 300x II +90x 16 built-up (T -Type)
- vert. stiffener thick.: Ilmm
- weld leg length: 6mm
Figure 7 shows a schematic of the test model, where the

both ends are clamped by bolts to the test floor. Load-
controlled cyclic loading is applied using a 25-ton Figure 7: A schematic of the test model
hydraulic actuator to an auxiliary structure installed on
the top of the web frame in order to apply an equivalent load to side pressure loading. The models
include two longitudinals, ranging a half-to-half web ftame space, and were made ftom mild steel
according to the standard welding procedure. Three different magnitudes of fully-reversed cyclic load
(±180kN, ±150kN, and ±120kN) were applied sinusoidally at about 7Hz for each type of models,
aiming at fatigue lives between 105 and 2x I 06 cycles. Strain gages were installed at the stress
concentrated areas to measure hot spot stresses. Figures 8 and 9 show a view of the test model with a
different direction.
Figure 8: An overall view of the test model Figure 9: A side view of the test model
For the test models, finite element analyses were also done for a load of 100kN and calculated hot spot
stresses are listed in TABLE 2. The overall trend is similar with that of the double hull side shell
structure mentioned previously; however, the ratios of the stress levels changed more or less. In order
to confirm the equivalence of the concentrated test loading with the uniform side pressure loading,
stress distributions on the face plate of the longitudinal were checked as shown in Figs. 10 and 11,
where the overall distributions are very similar with those of the previous analysis results for the
pressure loading of Figs. 5 and 6. TABLE 3 shows comparison of the hot spot stresses measured from
the strain gages and calculated from the analysis for locations A-I, A-2, T-I, and T-2 in the two (L:left
and R:right) longitudinals. The ratio of the measured stresses to the calculated stresses ranges about
0.8-1.45. In TABLE 3, L1 indicates the location I (See TABLE I) of the left-side longitudinal in the
test model and R2 the location 2 of the right-side longitudinal.
TABLE 2
CALCULATED HOT SPOT STRESSES FOR 100KNINTHE TEST MODEL (MPA)
Figure 10: Stress distributions at A-I and T-I Figure 11: Stress distributions at A-2 and T-2
in the test model (See TABLE I) in the test model (See TABLE I)
The fatigue tests were periodically stopped to examine crack initiation and to measure the surface
crack length by the penetrant testing. All of the cracks occurred at the weld toes, i.e., hot spot locations.
In most cases, after the first crack initiated at one weld toe, one to three more cracks also initiated at
other weld toes and grew together with the first one. From the crack growth data of Figs. 12 to 15, it
can be clearly seen that crack growth rates in Angle-Type are higher than those in T-Type, and cracks
ofT-Type grew steadily with almost the same growth rate. With lower load (l20kN), the difference of
the crack initiation and growth patterns between the two types is clearer (Fig. 12); T-Type showed
much superior fatigue performance. The tests continued until a leading surface crack propagated across
the face plate. Figure 15 is the results for leading cracks of the six test models. After testing, several
cracked sections were examined to see the crack shape. Two typical crack shapes are given in Figs. 16
(Angle-Type) and 17 (T-Type), where the crack shapes look semi-elliptical very much.
In this testing, final failure of the test model was regarded as 50mm surface crack length. Data of the
measured hot spot stresses vs. fatigue lives for all of the cracks initiated are plotted in Fig. 18, where
the broken and solid lines are best-fitted lines to the data of Angle-Type and T-Type, respectively. Data
for 15mm crack length are also given in the figure as information of initiation lives. It can be seen that
the T-Type structure endured about 2-4 times more lives than the Angle-Type one for the criterion of
50mm crack length. Overall, T-Type shows better fatigue performance than Angle-Type with lower
stresses. Figure 19 shows the results for the hot spot stresses calculated from the structural analysis,
where the difference of the fatigue lives of the two types reduced more or less; however, T-type is still
slightly superior to Angle-Type for 50mm cracks.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Fatigue strength of two selective types of side longitudinals were compared from full-scale fatigue
testing: inverted angle-type longitudinal supported by a soft-toed web stiffener with a soft-toed
backing bracket (Angle-Type) and T-type longitudinal supported by a flat bar web stiffener without a
backing bracket (T-Type). T-Type was found to be superior to Angle-Type with regard to fatigue
performance under the same loading in the test cycle range between 5x104 and 2x106 cycles.
References
Hansen P.F. and Winterstein S.R. (1995). Fatigue damage in the side shells of ships. Marin Structures
8, 631-655
Det Norske Veritas. (1998). Fatigue Assessment afShip Structures, DNV CN No.30.7
FA TIGUE BEHAVIOUR OF DIFFERENT BRACKET

CONNECTIONS
H. Paetzold I, O. Doerk I and H. Kierkegaard 2
I Department of Ship Structural Design and Analysis, Technical University Hamburg-Harburg,

Uimmersieth 90, 22305 Hamburg, Germany
2 Odense Steel Shipyard LTD, P.O. Box 176,5100 Odense C, Denmark
ABSTRACT
The paper presents fatigue tests with large scale models and analysis results of a European R&D pro-
ject, called FatHTS. Tested were frame corners with three different bracket details: with symmetrical
flange, with symmetrical flange and additional bracket nose modification, and with one-sided flange
with sniped ends. In order to be able to make a comparison, the hot spot strain was determined by
strain gauge measurements at all corners of each model. The FE results lead to higher hot spot strains
and also the strain increases earlier in front of the hot spot. This is due to the different weld geometry
in the drawing and in reality. In most cases the crack initiation did not occur as expected at the hot spot.
The crack started at the root and propagated through the weld. Additional stress analyses revealed the
cause of the unexpected crack behaviour. This was due to the fact that the weld carries the full load.
The fatigue tests showed that it is difficult to predict the root failure in complex structures. The hot
spot concept does not cover the metallurgical notch which occurs during fabrication. For toe failure
good agreement is obtained between prediction and tests if the failure is defined as through-thickness
crack.
KEYWORDS
Welded structure, Large scale fatigue test, Hot spot stress, Fabrication effect, Root crack
1 INTRODUCTION
Modern ocean-going vessels are large all-welded structures of individual design. Improved knowledge
of load sequences and extended means for stress analysis and fatigue life prediction have led to a quick
progress towards a rational assessment of the fatigue strength of ship structures, which is reflected by
pertinent rules of Ship Classification Societies. Fatigue tests with structural components assist in vali-
dating calculation models. They are especially important in case of unconventional structural design,
new materials or fabrication processes.
1138
Within the European research project FatHTS which was presented by Janssen (2000), an analysis of
possible application of high tensile steel was carried out for different ship types in cooperation with a
number of shipyards. Focal point was to raise the permitted design stress in order to increase the econ-
omy of present and future ship types. However, the fatigue strength of welded steel structures is
largely independent of the material strength. Therefore, proof of sufficient fatigue strength is of great
importance in structures made of high strength steel. For this reason frame comers were tested because
they are a typical structural details of ships. The following describes the experiences gained from the
large scale fatigue tests and the application of the hot spot stress approach and also describes the
expected and unexpected cracks which occurred during the tests.
2 DESCRIPTION OF THE MODELS INVESTIGATED
The double symmetric design of the modelss leads to four critical details at each model. Fig. I shows
the principal test arrangement. The models are loaded via a diagonally acting hydraulic cylinder. The
load creates mainly bending and shear stresses in the I-beams below the brackets together with a
relatively small axial force. Altogether three different bracket types, called C3.l, C3.2 and C3.3 were
tested. To enable an easy comparison of the fatigue behaviour of the different bracket types an
identical construction of the test rig has been used for all models. Due to this, the models differ only in
the type of the bracket. The models consist of high tensile steel (WELDOX 420) and have been
fabricated by Odense Steel Shipyard. Static tests and fatigue tests have been carried out at the
Technical University Hamburg-Harburg.
1139
Fig. 1 shows the different bracket types in detail. While the flange is located symmetrically on the tree
edge of brackets C3.1 and C3.2, the flange is arranged at the side of the bracket C3.3 in a non-sym-
metric way. Types C3.1 and C3.2 differ only in the shape of the bracket nose. In order to reduce stress
concentration, the nose of type C3.2 is softened with the help of a radial cut-out and additionally the
thickness of the bracket is increased trom 12 to 15 mm in an area of 230 mm trom the bracket nose.
3 RESULTS OF STRESS ANALYSIS AND MEASUREMENT
In order to avoid large plastic deformations of the models the static pre-tests have been carried out
with a cylinder force of 100 kN resulting in tensile stress in the bracket. The load was the same for all
models. After some load cycles stabilising the material behaviour, the strains have been measured by
the application of strain gauges. Fig. 2 shows the hot spots of the different bracket types. The measured
strains at the hot spots of the models have been compared with the results of finite element calculations.
Fig. 3 shows the finite element mesh of the bracket type C3.1. With respect to the symmetric shape
only one quarter of the specimen has been modelled. According to the hot spot concept described by
Petershagen et al. (1991) the fmite element meshes consist of20 node solid elements with a reduced
integration scheme. Welds at hot spots have been implemented in the finite element models with their
nominal dimensions. A quadratic extrapolation of the surface stresses perpendicular to the weld, at
reference points located 2.5t, 1.5t and 0.5t away trom the weld toe (t is the plate thickness) has been
used for the calculation of the hot spot stress at the weld toe. The same procedure has been used for the
calculation of hot spot strains. A comparative study, where the influence of different modelling
techniques and extrapolation procedures has been investigated, is presented in ISSC (2000).
1140
In general the finite element calculations led to higher stresses respectively strains at the hot spot loca-
tions than the measurements and also a higher stress respectively strain increase in front of the hot spot.
Since a good agreement between the finite element results and the measured values was observed in
far distance from the welds, the influence of the welds in the finite element models and in reality was
investigated in more detail. Measurement of the weld dimensions at the different models showed that
the weld dimensions are in reality much bigger than the nominal weld dimensions in the drawing.
Additionally a different weld shape was observed in reality. Fig. 4 shows the measured and calculated
longitudinal strains in front of the bracket nose of the C3.1 bracket. When the weld is implemented in
the finite element model with its actual dimensions, a very good agreement with the measured values
is obtained.
Based on the nominal weld dimensions it is possible to compare the fatigue behaviour of the different
bracket types with the help of the hot spot approach. The stresses at the hot spots of the different
bracket types, obtained by finite element calculations, are shown in Table I.
TABLE I
CALCULA TED STRESSES AT THE HOT SPOTS OF THE DIFFERENT BRACKET TYPES FOR 100 KN
Bracket type Stress 2.5t away Stress 1.5t away Stress O.5t away Hot spot stress
from weld toe rMPa] from weld toe [MPa] from weld toe [MPa] [MPa]
C3.1 18.97 22.27 38.63 51.70
C3.2 18.89 22.26 37.70 49.95
C3.3 Pos.1 19.00 20.44 28.47 34.96
C3.3 Pos.2 58.72 70.67 90.34 103.07
The lowest hot spot stress occurs at bracket type C3.2 for which the highest fatigue life of the three
analysed bracket types would be expected. The hot spot stress of bracket type C3.1 is only slightly
higher, but the fabrication of this bracket seems to be much easier because there is no radial cut-out
and the plate thickness is not increased in the nose area. Due to their similar shape these bracket types
have the same hot spot location at the weld toe on the flange in front of the bracket nose. Bracket type
C3.3 has the highest hot spot stress. However, the most critical hot spot is located at the weld toe in
front of the side-attached flange. Additional bending due to the eccentricity is responsible for this. On
the other hand this bracket type has the lowest fabrication costs of the investigated bracket types
because the flange does not have to be fitted to the shape of the bracket plate.
1141
4 RESULTS OF THE FATIGUE TESTS
The fatigue tests have been carried out under pulsating load with constant amplitude (R = 0). In total
three models have been tested, one of each bracket type. During the tests unexpected cracks have been
observed. After a very small number of load cycles root cracking occurred at the C3.1 model. Fig. 5
shows the root cracks in a transverse section, close to the bracket nose starting at the weld root.
Figure 5: Root cracks at the C3.1 model after the fatigue test
Due to this the fillet welds at the bracket nose of this model have been replaced by full penetration
welds and afterwards the model has been tested again. In the following, this model is called C3 .11. As
expected the cracks started in the additional test at the weld toe on the flange.
The fatigue test of the C3.2 model showed two simultaneous crack initiations at the weld toe on the
flange and at the weld root.
Although the hot spot stress at the weld toe in front of the side-attached flange is much bigger than the
hot spot stress in front of the bracket nose, the fatigue test of the C3.3 model showed a crack initiation
at the weld toe on the flange in front of the bracket nose (Pos'!).
4.1 Fatigue Strength Assessment
In order to enable a comparison between the measured and predicted fatigue behaviour based on the
hot spot concept the visible crack lengths and the appertaining number of load cycles NTEsT for the
different bracket types, when the test was stopped, as well as the calculated number of load cycles until
failure NCAL are presented in Table 2. According to Hobbacher (1996) an S-N curve with a negative
slope of m = 3 and a reference point t.crR = 100 MPa for the stress range at N = 2.106 load cycles has
been used for calculating NcAL. The theoretical hot spot stress ranges t.crHSCAL have been calculated
using the values in Table 1. It should be noticed that all models except the C3.!1 and the C3.3 model
showed a crack behaviour which is not covered by the hot spot concept, which explains the non-con-
servative life prediction.
Although the C3.3 model shows the highest calculated stress concentration, its fatigue behaviour
during the test was good. The observed cra~k occurred at Pos.l, although the stress at Pos.2 is about
three times higher. The test of the C3.11 model where the crack started at the predicted weld toes
showed a good agreement with the results obtained by the hot spot stress concept when the failure is
defined as a through-thickness crack. In CORtrast to small scale models a reasonable definition of the
1142
failure criteria has big :nfluence on the fatigue strength assessment. If the fatigue behaviour is
influenced or determined by root cracking (Models C3.1 and C3.2) the measured fatigue life is signifi-
cantly lower then the calculated fatigue life.
TABLE 2
RESULTS OF THE FA TIGUE TESTS FOR THE DIFFERENT BRACKET TYPE
Bracket type C3.1 C3.11 C3.2 C3.3

Weld type at Fillet weld Full penetration weld Fillet weld Fillet weld
bracket nose
Test load [kN] 560 547 528 222
L'lcrHSCAL
[MPa] 289.5 282.8 263.7 228.8 (Pos.2)
NCAL 82413 88429 109024 166945
NTEsT 4000 192100 61500 900000
Measured crack Through weld 123,94,65,41 54,42,28,22 36
lengths [mm] throat thickness (at 4 bracket noses) (at 4 bracket noses) (at 1 bracket nose)
Crack start Weld root at the Weld toe at the Simultaniouslyat Weld toe at the
location bracket nose bracket nose (pos.l) weld root and weld bracket nose
toe at bracket nose (pos.l )
4.2 Weld Root Crack Assessment
It is principally not possible to analyse cracks starting at the weld root with the hot spot concept.
Normally the gap at the weld root of fillet welds is not implemented in a coarse finite element model
for a fatigue calculation based on the hot spot concept. For this reason realistic stresses at the weld root
can not be extracted from those models. Additionally the element size at the hot spot, which is about
plate thickness, seems to be too large to catch local effects of the gap at the weld root. Besides this, the
actual shape of the gap is usually not known.
Generally it is possible to cover cracks starting at the weld root with the notch stress concept according
to Radaj (1990), but the very high modelling and calculation costs makes an application of this concept
not practicable, with the exception of cases where plane strain or plane stress conditions can be
assumed.
Nevertheless it is an important task to cover this crack behaviour because in many cases the service
life of a structure where this type of crack behaviour occurs is much lower than in cases where a crack
starting at the weld toe is responsible for the fatigue strength of a structure. A simple concept which
covers the root crack problem in complex 3D structures is desirable.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions can be drawn from the described large scale fatigue tests:
• Good agreement is obtained between prediction and tests for toe failure if the failure is defined as a
crack having propagated through the plate.
• Tests showed that cracks may occur at locations not predicted by the hot spot approach
• Especially in welds carrying high loads cracks may appear at imperfections and/or root gaps.
• The following weld details play an important part:

- Full penetration or fillet weld with gap
1143
One pass of weld or more

Welding sequence
Fabrication quality
These metallurgical and geometrical effects are not covered by hot spot stress calculations.
• It is difficult to predict the root crack in welded complex structures e.g. at the toes of brackets.
Acknowledgement
1De investigations have been carried out within the European research project FatHTS in the years
1996 - 2000. The European Union under the Industrial and Materials Technology Programme Brite
Euram III funded this project. The partners were: AF/Industritechnik (S), Bureau Veritas (F), Chalmers
University of Technology (S), Chantiers de I' Atlantique (F), Fincantieri (I), Germanischer Lloyd (D),
Iostituto Superior Tecnico (P), Lisnave (P), Odense Steel Shipyard (DK), RINA (I), Royal Schelde
Shipyard (NL), Technische Universitat Hamburg-Harburg (D) and VTT (FI). The project was coordi-
nated by TNO.
4erences
Hobbacher A. (1996). Fatigue Design of Welded Joints and Components, Abington Publishing,
Cambridge (UK).
ISSC (2000). Finite Element Comparative Study of Ship Structural Detail. Proceedings of the 14th
International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, Volume I, 176-182.
Janssen G.T.M. (2000). Fatigue Based Design Rules for the Application of High Tensile Steel in Ships.
Proceedings of the Seventh International Marine Design Conference, Kyongju, 317-328.
Petershagen H., Fricke W., Masse! T. (1991). Application of the Local Approach to the Fatigue
Strength Assessment of We!ded Structures in Ships. IIW -Document XIII-1409-91.
Radaj D. (1990). Design and Analysis of Fatigue-Resistent Welded Structures, Abington Publishing,
Cambridge (UK).
© 200 I Elsevier Science Ltd. AIl rights reserved
FATIGUE TESTS ON LARGE SCALE KNUCKLE SPECIMENS
l l
O. D. Dijkstra . G. T. M. Janssen and J. W. L. Ludolphl
I TNO Building and Construction Research

P.O. Box 49, 2600 AA, Delft, The Netherlands
2 Royal Schelde, Flushing, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
Four large scale tests on knuckle specimens have been carried out in the framework of the Brite/Euram
project 'Fatigue based design rules for the application of High Tensile Steels in ships (FatHTS)'.
The specimens represent a corner connection of a ship structure. Each specimen has four critical
locations. The material used is a high tensile steel with a yield stress of 400 N/mm2.
The combinations of critical detail and test parameters of the four test specimens were as follows:
a a welded detail with open mouse holes and constant amplitude load,
a a welded detail with filled mouse holes and constant amplitude load,
a a bent plate with open mouse holes and constant amplitude load,
a a welded detail with open mouse holes and variable amplitude load.
The main conclusions are:

a) All the specimens show an early crack initiation at the mouse hole location and a long period of
stable crack growth. So, there is a long period in which a growing crack can be discovered by
inspections.
b) The specimen with the mouse hole filled with an eccentric collar plate connected with fillet welds
has the same fatigue life as a specimen with open mouse holes.
c) The specimen with a bent plate detail has a 2.4 times longer fatigue life than a specimen with a
welded detail.
d) The specimen loaded with a variable amplitude loading has only 50% of the lifetime of the
comparable specimen loaded with a constant amplitude loading.
KEYWORDS
Fatigue, Welded details, Ships, Variable amplitude loading

1146
1 INTRODUCTION
Four large-scale tests have been carried out in the framework of the Brite/Euram project "Fatigue
based design rules for the application of High Tensile Steels in ships (FatHTS)" [I, 2].
The specimens represent a corner connection of ship structure and are fabricated by Royal Schelde in
Flushing, the Netherlands. The specimens are 3.23 m high, 3.23 m long and 1.2 m wide (Figure 1).The
material used is a high tensile steel, with the following specifications:
yield strength: 390 MPa
tensile strength: 5 I 0 - 560 MPa
elongation A5: 20 %
impact energy: 27 J, transversal, at T = -40°C
Figure I: Test specimen (left 3D drawing; right laboratory set up at TNO Building and
Construction Research)
The specimens were loaded by a hydraulic jack between the two legs of the specimen.
Four specimens were tested with the following geometrical specifications (Figure 2) and test
conditions (specimens mentioned in order of testing):
• specimen 2CA a welded detail with open mouse holes tested with a constant amplitude load
• specimen 3CA a welded detail with filled mouse holes tested with a constant amplitude load
• specimen I CA a bent plate with open mouse holes tested with a constant amplitude load
• specimen 2V A a welded detail with open mouse holes tested with a variable amplitude load
The nominal cross-section is given in Figure 3. The knuckle detail is at the top side in the 1100 mm
wide plate.
The fatigue load applied to the specimens varied between tension and compression (R = - I). The
constant amplitude load varied between Fmax = +200kN to Fmin = -200kN (~F = 400 kN) at a
frequency of 3 HZ. The basis of the variable amplitude loading was the sequence "C-spectr.sI4"
2 TEST RESULTS
21 Specimen 2CA
Specimen 2CA has a welded joint with open mouse holes (Figure 2).
The specimen was statically loaded before the fatigue test with a load range of 400 kN (between -200
tN and +200 kN). The results across the horizontal plate shows a concentration at the web location
(see Figure 4). To the weld toe the measured strain range increased to a relatively high value (see
Figure 5).
The specimen was subjected to a fatigue load between -200 kN and +200 kN. The first fatigue crack,
located at the weld in the open mouse hole, was discovered after 125700 cycles. Further cracks
initiated at all the mouse hole locations and at the weld toes in the butt welds. All the mouse hole
1148
cracks grow through the plate (for further crack development see Figure 6 ; cracks are alphabetically
numbered in order of initiation).
The test was stopped after 3.77 million cycles, when the specimen was cracked over the whole width
of the specimen (crack C-J in Figure 6). At the left side of the specimen the main crack was initiated at
the edge of the mouse hole in the diagonal plate and at the right side initiation of the main crack took
place at the weld toe in the horizontal plate.
2.2 Specimen 3CA
Specimen 3CA has a welded joint with closed mouse holes with a collar plate (Figure 2). The strain
measurements showed lower values compared to specimen 2CA.
The specimen was loaded with a fatigue load between -200 kN and + 200 kN.
The first crack, located at the weld in the inserted plate at the filled mouse hole, was discovered after
552900 cycles. Further cracks initiated at all these locations and at the weld toe of the butt weld. All
the mouse hole cracks grow through the diagonal plate.
1149
1be test was stopped after 3.81 million cycles, when the specimen was cracked over the whole width
oCthe specimen. The total crack was at the weld toe in the horizontal plate.
2.J Specimen 1CA
Specimen I CA has a bent plate with an open mouse holes (Figure 2). The strain measurements showed
wIues between specimen 2CA and 3CA.
1be specimen was loaded with a fatigue load between -200 kN and + 200 kN.
1be first crack, located at the weld in the open mouse hole, was discovered after 203000 cycles.
Further cracks initiated at all these locations. All the mouse hole cracks grow through the diagonal
plate
The test was stopped after 9.07 million cycles, when the specimen was cracked over the whole width
of the specimen. The total crack was in the diagonal plate at the lower side. Due to the absence of the
weld no crack was initiated in the bent area.
24 Specimen 2VA
Specimen 2V A has a welded joint with open mouse holes (Figure 2). The geometry is the same as for
specimen 2CA.
The specimen was loaded with a variable amplitude fatigue load (see above).
The first crack, located at the weld in the house hole at the lower detail, was discovered after 2500
cycles. Further cracks initiated at the other lower mouse hole and at the weld toes of the butt weld. All
the two mouse hole cracks grow through the diagonal plate.
1be test was stopped after 1.66 million cycles, when the specimen was cracked over the whole width
of the specimen. The total crack was at the weld toe in the vertical plate.
1150
3 EVALUATION AND CONCLUSIONS
The test results are summarised in TABLE 1.
TABLE 1
SUMMARY OF TEST RESULTS
1) Variable amplitude load on 2V A with equivalent load range of 412 kN

Measured strain ranges for 2V A are at load range of 400 kN
Fromthe constant amplitude tests it can be concluded that the fatigue life of a bent plate detail is more
than two times the life of a welded detail.
Closing the mouse hole with a plate does not have a beneficial effect on the fatigue life (compare
specimen 2CA with 3CA).
The fatigue life of the variable amplitude loaded specimen (2V A) is only 44% of the life of the
constant amplitude loaded specimen (2CA). From the small increase in equivalent load range one
would expect a decrease in life to 92%. So, the fatigue life is approximately half of the fatigue life
predicted from the constant amplitude test.
The crack growth curves of all the four specimens show a long period of stable crack growth (Figure
7).
The main conclusions and recommendations from the tests and the evaluations of the results are:
a) The specimens show an early crack initiation at the mouse hole location and a long period of stable
crack growth. So, in practice there is a long period in which a growing crack can be discovered by
inspections.
b) The specimen with the mouse hole filled with an eccentric collar plate connected with fillet weld
has the same fatigue life as a specimen with open mouse holes.
1151
c) The specimen with a bent plate detail has a 2.4 times longer fatigue life than a specimen with a
welded detail. This longer life is due to the absence of the weld toe (a local stress raiser) in the bent
detail.
d) The specimen loaded with a variable amplitude loading has only 50% of the lifetime of the
comparable specimen loaded with a constant amplitude loading. One reason for this difference
could be unstable crack growth during a high load in the random sequence. Another reason could be
crack closure effects in these R = -1.0 tests.
e) A comparison with S-N curves from design guides show that designing a large scale geometry with
stress concentrations using the hot spot stress method leads to a very conservative estimation of the
fatigue life (5% of the experimental life).
f) The influence of variable amplitude in R = -1 load situations has to be investigated further.
g) The lifetime prediction of large scale geometries with stress concentrations and redundant load
paths has to be improved by additional testing and theoretical investigations.
References
[I] Janssen a.T.M. (2000). Fatigue based design rules for the application of high tensile steel in
ships. Pac. 7'" Int. Marine Design Coriference. 317-328, May 21-24, Kyongju, Korea.
[2] Dijkstra, O.D., Janssen, a.T.M. and Ludolphy. lW.L. (1999) Fatigue tests on large scale
knuckle C2 specimens. TNO report 1999-CON-BiS/R5023/1
THE PRE-FABRICATED HULL DETAILS

FOR APPLICATION IN DESIGN AND REPAIR
S. V. Petinov
Department of Structural Mechanics of Ships, Marine Technical

University St.Petersburg, 190008 St.Petersburg, Russia
ABSTRACT
Many of structural details such as bracket connections, shell stiffener-transverse web assemblies, etc.,
are essentially susceptible to fatigue due to superposition of the stress concentration and the weld
endings specific by the feasible weld imperfections and high residual welding stress.
In certain applications the fatigue performance of designed and repaired details may be improved in
conjunction with the current practice of repair by implementation of the fatigue designed pre-
fabricated details. The principle of the pre-fabricated details is to provide the parent material in the
areas of stress concentration and to avoid the coincidence of high stress concentration and weld ending
in one location. Transfer of the extensive stress flow via the parent material in modified elements
offers essentially better control of fatigue reliability of hull details in design and in service by reducing
effects of uncertainties attributed to the production and to the database of fatigue performance of
typified welded joints. It also provides application of the local strain approach for evaluation of the
necessary configuration of critical locations.
KEYWORDS
Stress concentration, Fatigue properties, Fatigue design of hull details, Pre-fabricated details, Critical
locations, Weld endings, Local strain approach.
1 GENERAL
The frequent structural details such as bracket connections, shell stiffener-transverse web assemblies,
etc., are generally prone to fatigue due to superposition of the stress concentration and the weld
endings specific by the unsteady weld profile, feasible weld imperfections and high residual welding
stress. Fatigue strength assessment of such locations based on the present rules reveals unsteady
depending on the analyst experience and influenced by uncertainties of the current methodology and
database. In conjunction, these factors can not safely provide the necessary fatigue properties of hull
details.
The conventional and preferred practice of repair of the affected structural details is to crop and part
renew the damaged elements without considerable alteration of the initial detail design and without
1154
assessing the fatigue life which may be attained. The repair may suggest introducing additional
elements to provide an auxiliary load transfer, etc., however, the coincidence of the weld endings and
stress concentrations remains usually unchanged in renewed detail. Fig.1 illustrates the typical of
structural detail coincidence of stress concentration and weld endings.
In certain applications the fatigue performance of designed and repaired details may be improved in
conjunction with the current practice of repair by implementation of the fatigue-designed pre-
fabricated details.
The principal idea of pre-fabricated details is to provide parent material in the areas of stress
concentration and to avoid the coincidence of high stress concentration and weld ending in one
location. Transfer of the extensive stress flow via the parent material in modified elements offers
essentially better control of fatigue reliability of hull details in design and in service by reducing
effects of uncertainties attributed to the production and to the database of fatigue performance of
typified welded joints. The parent material in areas with stress concentration provides favorable
conditions for successful application of the local strain method, which is physically more correct, than
the stress-life approach.
It also makes feasible application of different methods of fabrication of critical elements: the cast and
pressed elements optimized for the stress flow may be applied, especially when aluminium alloys are
the hull material.
2 EXAMPLES OF MODIFIED DETAILS
Application of the suggested technology may be illustrated referring to the example of repair of the
deck beam web given in (lACS, 1995). The damaged, cracked web at the slot (Area 3, example 7) has
to be repaired by cropping and part renewing the web; also, the lug between web and deck longitudinal
is recommended, etc. The Guidelines indicate the possible causes of damage: local stress concentration
due to shear deformation of the web, deficient welds.
A version of repair (and design) may be suggested considering the above principles. The repaired
detail (to be renewed) may be designed for the necessary residual fatigue life and fabricated of several
elements. Essential features of the design are the introduction of a thick web plate element, which
1155
includes the "heading" part of the slot - to increase the shear stiffness and to reduce the stress
concentration in it at the slot (as shown in Fig.l with solid gray lines). Another is the estimation of the
curvature of the slot so that together with the local increased web thickness it would provide the stress
concentration factor value not greater than required by fatigue analysis. The procedure of evaluation of
the allowable stress concentration factor using the local strain approach is given in (Ma, et al, 1998).
As an example, a transverse web - shell stiffener connection was analyzed according to the data given
by Debbink (1997). The shear mode and local load transfer were considered using local FE model
designed according to the basic structure and assuming local thick detail of the web (1.5 of the basic
thickness). Comparative analysis shows, that the stress concentration factor at the slot may be
decreased by 1.4, extending the detail fatigue life 3.8 times.
When the stiffness of a detail is sufficient, and fatigue damage may be caused by the combined effects
of weld ending and high stress concentration, a possible solution might be achieved by transferring the
weld ending away from the stress concentration area. The problem of providing the stress "flow" with
necessary elements may be solved by applying inserted pressed or cast details, the shape of which can
be respectively optimized considering the modes of deformation.
Fig.2 shows finite-element model of a bracket detail in the web and shell stiffener connection. Such
details are characterized by combined high stress concentration and the weld ending in one location at
the bracket ending. When the longitudinal loading is considered, the stress concentration factor due to
combined effects of the bracket shape and the weld geometry may be of around 2.5 - 4.0 depending
upon the weld metal profile. Inserted one-piece detail (indicated with solid gray lines) provides the
smooth transition of the stiffener flange into the connection detail and continuous material at the stress
concentration locus. Approximate optimization of shape of the inserted detail (Fig.2) allows decreasing
the stress concentration factor to 1.5 level.
It is essential, the detail geometry may be identical in production in many locations, with identical
fatigue performance under identical loading conditions. Furthermore, the detail shape can be found
based on required fatigue life, e.g., through evaluation of the allowable stress concentration factor.
3 PRINCIPLES OF FATIGUE DESIGN
With respect to the fatigue design of pre-fabricated details it is appropriate to explain why the local
strain approach should be preferred. Firstly, the basic components of the stress-life approach should be
discussed. Despite certain differentiation, the basic principles of fatigue model of hull details are
common in the rules. Analyzing these principles from the fatigue mechanics standpoint, the following
deficiencies of the S-N approach should be indicated:
• the stress amplitude controls the fatigue process indirectly: in the initiation phase - via
development of the inhomogeneous microplastic and plastic deformation, and in the crack growth
1156
phase - in the complicated form, via the 'effective crack opening conditions and transfer of fracture
through the material structure
• the stress-life criterion corresponds to the design principle according which the stress (nominal) in
structural members has to be less than the elasticity limit stress. Respectively, the design SoN
curves are related to the intermediate and high-cycle ranges of fatigue; the low-cycle range (N <
104) is excluded from the database. Meanwhile, when the linear damage summation rule is applied,
the SoN diagrams are automatically extrapolated into the low-cycle range, which is not consistent
with the elastic-plastic behavior of material within this range
• the correspondence of the S-N failure criterion, including the crack origination and crack
propagation until failure of a test-piece, and of the damage state in actual structure is not
considered
• the latter is essential for the purposes of fatigue analyses and design of hull details: the initiation
phase in hull structural detail develops under control of local conditions, whereas the crack
propagation progressively reflects the changes of a specimen stiffness in the course of crack
growth
• the loading conditions in laboratory tests are usually the load-range or the maximum-minimum
load control, whereas in hull structures the loading conditions are those of displacement control
due to the redundancy of most structural details
• application of the hot-spot technique or of a method based on multiplying the elastic stress
concentration factors assume elastic material deformation, whereas the fatigue process may be
associated solely with microplastic and plastic deformation, even at stress amplitudes less than
fatigue limit stress.
The local strain method based on the strain-life criterion is free from the mentioned deficiencies,
although it forms also an approximate model of fatigue through common uncertainties (e.g. uncertain
loading history, material structure and microplastic deformation random inhomogeneity, etc.). It
operates with elastic-plastic behavior of material and is supported by the necessary experimentally
obtained database. The advantage of the local strain concept application may be explained by the
following fundamental reasons:
• The material failure criterion relates fatigue life of material to the local strain range, which controls
almost directly the fatigue process in the crack initiation phase and during the early crack growth
under influence of the local conditions
• The fatigue analysis of welded details when the strain-life criterion is applied, would need mostly
in parent material and heat-affected zone material failure criteria (Testin et ai, 1987), since cracks
typically originate in either of materials at critical locations
• The strain-life criterion is obtained in tests under the strain range or displacement range control,
which approximately corresponds to the loading conditions of most details in hull structure and
provides approximately the identity of fatigue damage in laboratory specimen and at the critical
location in hull detail
• Since the approach uses basics of the elastic-plastic analysis, it enables mechanically correct
assessment of notch conditions for fatigue damage.
When applying the inelastic strain range -life criterion, an analyst would need in the local strain at the
critical location. This may be obtained using one of several approaches: a method based on the Neuber
heuristic rule, a method which employs empirical conditional cyclic (load range-strain range) diagram,
FE elastic-plastic cyclic analysis. These methods operate with experimentally obtained generalized
cyclic diagrams, and usually a stabilized diagram is applied in analyses (Petinov, 1990; Ellyin, 1997,
etc.). When the strain-life criterion is applied, the FE modeling would need in higher resolution of the
stress field at critical location. The hot-spot stress concept requires the FE mesh design in which the
finite element dimensions are equal to the structural detail, flange, shell, etc., thickness (Niemi and
Partanen, 1998). The local strain concept assumes the element dimensions (and element type)
1157
compatible with the stress gradients at the critical location. The concept also allows application of the
vast stress concentration data collected in handbooks, e.g. Peterson (1973) .
.• THE LOCAL STRAIN APPROACH-BASED FATIGUE ANALYSIS
To demonstrate efficiency of the local strain approach (LSA), an example of the case study given in
the ISSC-2000 documents (Committee, 2000) may be used. The Committee experts analyzed fatigue
behavior of a welded attachment at the longitudinal coaming of a Panamax containership.
Since the purpose of the present demonstration is to display the elements of the approach, the loading
history of the ship analyzed may be approximated by appropriate selection of the long-term Weibull
nominal stress distribution. Assuming the world-wide operation profile, the shape parameter for the
long-term stress distribution may be taken equal to unity (in case the only North Atlantic region should
be considered, the shape parameter may be approximated as 1.1 - 1.2 since the ship is large and fast).
The scale parameter may be varied in the range: As = 6 - 9, MPa, and the corresponding maximum
stress ranges (related to the probability to occur in the range of 10.8 •.• 2 X 10.8) result in, respectively,
Sm.x = 212 - 319, MPa (matching the range of the data presented in the Committee report).
For simplicity of the analysis the feasible effects of the SW load conditions may be neglected.
However, the local strain fatigue model as seen from the below readily allows considering effects of
the SW loading component in assessing the local strain: to do it, one needs in detailed information on
the operation profile characteristics).
The material (HT36 steel) fatigue characteristics should be given in the form of strain-life criterion
parameters and the cyclic stress-strain diagram. The simplest criterion form is given by the Coffin-
Tavemelli (1962) equation:
(1)
The local strain at the weld toe may be estimated approximately, using a conditional stabilized stress-
sttain diagram, a version of the Ramberg-Osgood formula derived based on testing of hull steel
specimens with smooth stress concentrations, Kt ~ 4 (petinov, 1990):
(2)
I The influence of the SW loads on the local strain decreases after application of relatively high variable loads
due to relaxation of the mean stress
2 The crack initiation is assumed in the heat-affected zone at the weld toe
ailing time was about 0.3 of the total service life (20 years), the SW load
conditions were not considered in fatigue life calculations. The I-mm weld toe radius was assumed in
(4). The stress concentration factor values (theoretical SCF, related to elastic material behavior, weld
shape and loading mode - longitudinal tension-compression) were varied in the range 1.3 - 2.3 (the
smaller figure may correspond to smooth transition, the bigger - to the bulging weld material). This
range encircles the Committee data, however, the actual weld profile-based FE model and respective
analysis would be desirable. The results, fatigue life, yrs, in dependence on Kt and As are given in
Table in the below.
Comparing the present results and those given in Table I (Committee, 2000), one may assume the
obvious correspondence: the present results cover the range of fatigue lives calculated by the
Committee experts.
However, the LSA provides strict correspondence of varied parameters and fatigue lives, in contrast to
the Committee experts' findings, where the hot-spot stress-based stress concentration factors estimated
occurred in the range 1.63- 2.15 with respective scatter of fatigue lives.
Analysis also indicates that fatigue life reduction is feasible at stress concentration Kt > 1.7 and severe
sea conditions (As> 8 MPa). Insignificant modification of the weld profile at the critical location, e.g.
by the weld toe dressing and respective increasing the weld toe radius may provide the necessary
fatigue life of the component.
To conclude, it should be noted, that the strain-life fatigue model can be applied in the fonnat of the
allowable stress concentration factor and the joint geometry assessment (Ma, et ai, 1998), which may
provide the necessary infonnation for the detail design and fabrication procedure.
1159
TABLE 1
FATIGUE LIFE, OBTAINED USING THE LOCAL STRAIN METHOD, YEARS
References
Committee III-2 "Fatigue and Fracture" (2000) Report, 14 International Ship and Offshore
Structures Congress (ISSC-2000). Nagasaki, Japan, October
Coffin L.F. and Tavemelli J.F. (1962) Experimental Support for Generalized Equation Predicting
Low-Cycle Fatigue. Trans. ASME, Ser. D, 4, 533-538
Debbink M. (1997) Hull Structural Design for a 40,000 DWT Double-Hull Products Carrier.
Prevention of Fracture in Ship Structure. Symposium and Workshop. SSC Report PFSS95,
Washington, pp. 247-263
Ellyin F. (1997) Fatigue Damage, Crack Growth and Life Prediction, Chapman & Hall, London
Heuler P. and Seeger T.A. (1986) Criterion for Omission ofYariable Amplitude Loading Histories.
Intern. Journal of Fatigue, 8: 4, 225-230
Ma T., Petinov S.Y. and Thayamballi A.K. (1998) Toward the Automated Determination of
Geometry for a Target Fatigue Life. The Eighth International Offshore and Polar Engineering
Symposium ISOPE-98, Montreal, Canada, May 24-29
Niemi E. and Partanen T. (1998) Fatigue Analysis and Resistance of Welded Steel Components
based on the Hot Spot Stress Approach. International Shipbuilding Conference, St. Petersburg,
Proceedings ISC'98, Sec. C, 137-144
Peterson R.E. (1973) Stress Concentration Factors. A Handbook. J.Wiley & Sons, New York
Petinov S.Y. (1976) Crack Initiation Period of Fatigue and Strain Criterion-based Prediction of
Structure Fatigue Life. Report SK/R-35, Division of Ship Structures, NTH, Trondheim
Petinov S.Y. (1990) Basics of Engineering Analysis of Fatigue of Ship Structures, Sudostroenie
Pubs, Leningrad
Testin R.A., et al (1987) Predicting the Fatigue Resistance of Steel Weldments. Welding Res. Suppl.
to the Welding Journal, Apr., 93-98 S
lACS (1995) Bulk Carriers: Guidelines for Surveys, Assessment and Repair of Hull Structure.
Witherby & Co. Ltd., London
FATIGUE STRENGTH OF LOAD-CARRYING BOX FILLET

WELD ME NT IN SHIP STRUCTURE
Wha Soo Kim " Doe Hyun Kim " Sang Gab Lee 2, and Yoon Ki Lee 2
, Hull Initial Design Department, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.

I, Cheonha-Dong, Dong-Ku, Ulsan, Korea
2 Division of Marine Systems Engineering, Korea Maritime University
I, Dongsam-Dong, Yeongdo-Ku, Busan, Korea
ABSTRACT
In case of load-carrying box fillet weldments such as connection of a longitudinal stiffener and a web
stiffener in ship structure, welding residual stresses at the weld toe on the longitudinal stiffener are
tensile while those on the web stiffener are compressive. The distribution of welding residual stresses
and the re-distribution of residual stresses by a pre-load history in the load-carrying box fillet
weldment are studied in experimental and analytical ways. The study shows that welding residual
stresses near weld toes decrease by a pre-load. The bigger the pre-load becomes, the more the residual
stresses decrease. Fatigue tests were carried out to investigate the effect of such a welding residual
stress distribution, Three types of crack were observed depending on applied stress ranges due to the
effect of the residual stress. Additional fatigue tests were also carried out to investigate the effect of
shaken-down residual stresses and tensile mean stresses. The fatigue strength decreases drastically by
the tensile mean stress and this decrement is predominant at lower cyclic stress range. However, there
is no significant difference of the fatigue strength depending on the conditions of pre-load itself.
KEYWORDS
Load-carrying box fillet weldment, Pre-load, Tensile mean stress, Re-distribution of residual stress,
Shaken-down residual stress, Sectioning method, Thermo-elasto-plastic analysis
1 INTRODUCTION
It has been known that there in general exist tensile residual stresses up to yielding point of the
material around welded joints. Many research works were carried out to investigate effects of the
welding residual stresses, and such residual stresses were known to reduce fatigue strength
qualitatively. Most of these research works were, however, concentrated on the investigation of the
effects of the initial welding residual stress (IWRS). Only a few research works were performed on the
effect ofthe re-distributed residual stress (RDRS) caused by the actual service condition (Ki
et a\., 1997). Static loads on ship structure induced either by water pressure before service or by cargo
1162
pressure during first laden voyage cause relatively higher stress history at welded joints compared with
1
cyclic loads induced by wave during the service. Due to these high static loads, IWRS at welded joints,
where fatigue strength is concerned (in most cases, where stress concentration occurs), is shaken-down
in a great extent by the elasto-plastic deformation behavior of the material. Ship structural members
are, then, exposed to cyclic loads during the service. Therefore, it is reasonable to assess the fatigue
strength of ship structure considering the effect of shaken-down residual stresses.
It was reported that the effect of cyclic stress ratio (minimum stress/maximum stress) was minor on the
fatigue strength of structure under the condition of IWRS (Maddox, 1982). This means the mean stress
effect on the fatigue strength is minor as far as they are exposed to cyclic loads under as-welded
conditions. However, if the ship structure with RDRS from a fairly large static pre-load is exposed to
cyclic loads induced by wave, the effect of a certain level of the mean stress associated with static
loads of cargo or ballasting would not be minor.
In this paper, IWRS and RDRS by the static pre-load for the load-carrying box fillet weldment, which
is a typical weld joint in ship structure, are evaluated using FE analysis and measured by an ordinary
sectioning method. Fatigue tests are performed to evaluate the effect of RDRS on the fatigue strength
of the weldments using the as-welded specimens and statically pre-loaded ones. Also the effects of the
tensile mean stress (TMS) on the fatigue strength of pre-loaded specimens are investigated.
2 STATIC PRE-LOAD APPLIED IN SHIP STRUCTURE
Scantlings of main ship structure are determined in general by the requirements of Classification
Societies' rule, and the values of allowable stresses for design static loads are approximately in the
range of 50-70% of yield points of materials on nominal stress basis. In ship structure, the stress
concentration is inevitable due to structural discontinuity or structural geometry. Considering the stress
concentration, it is expected that there are large re-distributions of residual stresses by the design static
pre-load at these areas. In most cases, the fatigue damage occurs at these stress-concentrated points. It
is, therefore, important to verify the fatigue characteristics related to the RDRS to obtain more reliable
fatigue strength of the actual ship structure.
3 DISTRIBUTION OF RESIDUAL STRESS
Details of the specimen of the load-carrying box fillet joint are illustrated in Figure I. The specimens
were fabricated in accordance with the actual shipbuilding workmanship and practice. The material of
the specimen was ship structural mild steel of grade A and its major chemical composition and
mechanical properties are listed in Table I. Although the actual yielding stress of the material is about
300 MPa, Classification Societies define the design yield stress (cro) as 235 MPa for ship structural
mild steel. In this regard, hereinafter, the design yield stress is defined as 235 MPa according to the
Classification Societies' specification.
Distributions of the residual stresses normal to the weld toe at the specimens (crx,res) under following
three types of statically pre-loaded cases, which are listed in Table 2, were evaluated by FE analysis
and measured by a sectioning method.
- Case I: As-welded condition (No pre-load)

- Case 2: Pre-load inducing 0.5cro of nominal stress at weld toe
- Case 3: Pre-load inducing 0.85cro of nominal stress at weld toe
FE analysis with the general-purpose program of ABAQUS was performed to simulate residual stress
distributions of the specimen. The FE model is shown in Figure 2. Half of the specimen was used in
the model imposing a symmetric boundary condition. The used element type was 8-noded solid and
the element size around weld toe was about 2.5x2.5x2.5 mm. The main plate in the model was
connected to the base plate by means of weld bead only and the flank angle of weld bead was assumed
to be 45°. Von-Mises yield criterion with isotropic hardening rule was applied. The distribution of the
temperature was calculated by a transient thermal conduction analysis with respect to time ignoring
heat convection and radiation to the air. Using the calculated distributions of the temperature in respect
1164
to time, a thermo-elasto-plastic analysis was carried out to simulate the distribution of IWRS. After
obtaining the distribution of IWRS, static pre-loads described in Table 2 were applied to simulate
RDRS by an elasto-plastic analysis. The force was applied to the loading position as shown in Figure 2.
IWRS and RDRS by pre-loads were measured by using an ordinary sectioning method. As shown in
Figure 3, two-dimensional strain gauges with a gauge length of I mm were bonded on the main plate.
Then, the released strains were measured and converted into the residual stresses by sectioning the
main plate around the strain gauges into small cubes.
1167
The fatigue strength were investigated with the specimens of load-carrying box fillet weldment. To
investigate the re-distribution of the initial welding residual stress (lWRS) due to static loading on ship
structure, the simulation by FE analysis and the measurement by a sectioning method were carried out
applying the pre-loads on specimens. IWRS at the weld toe is shaken-down by the pre-load. The
bigger the pre-load becomes. the more the residual stress decreases, according to the results of both the
simulation and the measurement.
To investigate the effect of the pre-load and the tensile mean stress (TMS) on fatigue strength, fatigue
tests were carried. It has been found that there are significant differences of fatigue strength depending
on the existence of TMS when a pre-load has shaken down IWRS. The fatigue strength decreases
drastically by TMS and this decrement is predominant at lower cyclic stress range. However. there is
no significant difference on the condition of pre-load itself when IWRS is compressive.
The present widely used practice for the assessment of fatigue strength was derived from the research
results for other industries such as steel bridges and offshore structures. It should be noted that, not
only structural details of geometry and material but also loading patterns in ship structures are different
from those of other structures. Therefore further research works are strongly recommended to establish
the more reliable S-N diagram for ship structural design.
Acknowledgment
A joint industry project to assess the fatigue capacity of 'Floating Production, Storage and Offloading
units' was established by DNV under the name of'FPSO lIP - Fatigue Capacity'. The objective of this
project is to provide data to obtain a reliable design basis that can be used to ensure sufficient fatigue
capacity of FPSO units. This is to avoid costly maintenance during in-service life. Eighteen companies
including oil companies, classification societies, engineering companies, a governmental organization
and shipbuilders joined the lIP. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., as a participant in the lIP, has
performed the fatigue tests with small specimens of typical fillet weld joints in ship structure to
investigate the effect of mean and residual stress on fatigue strength, which is one of the main tasks in
the lIP. Authors express the appreciation to all participants of the lIP for their permission of the
publication offatigue test results.
References
British Standards Institution. (1980). Steel, Concrete and Composite Bridges, Part 10. Code of
Practice for Fatigue.
Kim W. S., Tomita Y., Hashimoto K. and Osawa N. (1997). Effects of Static Load on Fatigue Strength
of Ship Structure. 7th International Offthore and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE-97) 5. 565-
571.
Maddox S. J. (1982). Influence of Tensile Residual Stresses on the Fatigue Behavior of Welded Joints
in Steel. Residual Stress Effects in Fatigue, ASTM STP 776, 63-96.
I'Dctical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures 1169
C 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
A VBAR MODEL TO IDENTIFY THE DYNAMIC

CHARACTERISTICS OF MARINE STRUCTURES
C. F. Hung; Y. T. Peng and W. J. Ko
Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering,

National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan., China
ABSTRACT
In this paper, an algorithm to identify the dynamic characteristics (natural frequency, damping ratio,
and relative mode shapes) of marine structures from measured displacement, velocity, or acceleration
of multiple channels has been developed.
A Vector type of Backward Auto-Regressive model (VBAR) is adopted to describe the relationship
between the measured output response in different time steps and channels. A backward type of
time-discrete state equation consisted of measured dynamic response is established to determine the
physical vibration modes of structures.
The numerical simulation of identification of dynamic characteristics for a 200t ship structure is
selected as study cases. A 3D FE-model for hull structure is established, the results of modal analysis
are used as reference basis, and the displacements on multiple measured points calculated by transient
dynamic analysis are taken as output vector. The natural frequencies, damping ratios, and relative
mode shapes between measure points are identified from the measured out put vectors. The results
show that the physical modes and spurious modes with noise condition can be separated clearly by the
proposed method, and the identified mode parameters are consistent with reference results.
KEYWORDS
Vibration, Ship structures, Backward vector auto-regressive model, System identification, FEM
1 INTRODUCTION
Estimation of vibration mode in design stage to avoid the possible resonance due to periodic loading is
the fundamental topic of vibration problem. Since 1950, many researches to examine the dynamical
characteristics of marine structures have been carried out, and many simplified approaches to predicate
the natural frequency and the valuable design guide have been proposed, e.g. DnV(l985), NK(l984),
BV(l987) and Noonan(l990). The FEM enable the engineer to consider every detail structure parts to
1170
establish a fine model for a high accuracy level of dynamic analysis, e.g. Carlsen( 1977) and Gepner &
Ahrens( 1985). Because of the complicacies of marine structures, there are a lot of uncertainties existed
in theoretical and mathematical model for description of vibration problems. The measurement of
vibration behaviors for new developed structure is necessary to examine the effects of the uncertainties
on the vibration of structures.
The natural frequency, damping ratio, and mode shape, are the dynamic characteristics of structure,
which governs the vibration behaviors of structures. The conventional vibration testing focus on the
natural frequencies and response levels. It is not easy to identifY the local or global modes, or double
frequency for different modes. The modal parameter identification described in Ewin(I986) and
Juang(I994) provide a lot of methods to find out the mode parameters from measured input force and
output dynamic response. Because the vibration behaviors of marine structure are very complicate, and
the background noise is relative high, the separation of system modes and ghost modes is not easy.
Cooper(l992) examined the backward predication error model proposed by Kumarsen & Tufts(l982) for
modal parameter identification, the results showed the advantage of being able to distinguish system
modes from spurious modes. In this paper we proposed an algorithm to use vector type of backward
auto-regressive model for identification of the dynamic characteristics of marine structures. We establish
a backward state equation from measured output vector, the system modes are determined in this state
equation of output vector, and the relative mode shapes are determined in a reduced state equation.
1174
Two case of noise are taken into consideration, case I is noise free, in case 2 each output channel
contains random noise, whose peak value is 10% of maximum response.
The identified modal parameters are listed in Table I and 2. The results show that the identified natural
fi-equency and mode shape are identical to the results fi-om FEM modal analysis for noise free case. And
the identified results have also good agreement with reference mode parameters in case with noise.
Some modes may be missed due the disturbance of noise modes.
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper, a VBAR model is proposed to identify the model parameters form output data, which can
be displacement, velocity or acceleration. The results show that the presented method is feasible, the
physical modes and spurious modes with noise condition can be separated clearly, and the identified
mode parameters are consistent with reference results.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge that this work was supported by National Science Council
under the grant NSC89-2611-E-002-007.
References
BV (1987). Building and Operation of Vibration -free Propulsion Plants and Ships, Bureau Veritas.
Carlsen L.A. (1977). A Parametric Study of Global Hull Vibration and Superstructure Vibrations-
Analysis by Means of the Finite Element Methods, Trans. RINA.
Cooper J.E. (1992). The Use of Backwards Model for Structural Parameters Identification,
Mechanical System and Signal Processing 6, 217-228.
Dnv (1985). Vibration Control of Ships, VERlTEC, A.S
Ewins D.J. (1986) Modal Test: Theory and Practice, Research Studies Press LTD., England.
Gepner W. and Ahrens J. (1985). FEM-Calculation of Aft-Superstructure Vibration and Check with
Experiment, Schiffbauforschung, 24, Vol. 24, pp. 166-168.
Juang J.N. (1994) Applied System Identification, Prentice Hall PTR, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Kumaresan R and. Tufts D.W. (1982). Estimating the Parameters of Exponentially Damped Sinusoids
and Pole-Zero Modeling in Noise, IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing 30,
833-840.
NK (1984). Guide to Ship Vibration, Nippon Keiji Kyokei.
Noonan D. (1990). Ship Vibration Design Guide, SSC-350, Ship Structure Committee, UAS.
Practical Design of Ships and Other F]oating Structures ] ]77
© 200] E]sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
VIBRATION ANALYSIS METHOD OF SHIP STRUCTURES

IN THE MEDIUM FREQUENCY DOMAIN
F. Besnierl G. Bechepayl Y. Mavrakakisl and M. Ferrl
1 Institut de Recherches de la Construction Navale,

Nantes, France
2 MFRDC, Orvault, France
ABSTRACT
Frequency response of weakly damped structures, like ships, reveals three frequency domains: a low
frequency domain with well separated modes and peaked response, a high frequency domain with high
spectral density and regular response and a medium intermediate frequency band with high but non
constant modal density and highly coupled modes. Modal method is well mastered and widely used in
the low frequency domain. Energy methods - like statistical energy analysis (SEA) - cover the high
frequency band. Until now, no method seems to be emerging in the medium frequency domain.
Increasing severity of vibration levels required by ship owners, especially in the case of passenger
ships, implies more accurate vibration level prediction. First, second and in some cases third harmonic
of the propeller excitation have to be taken into account, broadening the frequency band to be studied
in numerical simulation. The corresponding number of modes to be calculated is increasing raising the
question of validity of modal methods. This paper presents the application of displacement but non-
modal methods initially developed at ONERA in France, to ship structures. They have the advantage
of using stiffness and mass matrices built from a standard finite element model as used for static or
modal analysis. Two methods will be described. In both methods the frequency domain is analysed by
frequency bands. Validation of the methods will be presented on test cases and application to a ship
model will be compared to traditional methods, in term of accuracy and performances. The extension
and limit of application of such methods will also be discussed.
KEYWORDS
Structural Vibration, Medium Frequency, Non-Modal Method, Energy Operator, Reduced Model.
1 INTRODUCTION
Evaluation of vibration level of ships, especially passenger ships, is of prime importance due to severe
ship owner requirements. Typical levels for vertical velocities of 1.5 mm.s·1 are now required for
cabins and public premises in a broad frequency band covering first and second harmonic of the
propeller induced excitation (typically 7-20Hz). Since mid seventies, modal methods applied to finite
1178
element models have been developed and widely used for the prediction of dynamic behavior of ships.
The effect of surrounding fluid is taken into account by semi-infinite fluid elements or boundary
equations, via added mass terms [Zienckiewicz & Newton 1969, Orsero & Armand 1979].
Though modern finite element software and computers allows for eigenmode analysis on large models,
it is necessary to use reduction techniques such as static condensation [Guyan 1965] or improved
methods [O'Callahan,1990] to filter out local modes. Large passenger's ships are becoming more
flexible, due to the presence of numerous windows and openings and inner open spaces (atrium,
theatre, restaurants, etc.). Even after condensation, the modal density is high and the number of needed
modes is increasing rapidly. In the frequency band of the propeller excitation, the modal density is
high and the frequency response does not always exhibit marked peaks, even if resonant response still
exists. This domain can then be referred to as medium frequency domain (MF), and classical low
frequency methods can hardly be applied, to achieve acceptable accuracy.
2 MEDIUM FREQUENCY DOMAIN PROBLEMATIC
The increasing complexity of large passenger ship structure and associated finite element models
produces a shift of the modal spectrum towards lower values. Usual propeller induced excitation enter
therefore into the medium frequency domain, with high but irregular modal density and highly coupled
modes as can be seen on figure I.
This domain may start about 15 Hz. The number of modes needed for the Ritz-Galerkin projection
becomes important and the presence of very close frequencies makes modal extraction numerically
difficult and costly. Finer meshes are also needed to capture higher frequencies, involving numerous
local modes in the frequency band of interest. The MF frequency domain cannot clearly be handled
using the methods of the low frequency domain on finer meshes and on a larger modal basis. On the
other side, energy methods used in the high frequency domain (Statistic Energy Analysis or Energy
Finite Element Formulation) cannot be easily adapted here due to the existence of resonance in the MF
domain. In the sequel, after a reminder of the classical modal formulation, two displacement methods
will be presented for the solution of the dynamic response in the MF domain.
3 DISPLACEMENT METHODS
3.1 Modal Frequency Method (Ritz-Galerkin)
The general dynamic problem to be solved is the following:

1179
(1)
(2)
Thanks to the orthogonal properties of the modes and assuming a modal damping ci=2~iCcr, relation (2)
is a set of uncoupled equations with [mJ, [eJ and [kJ diagonal. Then the accuracy of the response
computed here is depending on the quality of the modal basis X. Modal truncation correction is usually
performed improving the solution for low frequency, but it is necessary to compute modes up to a
frequency higher than the highest frequency component contained in the excitation. Typically, for a
large passenger ship model of 300,000 d.o.f, the 370111
frequency appears at 6.8Hz.When condensed on
]0,000 translational dof, 370 modes are contained up to 22Hz. The second harmonic frequency is
]8.4Hz. Using the same method for the response to the third harmonic (27.6Hz) is clearly intractable
Moreover, the accuracy of this modal approach, on a condensed model will be discussed in the sequel.
3.2 Non Modal Medium Frequency Method
As mentioned previously, modal methods are not adapted when modal density is high. The number of
modes to be computed would be high. For example, considering a 300,000 d.o.f model of a large
passenger ship, condensed on 30,000 translational degrees of freedom (which is needed according to
lRCN experience), the number of modes needed to cover the [0-30Hz] excitation band is about 600,
including modes up to 35Hz for accuracy reasons. Modes in the upper part of this band are very
sensitive to the mass distribution. But if the mass distribution of the steel part of the structure and
heavy equipments is well known and can be accurately modelized, this is not the case for outfitting and
lighter equipments. This non structural masses may represent more than half of the steel structure
weight and they are entered in the model by regional modification of the density. This uncertainty on
mass distribution leads to uncertainty on the eigenfrequencies and modes, mainly in the upper part of
the fiequency band raising the question of the validity of the modal basis. Hull girder modes are not
sensitive to this uncertainty, whichjustifies modal methods in the low frequency domain.
Non modal displacement methods have been developed in France at ONERA, in Christian Soize team.
These methods are based on finite element models and matrixes (stiffness, mass and damping)
developed for low frequency domain and are therefore good candidates to replace, classical modal
methods in the MF domain.
4 EVALUATION OF THE METHODS
4.1 Basic Test Case
In order to test the method, a first small size test case has been defined, built to present a modal density
similar to that of a typical passenger ship. Starting from a bar of constant section (ID model, 250 dot),
random stiffness perturbations have been introduced in order to obtain a target spectrum, derived from
a passenger ship, in the [0-25Hz] band. There are 22 modes in the [19-2IHz] band. A harmonic force
is applied at the free end of the bar. A reference solution was obtained by modal superposition using a
complete modal space of 250 modes.
Velocities at the free end of the bar are compared. The MF method gives very good results, with
slightly increasing error at the extremities of the band (Fig. 2). The two extreme values have to be
discarded. CPU time is in favour of the MF method in that case by several orders of magnitude.
4.2 Industrial Validation
A model of a small ship has been used for further evaluation of the MF method. The ship model
comprises 10,788 shell and beam elements leading to 20,172 dof(figure 3).
There are 22 modes in the 27-35 Hz band. The excitation is a nodal harmonic vertical force applied
above the propeller. Several cases have been compared:
1182
• Modal superposition on a model condensed on 3,200 dof, using a modal basis of 100 modes, up to
48 Hz
• Modal superposition on a model condensed on 3,200 dof, using a modal basis of 200 modes, up to
72Hz
• MF Soize method on a condensed model
• Direct frequency response
• Direct frequency response on a condensed model
Figure 4: Response (velocity) comparison in the 30-32Hz band
The direct frequency response is obtained by solving for each frequency OJ equation (I) and can be
considered as a reference solution, no approximation being done on the initial model. In the lO-13 Hz
band, splitted into 3 bands of 1Hz to comply with the 0.1£4, criteria, the difference between MSM and
MF method is lower than 3.7%. The comparison is more interesting in the 30-32Hz band, where the
modal density is higher. The figure 4 shows the results at the excited node (velocity), the summarized
in table I.
This table shows clearly the error induced by modal superposition method, even with a modal basis
more than 2 times the excitation frequency. Direct frequency and MF method give the same accuracy
Moreover, there is no restriction on damping in any of those 2 methods, which is interesting in
medium frequency domain. Direct frequency method can be very fast if the solver is
1183
well optimized. Nevertheless, the ftequency step must be small enough to capture possible resonance,
leading to a great number of factorization. In the MF formulation, the maximum bandwidth is
increasing with the central ftequency, which favours the method when ftequency is increasing.
TABLE I
VELOCITY COMPARISON
5 CONCLUSIONS
Dynamic response in medium frequency domain, with high modal density, cannot be accurately
obtained by traditional modal superposition methods. The displacement MF method presented here is a
suitable tool in and can follow after the previous one on the same finite element models. The model
reduction method has not yet been tested on an industrial case. Further work is needed to improve the
robustness and performances of the algorithm. Nevertheless, this method, as mentioned by its author
[Soize 1998b] can be a very powerful approach for the representation of structural-acoustic systems
with structural complexity (associated in ship structure to outfitting) and modal synthesis methods in
the MF domain. This reduced model could also be used in a non parametric approach of random
uncertainties [Soize 1999]. This problem is of prime importance in medium ftequency domain for
passenger ship structures: initial stresses, geometrical imperfections are ignored in the models and
outfitting, besides the uncertainty in the mass distribution, act as random resonant systems attached to
the main structure. There is a need for the construction of probabilistic models in order to compute
bounds for the dynamic response in the medium ftequency domain.
Acknowledgements
This publication is a result of a work sponsored by the French Ministry of Economy & Industry and
Chantiers de I'Atlantique.
References
Guyan R.J. (1965). Reduction of Stiffnessand Mass Matrices. AIAA Jnl, 3:2, 380.
Liu W.K., Zhang Y. & Ramirez M.R. (1991). Multiple Scale Finite Element Methods, International
Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 32, 969-990.
0' Callahan J. (1990). Comparison of Reduced Model Concepts, 8th Int. Modal Analysis Coni, Orlando,
Florida.
Orsero P., Armand J.L. (1978). A Numerical Determination of the Entrianed Water in Ship Vibrations,
International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 13.
Soize C. (1982). Medium Frequency Linear Vibrations of Anisotropic Elastic Structures, La
Recherche Aerospatiale (English edition), 5, 65-87.
Soize C. (l998a). Reduced Models in the Medium Frequency Range for General Dissipative
Structural-Dynamics Systems, EurJ Mech. A/Solids, 17:4, 657-685.
Soize C. (1998b). Reduced Models in the Medium Frequency Range for General Dissipative External
Structural-Acoustic Systems, 1. Acoust. Soc. Am., 103:4,3393-3406.
Soize C. (2000). A NonParametric Model for Random Uncertainties for Reduced Matrix Models in
Structural Dynamics, Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics, 15, 277-294.
Zienckiewicz O.c., Newton R.E.(1969). Coupled Vibration of a Structure Submerged in a
Compressible Fluid, Proc. Symposium on Finite Element Technique, ISD-ISSC, Stuttgart.
A NEW METHOD FOR DETERMINING

ACOUSTIC ADDED MASS AND DAMPING COEFFICIENTS OF
FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION
Q. Zhou'·, WZhang' and P.FJoseph2
'Huazhong University of Science and Technology,

NO.101, 339 Jie Fang Road, Wuhan 430033, China
2ISVR, University of Southampton, Highfield,
Southampton, SOl 7 IBJ, UK
ABSTRACT
According to the technique of potential decomposition, an uncoupled boundary element method has
been presented to solve the problem of fluid-structure interaction. Hydrodynamic forces exerted on
structural wetted surfaces are expressed as matrices of added mass and damping coefficients
respectively, which are independent of unknown structure variables. Symmetrical properties of added
mass and damping coefficients are given. The method presented is validated by comparing the
numerical results with theoretical results.
KEYWORDS
Acoustics, Noise, Sound, Numerical method, BEM, FEM, Fluid-structure interaction, Added mass,
Damping.
1 INTRODUCTION
Computational approach for computing added mass of fluid-structure interaction problem have been
reported by DeRunts & Geers (I978), Everstine (I 99 I). Both obtain the solution by solving Laplace's
equation in the low frequency regime. Their results are therefore only valid for incompressible fluid
without damping effects. The computation of acoustic added mass and damping coefficients for
compressible fluid without the low frequency limitation is still an unsolved problem, as pointed out by
Ali (I 995). In this paper, an uncoupled boundary element method is presented for the calculation of
the acoustic added mass and damping coefficients without the limitation oflow frequency.
The crux of solving fluid-structure interaction problems is how to uncouple the problem. In this paper
a new boundary element method is presented to achieve this. The method is based on the linearity of
the governing equations. The inertial and damping forces of fluid are dependent on the acceleration
and velocity on structure surface separately, but their added mass and damping coefficients, are
independent of the acceleration and velocity for a given frequency and a given structure surface.
Nevertheless, the situation is not as simple as a rigid body moving in fluids since the structure surface
1186
is generally elastic. So one must use superposition principle of linear equation to decompose velocity
potential of fluid into a sum of element potentials. This approach is called the potential decomposition
technique, a method widely used in ship-wave interaction problems presented by Salvesen (1970).
Also one can expect that the added mass will be very different ITom conventional mass since there is
something like mutual radiant impedance. So the acoustic added mass and damping coefficients are
two-dimension tensors.
Once the effective acoustic added mass and damping coefficients are known, the acoustic problem of
fluid-structure interaction can be easily solved by conventional FEM. This solving procedure is
different from those approaches presented by Seybert (1993), Everstine (1997) in that the mass and
damping matrices of fluid and structure can be simply added together to obtain the solution of fluid-
structure interaction problem. And also by the method presented herein the acoustic eigenvalue
analysis is possible for submerged structures.
2 GOVERNING EQUATIONS AND SPATIAL VELOCITY POTENTIAL
(I)
Under these conditions, the governing equation can be written as:
(2)
3 DECOMPOSITION OF VELOCITY POTENTIAL AND UNCOUPLING OF THE

PROBLEM
1195
References
Ali A., C. Rajakumar and S. M. Yunus (1995). Advances in acoustic eigenvalue analysis using
boundary element method. Computers & Structures 56:5,837-847.
DeRuntz J. A. and Geers T. L. (1978). Added mass computation by the boundary element method. In!.
J Numer. Meth. in Engrg 12 ,531-549.
Everstine G. C. (1991). Prediction of low frequency vibrational frequencies of submerged structures.
Journal of Vibration and Acoustics 113, 187-191.
Everstine G. C. (1997). Finite element formulations of structural acoustics problems. Computers &
Structures 65:3,307-321.
Morse P.M. (1948). Vibration and sound, 2nd ed. McGraw Book Company, Inc., New York.
Salvesen N., Tuck E. 0., Faltinsen O. (1970). Ship motion and sea loads. Trans. SNAME 78.
Schenck H. A. (1968). Improved integral formulation for acoustic radiation problems. the Journal of
the Acoustical Society of America 44, 41-58.
Seybert A. F., Wu T.W., Li W.L. (1993). Coupled FEM/BEM for fluid-structure interaction using Ritz
vectors and eigenvectors. Journal of Vibration, Acoustics, Stress, and Reliability in Design 115:2,
152-158 .
• The present address of first author: ISVR,Universityof Southampton,Highfield,Southampton,SOl7 IBJ, UK

VIBRATION PREDICTION OF RECTANGULAR TANK

STRUCTURES
Yu Takeda
Industrial Machine & Plant Development Center

Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.
I, Shin-Nakahara-Cho, Isogo-Ku, Yokohama, 235-8501,Japan
ABSTRACT
Heavy vibration of tank structures in way of engine room or aft region is sometimes caused by the
decrease of natural frequency of tank wall. On the basis of investigations, it is clarified that the natural
frequency of fundamental mode of rectangular tank may be reduced than the designed frequency due
to the increase of added mass induced by hydro-elastic interactions. This paper describes the
mechanism to cause this hydro-elastic interaction, in view of narrow shape of tank, effect of multi tiers,
effect of coupling between panel and stiffeners, and effect of thermal stress. Also vibration prediction
method is proposed for practical design purpose and its accuracy is verified by FE analysis.
KEYWORDS
Natural frequency, Hydroelastic interaction, Rectangular tank, Breath mode, Fundamental mode,
Added mass, Multi tiers, Coupling mode between panel and stiffener, Narrow tank, Thermal stress
1 INTRODUCTION
Recently heavy vibration of tank structures in way of engine room or aft region is sometimes caused
by the decrease of main engine revolutions or by the reduction of main engine's cylinder numbers or
by the increased power of main engine per cylinder. Such vibration in the tank structure results in
leakage of fuel oil or water due to the structural failures of tank integrity, therefore, tank vibration is an
important problem.
Fig.l shows the structural damages caused by this vibration in way of vertical stiffener at bracket toe
attached on 2nd deck in drinking water tank of a VLCC, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (1998).
These vibrations are induced by the resonance of the natural frequency of the tank structures with the
exciting frequency of main engine or of the propeller blade, however, that phenomenon is quite curious,
since the tank structure had been designed so as to avoid the resonance with these exciting forces.
Therefore, natural frequency of the tank structure in actual condition may be reduced than the designed
frequency.
1198
In order to clarify the reason of this phoenomenon, several investigations were carried out and then the
mechanism of this resonance can be explained. Furthermore, on the basis of these investigations,
practical prediction method of the natural frequency of tank panel structures is proposed.
2 CLASSIFICATION OF DAMAGE CAUSES
Regarding the causes of vibration damage in rectangular tanks, investigations were carried out to
clarify the mechanism of vibration. While details of investigation can be referred to the relevant papers,
overview of the vibration causes is summarized in this paper. In case that the tank wall vibrates heavily,
many of the cases are brought by the resonance between the exciting frequency and the reduced natural
frequency of fundamental vibration mode of the tank wall. The reduction of the natural frequency of
fundamental mode is caused by increase of added mass based on the hydro-elastic interactions. This
interaction is induced by the foIlowing factors:
2.1 Narrow Shape of Tank
When the rectangular tank is fiIled with fluid and the distance of a pair of opposite side waIls is short,
movement of these walls interferes each other through the fluid, which results in the rise of fluid
pressure, Kito (1959). This rise of pressure causes the increase of added mass of fluid and then it
reduces the natural frequency of the tank wall. There may be two types of vibration mode of the
opposite side waIl, i.e. in-phase mode and out-phase mode, however, the fundamental mode is
out-phase because the added mass of out-phase mode is always larger than that of in-phase. Therefore,
out-phase mode of vibration in side wall appears as fundamental mode as shown in Fig.2. This mode is
recently caIled "Breath Mode" by Bae, Yasuzawa and Kagawa (2000). In this manner, the natural
frequency of tank waIl should be predicted considering the change of added mass according to the tank
size.
2.2 Effect of Multi Tiers

Tanks in engine room tend to have talI and slender shape, as a result of the restriction of space. These
1199
tall tanks are reinforced by horizontal stringers and the tank becomes multi-tiered tanks. The tank is
rigidly supported by the stringers but not tightened, therefore, the fluid is able to move freely from a
tier to another tier. In this multi-tiered tanks, oscillation of upper and lower walls causes the increase of
added mass of "Breath Mode".
Hence the fundamental vibration mode of multi-tiered tanks becomes in-phase mode between upper
and lower wall and out-phase mode of opposite walls as illustrated in Fig.3. One example of
calculation shows that the added mass coefficient, which means the percentage of effective tank
volume acting as added mass. In case of the two tiered tanks vibrating in "Breath Mode", added mass
coefficient increases to about 3 times of that of single tier tank as shown in FigA, Takeda (1999).
2.3 Effect of Interference between Adjacent Structures
Increase of added mass due to the hydro-elastic interaction between adjacent structures may appear not
only in upper and lower tank wall but also in the interference between side wall and bottom plate or in
the interference between side wall and adjacent side wall.
2.4 Effect of Coupling between Panel and Stiffener
Fundamental vibration mode of stiffened wall is usually considered to be a panel vibration mode "p"
or stiffened plate vibration mode "s" as illustrated in Fig.5. However, panel and stiffener coupling
mode of vibration "sp" would appear in tank wall contacting with fluid as fundamental vibration mode,
Takeda and Niwa (2000). This phenomenon is caused by the increase of added mass in "sp" mode due
to the tank dimension. In case that the tank dimension, L in length, B in breadth and H in height,
satisfies the following condition, "sp" mode would appear as fundamental mode.
BjL<0.5 or HjL>0.5 (I)

If such vibration mode occurs, it may easily cause structural failure, since the bending stress of plate
becomes high at the connection with stiffener due to the clamped edge.
2.5 Effect of Thermal Stress
Although this factor is not classified as hydro-elastic interaction, it sometimes causes serious damage
due to the reduction of natural frequency. In case of fuel oil tank, in particular heavy fuel oil tank, the
tank is always heated in order to reduce the viscosity of fuel oil. Whereas the panels of the fuel oil
settling tank will extend due to heated oil, surrounding structure of the tank, such as bulkheads or flats,
1200
are in normal temperature. Thus the extension of tank structure is restricted by flats or bulkheads,
therefore, thermal stress of the heated tank generates compressive stress in tank panel.
It is known that the compressive stress reduces the natural frequency of tank panel. In the failure
analysis of a heavy fuel oil settling tank of a VLCC, it is reported that the natural frequency of a panel
under thermal stress of 0.7 times of critical buckling stress is reduced to about half of the original
frequency, Takeda (1999).
3 NATURAL FREQUENCY OF COUPLED VIBRATION
3.1 Prediction Method
Let us assume a rectangular tank whose length is L, breadth is B, height is H, consist of two opposite
walls reinforced by stiffeners of number n-I as represented in Fig.6, then the strain energy of stiffened
wall is obtained in the following equation, Takeda and Niwa (2000):
Figure 6: Stiffened rectangular tank Figure 7: Coupling mode of panel and stiffener
Kinetic energy of stiffened wall contacting with fluid can be expressed as a sum of kinetic energy of
1202
3.2 Accuracy of Prediction Method

In order to confirm the accuracy of this prediction method, natural frequency calculation of the
rectangular tank is carried out by FEM as illustrated in Fig.8. The tank size is 4m in length, 3m in
breadth and 3m in height, of which opposite walls are reinforced by 3 vertical stiffeners. The tank is
filled with water up to the top but the water has free surface. In Fig.8, a pair of side walls and a bottom
plate are rigid wall represented by cross-hatching. The water is modeled as virtual mass.
Calculated fundamental mode by FE analysis is shown in Fig.9 and comparison of the natural
frequency by FE analysis and the present method is listed in Table 2. According to Fig.9, fundamental
mode of this tank is "Breath Mode", namely the opposite walls vibrate in out-phase mode and the
coupling mode "sp" appears. While natural frequency of 9.10Hz is obtained by FEM, 8.66Hz is
calculated by the present method, which means 5% error.
Natural frequency: 9.l0Hz
Figure 8: FEM model of rectangular tank Figure 9: Calculated fundamental mode

(Natural frequency: 9. 10Hz)
TABLE 2
COMPARISON OF ESTIMATED NATURAL FREQUENCY
Unit : Hz
Mode FEM (N Present method (8) Error (8/ N
fsp 9.1 8.66 0.95
1) On the basis of several investigations, it is clarified that the natural frequency of fundamental mode
of rectangular tank structure may be reduced than the designed frequency due to the following reasons:
• Narrow shape of tank
• Effect of multi tiers
• Effect of interference between adjacent structures
• Effect of coupling between panel and stiffeners
• Effect of thermal stress
2) Vibration prediction using energy method is proposed for practical design purpose and its accuracy
is confirmed by FE analysis.
References
Bae S. Y., Yasuzawa Y. and Kagawa K. (2000), Breath Mode and Pressure Distribution in
Fluid-Structure Coupled Vibration. Trans. of The West-Japan Society of Naval Architects, 99,
211-223. (in Japanese)
Kito F. (1959), On Vibration of a Rectangular Tank Filled with Water. Journal of the Society of Naval
Architects of Japan, 107,75-82. (in Japanese)
Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (1998), Casualty Review.
Takeda Y. (1999), Natural Frequency of Multi-Tiered Tanks Subjected to Thermal Stress. Proc. of
TEAM99 in Keelun, 41-50.
Takeda Y. and Niwa F. (2000), Fundamental Vibration Modes of Stiffened Tank Plate in Contact with
Fluid. Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Japan, 188,569-577. (in Japanese)
INFLUENCE OF JOURNAL BEARING MODELLING METHOD

ON SHAFT LINE ALIGNMENT AND WHIRLING VIBRATIONS
L. Murawski
Institute of Fluid Flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences,

14 Fiszera, 80-952 Gdansk, Poland
Ship Design and Research Centre,
8 Rzeczypospolitej, 80-369 Gdansk, Poland
ABSTRACT
Calculation correctness of journal bearings stiff characteristics is one of the most important data during
static and dynamic analysis of a marine power transmission system. Especially shaft line alignment
and whirling vibration analysis are sensitive to proper boundary conditions determination. Nowadays it
is still difficult to find out realistic data of the all shaft line foundations characteristics. Three elements
are analysed in the paper: local hull stiffness, stiffness of intermediate bearing frame and lube oil stiff
characteristics.
Stem part of a container ship is modelled and analysed by Patran - Nastran software (finite element
method). There is calculated static and dynamic stiffness of a stem tube bearing and stiffness of an
intermediate bearing foundation. In the next part of the paper there are shown analysis of intermediate
bearings frame stiffness. Natural vibration analysis show that construction detuning from excitation
forces is very good, then only static stiff calculations have been done. Specialised software (based on
finite difference method) has been made by author to determining lube oil stiff characteristics of
journal bearings. There are analysed stem and intermediate bearings. Calculated static and dynamic
pressure distribution determined horizontal and vertical stiff distribution along bearing length.
Analysis has been done as a function of shaft line revolutions and bearings deflections.
Several analysis of shaft line alignment and whirling vibrations of typical marine power transmission
system have been done. Influence of different boundary conditions modelling method as well as shaft
line's operation conditions on calculations results have been analysed. In author's opinion, stiffness
characteristics should be taken into account during static and dynamic calculations of the shaft line
alignment and lateral vibrations. Stem tube bearings should be modelled as a continuous support,
intermediate bearings' and main engine bearings' support could be modelled as points.
KEYWORDS
Shaft line alignment, Whirling vibrations, Stem tube bearing, Intermediate bearing, Journal bearing,
Boundary conditions, Stiffness characteristics.
1206
1 STIFFNESS OF A BEARINGS FOUNDATION
Stem part ofa container ship 2000 TED has been modelled (fig. 1) and analysed. The model contained
134708 degrees of freedom. Added water has been taken into account. Excitation forces are placed at
the: stem (k8) and bow (kII) edge of a stem tube bearing, stem collision bulkhead (k16) and
intermediate bearing (k20). Static stiffness is shown in the table 1 in each of above points. Dynamic
stiff characteristics of the bearing's foundation are shown in fig. 2.
3 FILM OIL CHARACTERISTICS
Action of a power transmission system of the container ship (the same as in the previous chapters) has
been analysed. Oil film characteristics (stiff and damping) of a stem tube bearing and intermediate
bearing has been modelled. Stem tube bearing's dynamic pressure distribution in nominal speed
(95 rpm) and design shaft line alignment (+1.75 mm) is shown in fig. 4 (assumptions: 0 m - stem edge,
o deg. - top point). Vertical stiffuess distribution along stem tube bearing as a shaft line revolutions
function is shown on fig 5. Also stiffuess - shaft line alignment (bearing's relative vertical shift)
dependence is shown on fig 5. Dynamic characteristics have been calculated for the first propeller's
blade (5 blade) harmonic excitation frequency. Absolute values of the stem tube bearing's oil film
static and dynamic stiffness and damping are shown in the table 3. The same values for the
intermediate bearing are shown in the table 4.
4 ANALYSIS OF SHAFT LINE ALIGNMENT AND WHIRLING VIBRATIONS
Specialised software (based on finite element method) has been made by author for a shaft line
alignment and whirling vibration calculations. Power transmission system of the container ship (the
same as in the previous chapters) has been analysed. The model and example of shaft line's
deformations is shown on fig 6.
Influence of different boundary conditions (especially stiff and damping characteristics of propulsion's
bearings) has been determined. The following seven variants of calculations have been done: 1-
classical model- bearings modelled as pointwise ideal stiff support; 2 - shaft line's support elasticity,
determined in the previous chapters is used, stem tube bearing is modelled as a continuous support; 3 -
all bearings are modelled as a continuous support, rest assumptions the same as 2; 4 - calculations are
limited to the vertical plane, rest assumptions the same as 3; 5 - main engine bearings are modelled as
pointwise ideal stiff support (producers recommendation), rest assumptions the same as 3; 6-
simplified, rectangular stiff distribution in bearings' models, rest assumptions the same as 3; 7 - all
bearing's stiffness are multiplied by 2.0, rest assumptions the same as 3. Crankshaft loading (by shear
forces and bending moments) and shaft line vertical absolute deformation for above mentioned
variants are shown in fig. 7.
In the next step shaft line alignment and whirling vibrations in different operation conditions have
been analysed. The model described in point 3 is used. Variants from hot main engine conditions in
nominal speed to zero speed cold conditions are calculated. Bearings' vertical, static and dynamic
reactions are shown in fig. 8. No. I and 2 mark stern tube bearing (stern and aft edge); no. 3 -
intermediate bearing; no. 4, 5 and 6 first main engine's bearings.
5 SUMMARY
Numerical analysis has been verified by measurements. Three different experimental investigation
methods of propulsion shaft alignment are used and compared. The first method (standard method
used in the shipyard) is based on the direst determination of bearing reaction by measuring pressure on
a hydraulic jack. The second one is based on the identification of shafting alignment by measuring
bending stress in the two points of an intermediate shaft. The last attempt at the direct extensometric
measurement of intermediate bearing reaction by determining the strain in the bearing foundation pads.
1211
Measurements and numerical analysis (with bearings stiff characteristics taken into consideration)
have got good correlation in cold main engine condition. Also the influence of an engine thermal
conditions in the bearing reaction level was confirmed. The influence of ship ballast condition in the
shafting alignment, not taken into account so far, seems not to be negligible. The influence of the blade
components of the propeller-induced hydrodynamic forces on the power transmission system in
question is small. However accounting for the constant components of hydrodynamic forces is
reasonable.
Shaft line alignment analysis could be confined to one, vertical plane for most of the ships. Multiplane
calculations have to be done only if horizontal hydrodynamic forces are not negligible. During shaft
line alignment analysis correct distribution of the oil film pressure should be taken into consideration
as well as bearing's reaction distribution and crankshaft loading. The same level of Sommerfeld
number should be reached in each propulsion bearing. Not only do static shaft alignment have to be
analysed but also dynamic parameters '(whirling vibrations) should be calculated. Especially problem
of detaching shaft neck from bearing pipe should be analysed.
In author's opinion, stiffness and damping characteristics should be taken into account during static
and dynamic analysis of the shaft line alignment and whirling vibrations, It is essential while shaft line
alignment is performed in the dock or on the slipway. Stem tube bearings should be modelled as a
continuous support, intermediate bearings' and main engine bearings' support could be modelled as
points. Hull's local stiffness, intermediate bearing's frame and oil film stiffness are in the same order
of magnitude, therefore all this components should be taken into account. Foundation stiffness might
be determined by modelling only stem part of the ship's hull even without deckhouse and chimney (to
the upper deck). Natural frequencies of the intermediate bearing's frame are high, therefore only static
analysis could be done.
References
(1995). Shaft Alignment for Direct Coupled Low-Speed Diesel Propulsion Plants. MAN B& W Diesel
A/S,Copenhagen, Denmark.
Cowper B., DaCosta A., Bobyn S. (1999). Shaft Alignment Using Strain Gages: Case Studies. Marine
Technology, 36:2, 77-91.
Murawski L. (1997). Analysis of Measurement Methods and Influence of Propulsion Plant Working
Parameters on Ship Shafting Alignment. Polish Maritime Research 4:2 and 3, 19-22 and 15-20.
Pressicaud J.P. (1986). Correlation Between Theory and Reality in Alignment of Line Shafting.
Bureau Veritas, Paris, France.
Volcy G.C. (1976). Forced Vibrations of The Hull and Rational Alignment of The Propeller Shaft.
Bureau Veritas, Paris, France.
Volcy G.C., Ville R. (1981). Actual Tail Shaft Behaviour on Oil Film Taking Account of Propeller
Forces and Moments. Bureau Veritas, Paris, France.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON RESISTANCE REDUCTION

AND VIBRATION REDUCTION BY BUBBLY LAYER
Wen-Cai Dong, Fan Wu, Yun-Xiang Zhu and Ri-xiu Ouo
Dept.ofNaval Architecture and Ocean Eng'g, Naval university ofEng'g

Wuhan 430033, China.
ABSTRACT
There are two parts in this paper. The first part presents the experimental study on flow in Air-liquid
two phase mixed boundary layer of flat plate. The flow field is visualized by light sheet in low
turbulence water tunnel. The horizontal velocity and thickness of the boundary layer at the outermost
edge are measured by Laser Doppler Velocity technique. The influence on flow field 'by plate
orientation, tree stream velocity and form of air injection are studied. The results show that the
thickness of the boundary layer increases as air flow rate increases, the velocity at the outermost edge
of the boundary layer decreases due to air injection. The second part presents the experimental study
on vibration reduction of ship hull model by bubbly layer. The experiment was carried out in a
circulating flow water tarue The effect of bubbly layer on free vibration, on response of forced
vibration and on damping of hull model are measured under several selected variations of model draft,
air injecting pore size, air flow rate, and water flow velocity. The results show that the response of
forced vibration of ship hull model is effectively reduced by bubbly layer, the maximum reduction is
about 50%.
KEYWORDS
Resistance reduction, Vibration reduction, Bubbly layer, Air injection, Air-liquid two phase mixed
boundary layer, LDV technique
1 INTRODUCTION
A thin bubbly layer, formed by injecting air between ship's bottom and water, can affect ship
resistance, vibration response and noise of ship structures. To study these effects of bubbly layer and to
investigate their mechanism, problems of ship structure-bubbly layer-liquid interactions were
highlighted by researchers in the field of ship mechanics in last two decades. The main researches
carried out by the authors in this field in recent years are presented in Zhu & Ouo (1994, 1996a, I 996b )
and Dong et aI (1999, 2000a, 2000b)
Experimental study on resistance reduction of flat plat by bubbly layer (Dong & Ouo 1999) indicates
1214
that the local frictional resistance is effectively reduced by bubbly layer, the maximum reduction is
about 80%. In order to investigate the flow characteristics of bubbly layer, which is a mixed flow of air
and liquid, especially to investigate the mechanism of resistance reduction by bubbly layer, the authors
carried out an experimental study on flow in air-liquid mixed boundary layer of flat plate.
It is reported that the bubbly layer can reduce vibration response of ship's afterbody, which is observed
during a test of noise control of ship propeller by bubbly layer (Zhao et al 1990), but Zhao et al did not
study the phenomena of vibration reduction further. In order to investigate the effect of bubbly layer on
vibration reduction of ship hull, the authors carried out an experimental study on vibration reduction of
ship model by bubbly layer.
In this paper, the experimental studies on resistance reduction and on vibration reduction by bubbly
layer are presented separately.
2 EXPERIMENT ON FLOW IN AIR-LIQUID TWO PHASE MIXED BOUNDARY LAYER
2.1 Experimental Setup
The experiment was conducted in the low turbulence water tunnel (400mmX400mm X6000mm) at
State Key Laboratory on Turbulence Research of Peking University. The free stream velocity ranges
from IOmm/s to 1300mm/s; the turbulence is less than 0.3%.
The test plate is made of perspex, with oval-shaped leading edge and beveled trailing edge in
longitudinal section. The dimensions of the test plate are 1200mm X380mm X 10mm. A porous panel
(70mm X 130mm) is placed at 4lOmm from the leading edge. The sketch of the setup is shown in Fig. I.
The free stream velocity U is measured at section in front of the leading edge by 1080mm.
The porous panel is a stainless steel plate, on which pores are scribed by means of laser. The pores are
oval in shape, spaced at 1.5mm center to center, their nominal diameters have 3 variations, O.llmm,
0.2mm, O.5mm respectively.
The flow is visualized by light sheets, which are projected to the lower surface of the test plate from
the sides near the bottom of the tunnel. The recorder lens and camera lens are placed just under the
lower surface of the test plate. The flow velocity at test section is measured by Laser Doppler Velocity
technique. The laser is perpendicularly projected to the central longitudinal plane of the tunnel. The
airflow rate Q is measured by a LZDH-15 metal rotameter, its maximum range is 10m3 /h.
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2.2 Results and Discussions
2.2.1 Flow visualization
The influences on the flow field of air -liquid two phase mixed boundary layer by 3 variations of free
stream velocity, 3 variations of pore size, different plate orientation (horizontal, trim 5°, heel 7.5°), and
by variation of air flow rate are studied by flow visualization technique. The typical flow field
photographs for O.5mmpore size are shown in fig.2 - fig.5.
Fig. 2: Q=lm3fh ,U=O.84m/s Fig.3 Q=4 m3fh, U=1.29 m/s
Fig.4 Q=l m%, U=1.29 m/s, heel Fig.5 Q=4 m%, U= 1.29 m/s, heel
The flow visualizations show that: (1) When plate is placed horizontally, the air-liquid two phase
mixed flow starts from the air injection section, extends longitudinally, diffuses transversely along the
downstream. The diffuse range in transverse direction increases as airflow rate increases, but decreases
as free stream velocity increases. (2) The air bubbles are ellipsoidal approximately, their diameters
range from O.3mm to IOmm. The bubble size increases as airflow rate increases, decreases as free
stream velocity increases, but is little affected by pore size, when free stream velocity exceeds a certain
value. (3) When plate is at trim condition and when the free stream velocity is less than O.8m/s, the
mixed flow behaves as crescent or triangular air sheet, air leaks out from both sides of the test plate
near the air injection section. The length of air sheet decreases as airflow rate increases. When free
stream velocity exceeds a certain value, the flow pattern for test plate at trim condition is very similar
to that for plate at horizontal condition, but the length of mixed boundary layer for plate at trim
condition is somewhat shorter than that for plate at horizontal condition. (4) When plate is at heel
condition, the mixed flow is biased towards rising along heel direction, further more, when airflow rate
exceeds a certain value, vortices are formed, which start from air injection section, and diffuse away
downstream.
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2.2.2 Velocity of flow field and thickness of mixed boundary layer

The horizontal velocity and thickness of mixed boundary layer Ii at the outermost edge are measured
for 3 variations of free stream velocity (0.5m/s, 0.8m/s, Um/s), 2 variations of air injection pore size
(O.llmm, 0.5mm) and different plate orientation. The thickness of mixed boundary layer given in fig.6
and fig.7 corresponds to plate in horizontal position and with 0.11mm air injection pores; x, in these
figures, is measured from the leading edge of the plate.
The results show that the horizontal velocity at the outermost edge of mixed boundary layer decreases
due to air injection. The average decrease is about 8%; the thickness of the mixed boundary layer
increases as airflow rate increases, decrease as free stream velocity increases.
In air liquid mixed boundary layer, the reduction of skin friction is related to the inhibition of
turbulence in liquid phase. The factors governing the variation of turbulence in liquid phase are as
follows: (I) the wake flow generated due to change of bubbles shape, (2) change of momentum due to
partial volume of inflow liquid being displaced by air bubbles, (3) bubble resistance arising from the
difference in velocities between air and liquid phases, (4)dissipation of turbulent energy due to change
of volume or shape of bubbles. The first and second factor promotes turbulence, the third and fourth
factor suppresses turbulence. When the bubble shapes change very small, the first factor can be
neglected. When bubbles sizes are significantly smaller than the characteristic length of turbulence, the
turbulence is suppressed. The main factor to the inhibition of turbulence is the bubble resistance. The
reduction of horizontal velocity at the outermost edge of mixed boundary layer and the increment in
thickness of boundary layer reveal that the flow field structure of the boundary layer of flat plate is
changed by air injection.
3 EXPERIMENT ON VIBRATION REDUCTION OF SHIP MODEL BY BUBBLY LAYER
3.1 Experimental Model
The model is made of Aluminum plate. It has the following main dimensions: length 320cm, breadth
47cm; depth 3lcm, plate thickness 0.12cm, rib 20 X 20 X I.2mm, rib spacing 15cm. The bow
compartment of the model, 50cm in length, is water tight for air injection. A porous panel is placed at
the bottom of the bow compartment. There are two different designs of the panel, one is of pores with
diameter D 1.2mm, the other, pore diameter O.5mm. The instrumentation setup and the location of
measurement points are shown in fig.8.
3.2 Experimental Procedures
The experiment was carried out in a circulating flow water tank. The natural frequency of the model is
measured under 2 variations of flow velocitr(1.0m/s, 1.5m/s), 2 variations of drafts(light draft, loaded
draft) and 5 variations of air flow rate (1.0m /h, 1.5m3/h, 2.0 m3/h, 3.0 m3/h, 5.0 m3/h). Impose on the
model a periodic force with frequency equal to the resonance frequency of the model, on which
different bubbly layer is applied. The corresponding dynamic responses are measured. The periodic
exciting force is unloaded suddenly when the model is in steady state of resonance. Then the damping
process is recorded.
3.3 Results of the Experiment and Analysis
3.3.1 The effect of bubbly layer on natural frequency of the model
The stem of the model is hammered in loaded draft state. The natural frequency is measured under two
variations of water flow velocity and three variations of air flow rates. The results are shown in table I.
TABLE I
NATURAL FREQUENCY OF THE MODEL
Serial number U (m/s) Q (m3/h) Mode 1 (HZ) Mode 2 (HZ)

1 0 0 170.0 375
2 1 0 172.5 373.75
3 I 1 171.25 368.75
4 1 3 170.00 372.50
5 1 5 172.5 362.5
6 1.5 0 173.75 375.00
7 1.5 1 172.50 373.75
8 1.5 3 172.50 375.00
9 1.5 5 177.50 381.25
From table I, we can see that the change of natural frequency under different flow velocity and air
flow rate are not significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that the effect of bubbly layer on natural
frequency of the model can be neglected.
3.3.2 The effect of bubbly layer on responses of forced vibration of the model
When exciting force is imposed with frequency equal to the first natural frequency of the model, the
accelerations (effective value) at the measurement points 1,3,6, 10, under different loading conditions
are shown in figure 9. When the exciting force with frequency equal to 2nd natural frequency, the
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acceleration responses are shown in figure 10. From these figures, we can see that the bubbly layer has
significant reduction effect on the dynamic response of the model under periodic exciting force. The
maximum reduction of vibration response is about 50%.
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3.3.3 The effect of bubbly layer on damping
The damping process of the vibration responses at the measurement points is recorded when the
exciting force with resonance frequency of the model is unloaded suddenly. Based on the linear
damping theory, the equivalent viscous damping at measurement points 6 and 10 are calculated, as
shown in table 2. From table 2, we can see that the bubbly layer can increase the damping of the model
vibration in some extent.
TABLE 2
EQUIV ALENT VISCOUS DAMPING
4 CONCLUSIONS
(I) The reduction of skin friction of flat plate by bubbly layer is due to the inhibition of turbulence in
the liquid phase. (2) The bubbly layer has very small effect on free vibration of ship model ,but it can
effectively reduce the vibration response of the model under periodic exciting force. The maximum
reduction of vibration response is about 50%. (3) The bubbly layer has an effect on increasing the
damping of the model vibration in some extent. (4) it is worthwhile to carry out further study on the
application of bubbly layer to resistance reduction of high speed crafts and flat bottom barges and to
vibration reduction of ship structure.
References
Dong W.C. & Guo RX (1999). Experimental Study on the Skin Friction Reduction of Flat Plate
by Formation of Air Cavity. Proc., International Workshop on Ship Hydrodynamics, 21-27. Wuhan.
Dong W.C., Guo RX and Liu X.W. (2000a).Air Injection on the Bottom of Stepped Planing Craft
and Its Effect on Resistance. Journal of Ship Mechanics 4:3,36-42.
Dong W.C., Guo R.X. and Liu X.W. (2000b). Effects of Different Air Injection Technique on
Resistance of Stepped Planing Boat. Shipbuilding of China 41:2, 8-14.(in Chinese).
Zhao X.R., Zhang W.G., Li D.R., Hao Y.W. and Wang H.B.(1990). The Experimental Research of
Air -Bubble Curtains for Reduction the Propeller Noise and the Stem Hull Vibration. Shipbuilding
of China, Supplement, 178-186.(in Chinese)
Zhu YX and Guo R.X.(1994). Basic Equation of a Simplified Theory of Air-Liquid Two Phase
Flow. Proceedings, Chinese Symposium on Hydrodynamics 621-625, Ocean Press.(in Chinese)
Zhu Y.x. and Guo R.X.(1996a). Vibration of Elastic Spherical Shell in Bubbly Layer. Journal of
Vibration Engineering 9:3,237-243. (in Chinese).
Zhu YX. and Guo R.X.(1996b). Hydroelastic Analysis of Structure-Bubbly Layer-Liquid
Interaction Problems, Journal of Solid Mechanics 17:2, 157-162.(in Chinese)
APPLICATION OF HIGHER ORDER BALANCER TO

CONTROL THE SUPERSTRUCTURE VIBRATION
OF A CONTAINER SHIP
Soo-Mok Lee, Won-Hyun Kim and Kyoon-Yang Chung
Maritime Research Institute, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.

1 Cheonha-Dong, Dong-ku, Ulsan 682-792, Korea
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of analysis, measurement and countermeasure to solve the vibration
problem predicted in the superstructure of a 4,800 TED container carrier. The main reason of vibration
was due to the resonance between the deckhouse longitudinal vibration mode and the 4th order main
engine unbalance moment. Detailed analysis based on 3-dimensional FE model was performed for the
vibration prediction and onboard measurement and exciter test were done for confirmation and
identification. The 4th order mechanical balancer was installed to compensate engine excitation and
reduce deckhouse vibration. As consequences it was found effective in reducing the vibration level to
the allowable limit but resultant vibration was still not negligible seemingly due to the shaft thrust
excitation. It was further considered to determine the optimal phase of the balancer control, which
gives minimal deckhouse vibration through phase vector analysis method.
KEYWORDS
4,800 TED container carrier, Deckhouse vibration, Main engine unbalance moment, Finite element m
odel, Exciter test, 4th Order balancer, Phase vector analysis
1 INTRODUCTION
It is often the general mechanism of ship structural vibration that the global or substructural vibration
mode is resonant with main excitation sources of the ship as main engine and propeller. Of these
substructures the deckhouse is.of primary concern being normal accommodation space for crew's work
and rest and its vibration is subject to evaluation under ISO 6954 standard [1] which has recently been
revised. This paper deals with prediction and solution of the deckhouse vibration of a 4,800 TED
container ship due to main engine excitation. Some excessive vibration exceeding the allowable limit
in main operation range was predicted through the analysis and an appropriate measure to reduce the
vibration was required.
As is often the case in the vibration problem, the vibration mode, excitation and solution were all
different from existing cases which were worth to note and discuss herein. Natural frequency of the
deckhouse was lower than any conventional one which gave the possibility of resonance with lower
1222
frequency excitation. Fourth order main engine inertial moment which seldom becomes a magnitude to
be a vibration source was the main source of excitation. And higher order mechanical balancer was
newly introduced to control the vibration in actual application.
Detailed vibration analyses with 3-dimensional FE model were performed for prediction and followed
by various onboard tests and measurements for experimental confirmation. Phase vector analysis was
applied in the determination of optimal phase of the balancer. Main particulars of the ship are
presented in Table I for reference.
TABLE I
MAIN PARTICULARS OF THE SHIP
Ship Type 4,800 TEU container carrier

L.O.A. 294.1 m
L.B.P. 283.2 m
Bmld 32.2 m
Dmld 21.8 m
Design Draft 12.0m
Main Engine HYUNDAI-B&W 7K98MC
MCR 54,460 BHP x 94.0 RPM
NCR 47,000 BHP x 89.5 RPM
Propeller EP.P
No. of Blade 5
Diameter 804m
2 VIBRATION ANALYSIS
2.1 Analysis Model
Finite element model for vibration analysis included whole ship structure of aft end, engine room, deck
house, hold and fore end with simpler main engine model. Both sides of symmetric ship structure were
modeled with the size of 5476 nodes and 14332 elements with plates and beams. The model is shown
in Figure I.
Figure I : Model for vibration analysis

2.2 Excitation
Excitations in global ship vibration come from the main engine and propeller where main engine
excitation shows multiple of engine revolution speed and the propeller excitation has blade passing
frequency and its multiples. In this case, the excitation of concern was main engine unbalance moment
coming from the inertial forces of engine moving masses. Usually the first and second order
1223
components are significant which sometimes needs counterbalancing or compensation but fourth order
component was specially significant in this 7-cylindered engine with large bore and super-long stroke.
The basic vibration concern in the design stage was the resonance of deckhouse longitudinal vibration
mode and 4th order engine unbalance moment.
Another 4th order excitation comes from the thrust force by the shaft axial vibration. Shaft thrust force
does not have uniform or simple variation with respect to engine speed whereas the engine unbalance
moment as well as the balancer force have exact proportionality to the square of the engine speed.
Usually the shaft thrust is not clearly predictable as the engine unbalance moment so that it is more
practical way to determine from the experimental method in onboard measurement.
The location and direction of major excitations related with deckhouse vibration are illustrated in
Figure 2.
2.3 Mode and Response Analysis
Natural frequencies and mode shapes were extracted from the normal mode analysis of structural
model. Lanczos algorithm and virtual mass capability of MSC/NASTRAN were used to solve the
eigenvalue problem and fluid-structure interaction problem due to the added mass effect of
surrounding water respectively [2].
Vibration response was predicted with assumed excitations. Response of navigation bridge deck
usually chosen as the reference point of the vibration evaluation was predicted to exceed the allowable
limit due to the resonance between deckhouse longitudinal mode and the fourth order engine excitation.
In Figure 3 the expected responses of deckhouse by the main engine unbalance moment M 4V and
shaft axial force F4A are presented separately in a range of engine speed. It was expected that the
amplitudes of vibration by the engine and the shaft are nearly in same level and both exceed the
allowable limit of 4 mm/s in main operation range.
1224
3 VIBRATION MEASUREMENT
3.1 Tests and Measurements
Exciter tests were performed to identify the vibration characteristics experimentally. As shown in
Figure 2, a counter-rotating mechanical exciter of 15 ton capacity was installed and operated in the
upper deck aft end for vertical excitation while vibration measurements of the major response points
were being done to find out the vibration characteristics of each substructures including mode,
resonance range, mobility and phase information, etc. Vibration measurement during the sea trial test
was made in ballast condition for full speed range. It was found out that the 4th order component
vibration is most dominant as expected in the analysis.
3.2 Comparison with Analysis Results
Generally good coincidences were found between analysis and measurement results. The transfer
frequency response function between 'the aft end vertical excitation and deckhouse longitudinal
response is shown in Figure 4. It showed good coincidence below 5 Hz where for hull girder beam
mode governs and above 7.5 Hz for non-resonant frequency range. Intermediate frequency zone
between 5-7.5 Hz showed some discrepancies mainly due to the estimation error in deckhouse stiffness
and other factors. Another comparison in actual response of deckhouse for the 4th order component is
presented in Figure 5 where the level and trend of the vibration are very similar each other but show
some differences in local resonant peaks.
4 BALANCER CONTROL
4.1 Balancer Installation
Mechanical balancer is installed in fore and aft of the main engine to compensate the engine-generated
4thorder unbalance moment. Each set of balancer consists of two counter-rotating eccentricities to
generate unidirectional force and is designed to rotate 4 times the speed of main engine shaft rotation.
The size and phase of the eccentricities are set to exactly compensate the engine excitation. In order to
observe the effect and to find out the optimal phases of the balancer, both the balancer operating and
non-operating conditions are tested with successive measurements.
4.2 Effect of Balancer Operation
The vibration responses measured before and after the balancer running are compared. In the Figure 6
the relevant vibration magnitude w.r.t. engine speed are shown and responses in complex plane with
1225
phase information are presented for two cases. It was found out that the balancer operation made
distinct effect in reducing the vibration in the speed range over the 90 rpm but not clear effect below
that range. In the complex plane representation the real and imaginary parts of the response are shown
for each rpm in Figure 7. One could find considerable difference for even similar level of vibrations
which is contributed by the balancer operation.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Oeckhouse vibration of a 4,800 TEU container carrier was accessed by FE analysis and onboard
measurement. Excessive vibration was predicted due to the resonance between deckhouse longitudinal
mode and 4th order main engine unbalance moment. Higher order mechanical balancer was installed
to reduce vibration and found to meet satisfactorily relevant allowable limit in operation. For more
optimal operation of the balancer, phase vector analysis of the vibration response was attempted. As
conclusions good coincidence between measurement and analysis and establishment of optimal control
strategy for balancer operation were both encouraging to reliable vibration prediction and informative
future application.
References
[I] ISO 6954. (1984). Mechanical vibration and shock - Guidelines for the overall evaluation of
vibration in merchant ships
[2] MSC. (2000). MSC/NASTRAN User's Manual Version 70.0
[3] O.s.Cho, S.M.Lee and K.Y.Chung. (1999). Ship Vibration Control using a force- adjustable
mechanical actuator, Journal of Vibration and Control 5:5
if) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
NONLINEAR DYNAMICS OF TOWED UNDERWATER VEHICLES

- NUMERICAL MODELLING AND EXPERIMENT AL VALIDATION -
G.F. Clauss and M. Vannahme
Institute of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering

Technical University Berlin, Germany
ABSTRACT
Controllable towed underwater vehicles are used as carrier systems in a wide range of maritime
applications. The quality and accuracy of the registered multimedia seabed and subsoil data depends
on the dynamic behaviour and stability of the towed sensor carrier as well as on the transmission of
wave induced motions along the submarine umbilical. This paper presents a comprehensive numerical
and experimental analysis of the dynamic behaviour of towed systems, taking into account the non-
linear characteristics of drag and lift coefficients as well as the non-linear dynamic cable force. It is
proved that ship motions are inducing substantial cable oscillations resulting in significant excitation
of the towed body. A computer program is developed to determine the cable curvature for stationary
conditions as well as the dynamic response of the towed body due to ship oscillations. The numerical
model is validated by towing tests, performed at the TV Berlin in one of the world largest cavitation
and circulation tunnels with free surface.
KEYWORDS
Towed underwater vehicle, Nonlinear dynamics, Nonlinear cable forces, Orbital oscillations, Sensor
carrier, Depressor wings, Numerical simulation, Experimental validation
1 INDRODUCTION
Vertically tethered systems or towed bodies -

applied in a wide spectrum of offshore
operations - are characterised by hydroelastic
effects. In general, such systems consist of the
components research or support vessel, tether,
umbilical or towing cable, and a suspended load
or a towed sensor carrier (Figure I). Tethers
connecting the ship with the subsea unit allow
the precise deployment of the suspended
equipment like drill strings, subsea manifolds, Figure I: Typical components of a towing system
BOP stacks or templates at a preselected
1228
location on the seabed. Umbilicals enable a ROV or towed body to stay for a long time at the
underwater work site and allows real-time communication.
The quality and suitability of the recorded multimedia seabed and subsoil data for further analysis
depends on the dynamic behaviour and stability of the towed sensor carrier as well as on the
transmission of wave induced motions along the submarine umbilical. The tether or umbilical couples
the motion of the floating structure with the oscillations of the underwater system. Under certain
conditions resonance is observed, with substantially increased motion and acceleration amplitudes.
Due to high inertia and drag forces the deep dived module cannot follow the umbilical oscillations,
with the consequence of cable slackening (Clauss and Hoog (2001)). In this case the cable tension
decreases to zero, and the motions of the ship and the submerged structure are decoupled for a short
while. During this time the upper cable end and the towed body are oscillating independently with
different amplitude and phase. When the cable becomes taut again, large snap loads and erratic
motions of the submerged body occur resulting in severe damage of the umbilical with its internal
electrical and optical conductors. The resulting degradation reduces the life span of the umbilical and
endangers the recovery of the suspended or towed subsea module.
A validated analysis model is required, based on theoretical investigations of the non-linear cable
dynamics, using the method of finite elements. A dynamic time-domain simulation of marine
operations of vertically tethered or towed systems allows the evaluation of occurring load and motion
amplitudes during specific missions in advance, defining operational limitations due to weather
conditions giving rise to snap loads. Furthermore, designers are enabled to minimise motions and to
limit tensions by choosing optimal system parameters.
The dynamic analysis of deep dived towed bodies comprises the determination of the dynamic
behaviour of vertically suspended loads. In addition, it considers the hydrodynamic forces and
moments due to stationary towing speed as well as hydroelastic effects. Ablowand Schechter (1983),
and Milinazzo et al. (1987) use the lumped-mass-method to analyse the three-dimensional dynamic
behaviour of submerged towed bodies and to determine the trajectory during a given ship manoeuvre.
Wu and Chwang (1997) describe the three-dimensional dynamic behaviour of a towing system
subdivided into a primary and a secondary cable. They show that the heave and pitch motions of the
sensor carrier attached to the secondary cable is significantly damped compared to the oscillations of
the depressor body at the lower end of the primary cable. Buckham et al. (1999) develop a numerical
model - based on the lumped-mass-method - to calculate the three-dimensional dynamic behaviour,
i.e. the velocity and depth profile as well as the horizontal trajectory of a towed body during a 180°-
manoevre, considering the influence of active control surfaces at the tail plane.
Clauss et al. (1998) determine experimentally and numerically the seaway dependent limitations of
offshore pipeline operations. The applied numerical formulation - based on the finite element method
- is split in a simplified stationary approach by solving only the stationary components of the
differential equations. In a second step the oscillation around the stationary equilibrium - caused by
forced excitation at the upper pipeline end - is determined.
This paper presents a comprehensive numerical and experimental analysis of the dynamic behaviour of
towed systems, based on the numerical model for pipelaying analysis of Clauss et al. (1998), taking
into account the non-linear characteristics of drag and lift coefficients of the sensor carrier as well as
non-linear components of dynamic forces due to cable curvature. The analysis proves that ship
motions are substantially transmitted along the submerged cable, and excite oscillations of the towed
body. A numerical model is developed to determine both, the cable curvature for stationary conditions
as well as the dynamic response of the towed body due to ship oscillations. The numerical model is
validated by towing tests, performed at the TU Berlin in one of the world largest cavitation and
circulation tunnel with free surface. The motions of the towed model are recorded by video cameras
and evaluated by digital video post-processing. Cable forces are measured at the upper suspension
point (winch) and at the lower end (body attachment).
3 EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
Model towing tests are performed at

the TU Berlin in one of the world
largest cavitation and circulation
tunnels to validate the non-linear
numerical model (Figure 3). The
stationary cable curve as well as the
orbital oscillating motion of the
towed body due to external
disturbances at the upper cable end
are determined using video
postprocessing. Underwater video
cameras are attached to a transverse
adjustable camera mounting device. The X and Z coordinates of the lenses are known with respect to
the water surface and the horizontal winch position. The experimental procedure commences by
recording a reference frame to calibrate the dimensions ofthe obtained video picture in the plane of the
submerged towing system. After a constant flow velocity is reached, external excitations are
introduced at the upper cable end using a linear oscillator device. Resulting oscillations of the model
sensor carrier are recorded. Finally, the recorded reference coordinate system is transformed into a
transparent digital bitrnap-file and superimposed with the digiti sed video frames of the towed system.
In addition to motion measurements, cable forces at the towed body suspension point and at the upper
winch point as well as the horizontal oscillation amplitudes are registered.
4 RESULTS
Figure 4 and 5 presents stationary cable curves as well as towed body motions and forces comparing
experimental and numerical results. Comparison between measured and calculated orbital motion of
the towed body illustrate good agreement. Note, that shape variations of the orbital trajectory due to
increased excitation frequency and towing speed is observed. The numerical simulations illustrate that
non-linear effects are dominating the motion behaviour if the sensor carrier is equipped with depressor
wings. In this case the towed body motion becomes substantially flatter, and the associated cable force
exhibits high peaks - three times as high as without depressor wings. Furthermore, the dynamic
1234
analysis proves that ship motions induce substantial cable oscillations resulting in significant
excitations of the towed body with a transfer factor of about one.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The paper introduces a numerical model to analyse the dynamic response of towed submarine sensor
carriers due to wave-induced oscillations at the winch of the towing ship. The evaluation proves that
ship motions are substantially transmitted along the towing cable or umbilical resulting in significant
excitations of the towed body. Experimental validation of the calculated stationary cable curves,
orbital oscillations of the towed body around its stationary origin as well as axial forces at the upper
and lower cable ends show good agreement between measured and calculated data. Even super-
harmonic cable force oscillations at the towed body suspension point of twice the frequency of the
external excitation are determined. It can be stated, that the tense configuration of the stationary cable
curve acts like a virtual system-stiffness, since the non-linear cable force component considers the
incremental displacement of each finite element as well as cable curvature. This significant non-linear
effect has never been considered before.
The dynamic analysis reveals that the shape of the orbital trajectory of the towed body caused by
wave-induced excitations depends on the geometric and therefore hydrodynamic configuration of the
submarine body. The numerical model which considers the complete rigid body equations of motions
accurately predicts the effect of depressor wings considering the non-linear increase of drag force due
to a higher angle of incidence or velocity. As a consequence a significant increase in axial cable force
is observed.
References
Ablow C.M.; Schechter S. (1983). Numerical Simulation of Undersea Cable Dynamics, in Ocean
Engineering 1983, Vol. 10, No.6, pp. 443-457.
Buckham B.; Nahon M.; Seto M. (1999). Three-Dimensional Dynamics Simulation of a Towed
Underwater Vehicle, in Proc. of the 18th Int. Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Symp., July
1-6,1999, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, Paper-No. 99-3068.
Clauss G.F.; Hoog S. (2001). Design and Hydroelastic Optimization of the Mobile Docker for
GEOST AR 2 - Seafloor Stations, in Proc. of the 11th Int. Offshore and Polar Engineering Conf.,
Stavanger, Norway, June 17-22,2001, Paper No: 2001-JSC-367.
Clauss G.F.; Saroukh A.; Weede H. (1998). Prediction of Limiting Seastates for Pipelaying Operations,
in Proc. of the 17th Int. Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Symp., July 5-9,1998, Lisbon,
Portugal, Vol. IV, Paper-No. 98-611.
Milinazzo F.; Wilkie M.; Latchman S.A. (1987). An Efficient Algorithm for Simulating the Dynamics
of Towed Cable Systems, in Ocean Engineering 1987, Vol. 14, No.6, pp. 513-526.
Wu J.; Chwang A.T. (1997). 3-D Simulation of a Two-Part Underwater Towed System, in Proc. of the
ih Int. Offshore and Polar Engineering Conf., Honolulu, USA, May 1997, Vol. II, pp. 44-50.
VORTEX-INDUCED VIBRATION OF TWO DIMENSIONAL

WING-SPRING COUPLED SYSTEM
Zhi-Xing Yu, Ying-Zhong Liu and Guo-Ping Miao
Shanghai Hao Tong University,

Shanghai, China, 200030
ABSTRACT
The fluid-solid coupled motion of a two dimensional wing-spring system is numerically simulated
using Navier-Stokes Equations in the paper. The simplified spring system, which has two freedoms,
i.e., the sway and the roll substitute the recovering forces and moments due to deformation of the solid.
In order to stir up the vortex-induced vibration, the attack angle of the wing is initialized with a large
value. The coupled vibrations caused by the periodical vortices and fluid dynamics is then simulated
after successfully checking with samples.
KEYWORDS
Wing flow, Vortex-induced vibration, Fluid-solid coupling, Vortex shedding
1 INTRODUCTION
There exist many components of naval ships and ocean constructions suffering viscous flow, which
forms vortex shedding and further damaging vibrations on structures. A great deal literatures, such as
Yu( 1999), Yu & Liu(2000), Blevinx( 1983) etc, concentrated on fluid induced vibration on a cylinder,
however, fewer researches are on the induced vibration of wing. Ohmi & Coutanceay(l991) made
experiments on wing forced rotation and displacement at large attack angle; Morikawa & Gronig(l995)
studied the formation and the structure of vortex in this case. Piperno(l997) computed 20
non-viscous fluid-structure coupled aeroelasticity from numerical view point.
In this paper, the viscous flow around 20 wing is simulated with Navier-Stokes Equations with
consideration and fixed wing or elastic supported wing. The result shows that flow around the
simplified wing-spring system will produce the similar phenomena of cadence and resonance under
certain conditions.
1.1 Mathematical Modal and Numerical Method
Because the contour of wing is a complex curve and the computational grid in physical space is not
uniform, the description of the problem is under general curvilinear coordinate. Moving grid should
1240
appear complex vortex structure under large attack angle at high Reynold number, which
interacts with each other making irregular force evolutions.
(2) Under large attack angle, 'beat' phenomenon emerges similarly to the flow around cylinder; at
a certain nature frequency, resonance with large amplitude will be produced leading to a
similar 'lock' phenomenon.
(3) Because the periodical vortex shedding is related to a certain large attack angle and type of the
wing, there is a possibility to control the vortex induced vibration through changing the shape
of the wing.
References
Zhixing Yu. (1999). Hydroelastic Calculations of Viscous flow. PhD Thesis(in Chinese) of Shanghi
Jiao Tong University ..
Zhixing Yu and Yingzhong Liu (2000). Hydroelastic Calculation of Viscous Flow Around a Cylinder-
Spring Aystem. Proceedings of ISOPE-2000, 1, Seattle.
Bathe. K.J. and Wilson, E.L. (1976), Numerical Methods in Finite Element Analysis, Prentice-Hall
Inc.
Thomas. (1982). Composite Three-Dimensional Grids Generated by Elliptic System, AIAA J. 20:9.
Ohmi K., Coutanceay M. et al. (1991), Further Experiments on Vortex Formation Around an
Oscillating and Translating Airfoil at Large Incidences. J Fluid Mech. 225, 607-630.
Morikawa K. and Gronig H. (1995). Formation and Structure of Vortex Systems Around a Translating
and Oscillating Airfoil. Z, Flugwiss Weltrqumforsch. 19,391-396.
Nair M.T, and Sengupta T.K. (1998), Orthogonal Grid Generation for Navier-Stokes Computations.
Inl, J. Numer, Melh. fluids. 28, 215-224.
Blevinx R.D. (1983). Fluid Induced Vibration (in Chinese), Translated by Shushan Wu. et ai,
Publishing House of Ministry of Machine Building.
Piperno, S. (1997). Explicit/Implicit Fluid/Structure Staggered Procedure with a Structural Predictor

and Fluid Subcycling for 2D Inviscid Aeroelastic Simulations. In/. J Numer, Melh. Fluids, 25, 1207-
1226.
Xianfu Wang, et al. (1991). Computational Ship Fluid Dynamics(in Chinese), Shanghai Jiao Tong
University Press.
Van Leer B.Y. (1977). Towards the Ultimate Conservative Difference Scheme. Y. A new approach to
numerical convection. J Camp, Phys. 23, 32-78,
Saad Y. and Schultz M.H. (1986), GRRES: A Generalized Minimal Residual Algorithm for Solving
non-Symmetric Linear System, SIAM J Sci. Sial, Compul, 7, 856-869.
Un H.W. and Chen L.D. (1996). Application of the Krylov Subspace Method to Numerical Heat
Transfer. Numer, Heal Trans, Pari A. 30, 246-270.
Thompson J.F., Warsi Z.U.A. and Mastin, c.w. (1985). Numerical Grid Generation, North-Holland,
FIRE RISK ANALYSIS AND ITS APPLICATION TO SHIPS
M. Dogliani and A. Vergine
Innovation Research & Products Section

RINA-Registro Italiano Navale Group, Genova Italy
ABSTRACT
An innovative fire safety regulatory approach concerning the fire safety on board ships is about to be
introduced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). It will be possible to use alternative,
performance-based fire safety design and arrangements in lieu of traditional prescriptive designs.
After providing a summary of the background of this new approach, this paper briefly reviews the state
of the art in the fire engineering science applied to ships and pinpoints gaps to be filled by future R&D.
For the sake of illustration, an example of application is provided.
KEYWORDS
Fire, Safety, Risk Analysis, Fire simulation, Formal Safety Assessment
1 INTRODUCTION
Fire safety provisions for ships are specified in the SOLAS International Convention, chapter II.2: in
order to be accepted by the competent authority the design has to fulfil its requirements. An advantage
of this framework is that there is in general no need to carry out complex calculations and
experimental activities during the design; however the drawback is that design solutions which
significantly deviates from requirements cannot be accepted.
This aspect is being addressed within the revision of SOLAS 11.2 chapter with the aim of opening the
way to perfonnance based design. One aspect of particular relevance is that the verification of
compliance of alternative design will be addressed by a specific regulation (Part F, Regulation 17)
indicating that engineering analyses are needed and will have to be carried out according to specified
principles spelled out in a guidance document recently issued by IMO (2001).
When entered into force (151July 2002), this new regulation has the potential to strongly influence fire
safety design leading to the introduction of advanced fire engineering and fire risk analysis methods
and tools into ship design.
The Guidance, IMO (2001), whose goal is to specify the methodology to be used in the Fire Risk
Assessment of alternative design and arrangements, is based on the following main concepts:
a comparative analysis is to be carried out where the alternative design is assessed, in perfonnance
terms, against an acceptable design;
the assessment focuses on the deviations ofthe alternative design from fire safety regulations;
additional fire risk mitigation measures must be considered in order to balance these deviations;
1244
· reference is made to approaches and fire models applied in the civil building sector.
The main steps of the assessment are as follows:

I. definition of the problem;
2. identification of desired deviations from requirements;
3. definition of performance parameters to be used for comparative analysis;
4. definition of acceptance criteria;
5. definition of the method of analysis (i.e. type and extent of the analyses);
6. specification of the design fires to be considered;
7. execution of the analysis.
Depending on the case under analysis the performance parameters on which the comparative
assessment is to be based are related to human vulnerability (effects of heat, smoke, toxicity) or on
damage to ship systems (e.g. impact of fire on the structure, the escape system, etc.).
This implies that fire consequence models are needed which are able to quantify these parameters
taking into account effects such as:
·· ignition sources and their characteristics;

rate of heat release of combustible material;
• proximity, amount and distribution of combustible material;
• ventilation characteristics;
·· position and characteristics of sprinklers;
fire growth rate and its modifications due to sprinkler and ventilation.
2 STATE OF THE ART
In broad terms, when carrying out a FRA, the following consequence modelling are to be considered:
• the fire and its development;
• subsequent smoke movement through the ship;
• explosions;
• mustering and evacuation.
A number of computer codes exist which model escape of people from complex structures, however
Mustering and evacuation are dealt with in this paper; on this issue see e.g. Dogliani (2001). Because
of the structure of a passenger ship, consequence models must handle different geometry, including:
• interconnected rooms;
• large atria;
• long corridors;
• multiple decks;
• stairwells.
Onboard a ship, the conduction of heat through metal bulkheads and decks will be particularly
important. This could lead to the ignition of fires in adjacent compartments, even when there is no
breach in the original fire compartment. No single model is likely to be able to handle all these aspects
efficiently, but it should be practical to ensure that a combination of computer codes and engineering
correlations are available which together cover all likely aspects. The selection of tools will need to
take into account practicalities such as the time and cost required to perform calculations, as well as
the reliability of the predictions under the conditions of interest.
2.1 Fire Models

1245
Computer codes modelling fires can be divided into two categories, namely zone models and field
models. Zone models simplify the problem by considering a limited number of spatial zones, whilst
field models use a fine three-dimensional mesh to examine the regions of interest in more detail. Zone
models are faster running and easier to use than field models, but care must be taken that their
underlying assumptions are valid in the particular situation of interest. Perhaps the most used software
model is CFAST, Peacock et al. (2000) which was also used in this paper.
Whilst more expensive to use, field models (CFD based) are more flexible than zone models and able
in principle to handle more complex situations. However, the complexity of their input and their long
run times makes it impractical to use CFD codes routinely at the present time.
The best way forward is then to define a series of standard fire scenarios, and investigate them by
appropriate available tools (correlations and zone and field computer codes).
2.2 Fire Risk Assessment
Compared with other, more mature, engineering fileds, limited literature exist to date on fire risk
analysis techniques, particularly in the maritime sector. Available documentation pertains to R&D
papers, thematic conferences and publications on one side, and codes and standards on the other.
Institutions such as the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), the NFPA (National
Fire Protection Association), the USCG (United States Coast Guard) and the FSEG (Fire Safety
Engineering Group) at the Greenwich University provide on-line information and publications,
generally addressing various industrial fields.
Issues ofSNAME (Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers) Transactions provide relevant,
though limited, information on what is currently going on in the field of maritime fire safety, both
regarding research studies and technical innovations. Codes and Standards over a broad spectrum of
interest on marine, railways, building and offshore fire protection were consulted. Also, standards
(such as the European Standard prEN50126 for railways) that cover aspects related with risk analysis
or, more generally, safety assessment guidelines for transportation systems can be considered. It is
noted that the most recent activities in the fire safety field have concentrated on the development of
performance codes and other forms of performance prediction, creating a Performance-Based approach
to fire safety analysis, see e.g. Delichatsios and Karydas (1996), O'Hara (1998), Bukowski (1996).
Every draft performance evaluation system is risk based; it is therefore clear that risk is the metric of
choice for the performance-based safety regulations of the future. It is recognised that, within the
shipbuilding industry, this shift towards performance based codes and design has not yet progressed to
the extent recognisable in other industrial fields, such as civil engineering, railways and metro systems
and offshore structures.
3 CASE STUDY - A FIRE RISK ANALYSIS FOR PASSENGER CABINS
The analysis is conducted through the following main steps:

I. Problem definition
2. Construction of the Event Tree (ET)
3. Probabilistic quantification
4. Consequences assessment
5. Risk evaluation.
3.1 Problem Definition
The fire safety objective is, according to SaLAS' philosophy, the containment of the fire in a main
vertical zone. Accordingly, the analysis was applied to a portion of a vertical zone above the
embarkation deck of a cruise ship compliant to 1992 Amendments of SaLAS (see Figure I); it
includes two rows of cabins (all equal, the only difference being the presence of a window in the
1247
failure or success of successive items of equipment or mitigating actions. In the present case, see
Figure 2 and Table 1, an ignition was adopted as initiating event and the following events were
included:
door status (open or closed);
window status (open/broken or closed);
automatic suppression: local equipment (sprinkler) is able to extinguish fire.
3.3 Severity Criteria
The following criteria to estimate the severity of the consequences were adopted:
1. the FRI ( full room involvement) temperature was assumed to be 500°C. By comparing this
value to the corresponding temperatures of the 8 scenarios, the likelihood ofFRI is assessed;
11.the likelihood of the fire propagation in the nearby cabins only depends on the FRI occurrence; if
FRI is not reached, the fire will self-terminate before ignition in the adjacent cabin.
The main limitations are:

• the 500°C corresponds to flashover conditions: sometimes, even if rarely, FRI is reached before;
• the likelihood of fire spread should take into account the walls' characteristics (strength, thermal
conductivity, etc.) and layout (e.g. air gap between the walls of two adjacent cabins).
3.4 Simulation Results
The simulation for the eight scenarios led to the following results, see Table 2:
1. where either the door or the window is open (scenario # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) the fire is fuel-
controlled (its growth is limited by the amount of the fire load); two cases can be distinguished:
sprinkler operating correctly (# 1, 3, 5): the sprinkler is instrumental in reducing the fire heat
release rate, and consequently the likelihood ofFRI, see Figure 3;
sprinkler unavailable (# 2, 4,6): fire heat release rate, thus FRI's likelihood, increases;
2. where the door is closed and no window is present (# 7 and 8) the fire is ventilation-controlled
(its growth is limited by the amount of oxygen); the heat release rate, thus the maximum
temperature, is low enough as to make the FRI occurrence unlikely.
3.5 Risk Matrix
According to the class of probability and to the simulation results, the overall ranking of the eight
scenarios is as shown in the risk matrix of Table 3. It is to be noted that, as the probabilities are
conditional to fire occurrence, it is not possible to obtain a complete risk evaluation; therefore,
likelihood and severity were kept apart.
For comparative purposes, the same analysis was carried out by assuming the cabin door not self-
closing (thus a probability of door open was increased to 0.5). It can be shown that, in this case, the
probability of the severe outcomes # 2 and 4 would increase by a factor of 50.
3.6 Detailed Consequence Analysis
From the preliminary analyses, the most relevant scenario in terms of potential full room involvement
has been investigated considering a most case scenario in which all objects burn simultaneously. Fire
simulations were carried out with the main goals of quantifying the most severe scenario through more
realistic fire dynamics, to be compared against the ship barrier fire performance. This comparison has
been developed in terms of fire severity with reference to the standard time-temperature curve adopted
in the shipping field for fire test;
For scenario # 4, natural ventilation through the door (assumed open) was considered and the sprinkler
action was assumed to fail.
3.8 Results and Comments
The results are the time histories of the overall heat release rate (Fig. 4) and theupper layer temperature
(Fig. 5). Inspection of Fig. 5 shows that fire room temperatures rise much faster than the standard
(SOLAS) time-temperature curve, remain above for a short period of time and eventually drop below it.
In practical terms it is possible to correlate the temperature-time histories with the barrier's capacity of
sustaining a fire: if a fire barrier is able to withstand the SOLAS fire test, then is able to sustain a fire
whose temperature vs. time curve has the same or lower integral area: this is the so-called Ingberg' s
criterion which leads, for the present example an endurance of respectively 440 s for B I 0 class and
700 s for BI5 class.
The analysis has basically highlighted the following points:

I. the fire growth model is of paramount importance to properly account for variations in materials
as well as effects of the sprinkler; the fire load gives indications of the heat energy stored, thus
of the likelihood of FRI and fire spread;
2. in ships' cabins, the HRR is driven by the ventilation, which tends to smooth down the peak
temperatures; an assumption of free ventilation (fuel controlled fire) would be misleading,
3. the barriers' material plays an important role in the overall phenomenon: the relative high
thermal conduction properties of ship's cabins reduces the temperature increase inside the cabin.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Fire risk analysis applicability to ship design has been proved to be feasible with a reasonable
accouracy by using models and tools available from other industrial sectors.
However, in view of the huge scope for FRA application in the near future, as called by new SOLAS
B-2! Regulation 17, the following R&D issues are recommended:
a. develop fire growth models which are suitable to ship applications (i.e. low air intake, steel
walls, forced ventilation, both small and very large rooms to be covered)
b. upgrade existing fire consequence models in order for them to better deal with ship features
c. define standard fire scenarios to be considered at the design stage and when carrying out a FRA
d. carry out a few significant prototype applications of the whole methodology to serve as a
demonstrator of the approach.
1249
References
IMO Fire Protection Subcommittee. FP44/WPA, January 2001.

Dogliani M. (2001). An Overview of Present and Under-development IMO's Requirements
concerning Evacuation trom Ships. International Conference of Pedestrian and Evacuation
Dynamics - PED. Gerhard Mercator University, Duisburg, Germany.
Peacock R.D., Reneke P.A., Jones W.W., Bukowski R. W., Forney G.P. (2000). A User's Guide/or
FAST: Engineering Toolsfor Estimating Fire Growth and Smoke Transport. National Institute of
Standards and Technology, Special Publication 921,2000 Edition.
Bukowski, R. W. (1996). Risk and Performance Standards. 13'1' Meeting of the UJNR Panel on Fire
Research and Safety, Gaithersburg, MD.
Delichatsios, M. A. and Karydas, D. M. (1996). A Framework for Fire Risk Assessment of Buildings
Based on Performance Based Engineering Analysis. NIST Annual Conference of Fire Research,
Gaithersburg, MD.
O'Hara, M. A. (1998). Future Fire Codes. Civil Engineering-ASCE 68:5, 48-51.
BSI Standards 94/340 DC (draft). (1994). The Application of Fire Safety Engineering Principles to
Fire Safety in Buildings.
NFP A 72E. (1987). Standard on Automatic Fire Detectors National Fire Protection Association.
NFP A - National Fire Protection Association. (1993). The SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection
Engineering.
C.M. Sprague, P.E., B.L. Dolph. (1996). Theoretical Basis of the Ship Fire Safety Engineering
Methodology United States Coast Guard R&D Center.
THE CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS OF MARINE FIRE SPREAD

PHENOMENA WITH MULTI-EQUATIONS SYSTEM
FOR FIRE SAFETY DESIGN
Nobuyoshi Fukuchi and Changhong Hu
Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University

6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-leu, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan
ABSTRACf
For the preventive design of marine fire, it is necessary to be grasped entirely the fire spread phenomena by an
analysis taking thoroughly account of the governing factors and the characteristics of compartment fire. The
turbulent heat diffusion field system consisted of the momentum and heat transportation are applied in the two
dimensional calculation on multi-linked compartments, while the gas balance equations with oxygen consumption
and gas generation are solved by means of zone model. In order to investigate the threshold conditions of fire
spread, some numerical simulations of fire accident in the multi-linked compartments are carried out on the variety
of thickness of heat insulation
KEYWORDS
Fire safety design, Fire spread phenomena, Turbulent diffusion of heat and composed gas, Multi-linked
compartments, The pseudo-field mathematical mode~ The thickness of heat insulation
1 INTRODUCTION
It is necessary ,to establish a fire safety plan that is secured sufficient time for the evacuation of the personnel
onboard and the crew to engage in fire fighting activities, in the case of spontaneous outbreak of fire in a ship. For
that reason, the fire spreading phenomena in multi-compartments has to be simulated numerically using a suitable
mathematical model by considering a distinctive feature of the turbulent diffusion of heat and composed gas.
A pseudo-field mathematical model with multi-equations system expressing the fire spread phenomena is proposed
herein by considering a characteristic of the turbulent diffusion of heat and composed gas in closures. In order to
investigate the relations between the combustion characteristics and the variety of governing factors such as fire
load and thickness of heat insulation, some numerical simulations of fire accident in the multi-linked compartments
were carried out applying of the proposed model. From the results of the numerical calculation, it can be clarified
on the threshold conditions of fire spread and the validity of pseudo-field mathematical model.
1259
5 CONCLUSIONS
Some numerical simulations of fire accident in the multi-linked C2bins are carried out applying of the proposed
mathematical model by considering a characteristic of the turbulent diffusion of heat and composed gas in closures.
From the results of the numerical calculation, it can be clarified the characteristics of fire spread phenomena., the
threshold conditions of fire spread and the validity of the present pseudo-field model.
References
N. Fukuchi and S. Koth. (1993). The Threshold Conditions and Characteristic Analysis of the Marine Fire Spread
Phenomena (Part 1) The Fire Spread through Ruptured Partitions and Structural Members, Jour. of Society o/Naval
Architects o(Japan, 174, 833-842.
w. P. Jones and B. E. Launder. (1975). The Prediction of Laminarization with a Two Equations Model of
Turbulence,Jour. o/Heat Mass Transftr. 15,301-314.
S. V. Patankar. (1980). Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. McGraw-Hill, New York.
C. Hu and N. Fukuchi. (1997). The Characteristic Analysis of Turbulent Diffusion on the Functional Design of
Marine Systems (part 1) Turbulent Heat Diffusion by Natural Convection, Jour. of Society of Naval Architects of
Japan. 181, 143-150.
APPLICATION OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS

IN THE FIRE SAFETY DESIGN OF MARINE SYSTEMS
Changhong Hu and Nobuyoshi Fukuchi
Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University

6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-Ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to apply the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method in the fire
safety design of marine systems. This paper presents fire field model for the case of a fire within a
compartment, to numerically simulate a three-dimensional, turbulent buoyancy-driven flow. The flow
is considered as a low Mach number compressible flow, and the set of approximate control equations
are used. The numerical solution is performed based on the large eddy simulation approach. As an
example, a fire simulation is made on a passenger ship cabin with furniture; the predicted temperature
variation in the room is compared to measured data of an experiment.
KEYWORDS
Fire safety design, Computational fluid dynamics, Fire field model, Low Mach number approximation,
Large eddy simulation, Compartment fire
1 INTRODUCTION
Predicting the spread of smoke flow from a marine fire is still one of the challenges to the functional
design of safe and comfortable environments for marine systems. In the design process associate with
control of smoke spread or fire-extinguishing system, it is often required to know the heat transfer and
flow motion induced by fires in compartments. This knowledge can be obtained by experimental
observations and theoretical models. As fire experiments are generally expensive and dangerous, it is
difficult to obtain sufficient data by conducting many experiments. For the theoretical models, the zone
model is popular method but it can only give limited data we needed. In this paper, a field model,
computational fluid dynamics method is proposed to predict the thermal convection from a
compartment fire.
A distinguishing feature of the problem is that the temperature difference as well as the density
variation is very large while the smoke flow induced by the heat release is much slower than the
propagation of acoustic waves. Therefore, this flow should be considered as a low Mach number
compressible flow. The generally used Boussinesq approximation, in which the density is assumed
constant except for the buoyancy term, is limited to very small temperature difference, and is not an
1262
appropriate model for the problem (Gray and Giorgini, 1976). In this paper, a set of approximate
equations will be used to solve the low Mach number flow, and the numerical solution will be
conducted by a large eddy simulation (LES) method in which the Smagorinsky SGS model
(Smagorinsky, 1963) is used. At this stage of research the simulation of combustion is not done, the
heat release of combustible materials used for the computation is taken from an experimental database.
As an example, a 3-D numerical simulation of a turbulent buoyant flow induced by a compartment fire
is made. The compartment, which is a common type of cabin with furniture of a passenger ship, is
connected through a door to a corridor. The geometry of the room is chosen so that comparison with
available experimental results is possible. Two types of cabin fires are simulated and comparisons with
the experimental results are made.
1263
For the constants, C 5 = 0.12, Pr, = 0.5 are used.
This set of above compressible equations generally contains vorticity, entropy and acoustic modes, in
different frequencies. For the low Mach number problem like flow motion induced by fires, the
acoustic modes are in frequency bands much higher than the others. Numerical solution of such low
Mach number flow using these compressible equations is impossible because it requires extremely
small time step to track the acoustic fluctuations. Here, a set of approximate equations, which are
derived from the equations (2)-(5) with the acoustic wave filtered out, is presented to express the low
Mach number flow.
3 RESULTS
Compartment fires in two types of cabins of a passenger ship are selected for the numerical simulation
using the method described in the previous section. The calculation conditions are the same as the
full-scale fire experiment without fire-extinguishing systems (JSRS Report, 1998). These two types of
cabins are a first-class cabin and a second-class cabin, which are shown in Figure 1.
The computation model includes the cabin and part of corridor; they are connected through an open
door. The grid number is 72 x 40 x 40. In the figure 'Temperature (1)' and 'Temperature (2)' indicate
two columns of measuring points for comparison of temperature. As an example, the time variation of
the temperature at the measuring points for the first-class cabin is shown in Figure 2.
At the current stage of the research, the combustion itself is not simulated, instead, the heat release
used for the computation is taken from the experiment data of combustible materials. For example, the
measured heat releases of combustibles for the first-class cabin are shown in Table 1. These values are
used as the heat source for the energy equation in the computation.
The fire process in the computation is set the same as that observed in the experiment [7]: for the
first-class cabin, the fire starting from the left-side bed, spreading to the wall paper (at t=4 min),
flash-over occurring after the fire spreading into the desk and the neighboring bed (at t=ll min). The
calculated temperature variation at the measuring points for the first-class cabin is shown in Figure 3.
Comparing to the experiments, the trends of the variation are the same. The different point is also
found that for the experimental data, the temperatures at different measured points are almost the same
after the flashover. It is considered that in the experiment, the flames may envelope the measuring
points as the thermocouples are installed near the wall. The measured temperature is, therefore,
different from the gas temperature computed at the time.
The calculated isothermal lines on the walls and the isothermal surface of at t = 11 min for the
first-class cabin are shown in Figure 4. It is found the maximum temperature arise occurs at the ceiling
of the room. The maximum temperature arises at the measured points for the two cases are shown in
Figure 5, with the comparison of measured data in the experiment. It can be seen that the maximum
temperature in the second-class cabin is higher than that in the first-class cabin, for that the double
beds in the second-class cabin have larger heat releases than the single beds in the first-class cabin.
From these results, it can be said that the present CFD method provides a powerful tool to predict the
heat transfer and fluid motion induced by a fire. However, as the present calculation does not consider
the effect of flame, the prediction of the temperature distribution is not satisfied occasionally. This is
the weakest point of the present computation. We consider to improve it in the future research by
introducing a kind of flame model into the computation.
Figure 5: Comparison of predicted and measured maximum temperature

arise in the cabins
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we present some early work concerned with the application of Computational Fluid
Dynamics method in the fire safety design of marine systems. By simply specifying a scenario based
on known fire characteristics and experimental observations, the fire induced turbulent buoyant flow in
a cabin of a passenger ship has been numerically simulated with a field model. The comparison of air
temperature in the cabin between the predict results and experimental data has shown a fairly good
agreement.
1267
Reference
Chorin, A. J. (1967). A Numerical Method for Solving Incompressible Viscous Flow Problems. J
Camp. Phys. 2, 12-26.
Erlebacher G., Hussaini M. Y., Speziale C. G. and Zang T. A. (1992). Toward the Large-Eddy
Simulation of Compressible Turbulent Flows. J Fluid Mech 238, 155-185.
Gray D. D. and Giorgini A. (1976). The Validity of the Boussinesq Approximation for Liquids and
Gases. Int. J Heat Mass Transfer 19, 545-551.
Smagorinsky, J. (1963). General Circulation Experiments with the Primitive Equations. Mon. Weather
Rev. 91,99-164.
The Japanese Shipbuilding Research Society, RR73 Standard Section, (1998): A 1997 Report:
Investigation on the Fire-Protection of the Ship.
AN EXAMINATION OF SOME STRUCTURAL LIMIT

STATES FOR HYDROCARBON EXPLOSIONS
P. A. Friezet, R. B. Corr2, R. O. Sne1l2 and V. H. Y. Tam2
Ip A F A Consulting Engineers, Hofer House, 185 Uxbridge Road,

Hampton, Middx, TW12 IBN, UK
2BP Exploration, Chertsey Road, Sunbury on Thames,
Middx, TW16 7LN, UK
ABSTRACT
The paper examines how limit states may be applied in the assessment of the consequences of
hydrocarbon explosions. A conditional structural reliability analysis approach is used to account for
both the likelihood of the explosion occurring and exceedance of a structural limit state. The structural
limit state is expressed in terms of deflection limits. Typical offshore topsides explosion events lie in
the range 10-3 to 10-5 per annum. Typical overpressure versus probability of exceedance curves are
used to determine possible loads for a simply supported beam. Annual probabilities of failure are
determined for a range of hydrocarbon explosion probabilities accounting for uncertainties in the
loading, response and strength. The effect of structural system strength enhancement is simply
accounted for. For a target probability of failure of 10 -5, load and resistance partial factors are
determined. These are reported and discussed. Some unexpected values are realised which are
reviewed and explained.
KEYWORDS
Explosions, Limit states, Probabilities of failure, Deflection limits, Offshore, Overpressures,

Triangular pulse loading, Partial load and resistance factors.
1 INTRODUCTION
The present approach in the UK to the design against blast loads is described in the Interim Guidance
Note (ION), Steel Construction Institute (1993). Despite the accidental nature of gas explosions, the
offshore industry has tended to follow the use of a 'normal' design approach in dealing with such
events. This involves identifying a design level for an accident and considering it usually under two
conditions, the event itself and a post-accident or residual strength assessment. The acceptability or
damage sustained in resisting the event is not a normal consideration and assessments are usually
conducted on a deterministic basis. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the issues
surrounding the determination of hydrocarbon explosion loads, the interpretation of structural response,
1270
the possible consequences of the explosion, and the reliability of the predictions within the context of
the limit state philosophy.
1.1 Background
Gas Explosions are comparatively low frequency accidental events with the potential for serious
consequences either through direct effects or as a result of escalation. Within the range of possible
events there are a wide range of consequences. Figure I presents a plot relating the frequency of a
typical topsides hydrocarbon explosion to overpressure. The overpressure v frequency plot is typical
of plots due to many other types of accidental load and extreme environmental load. As the frequency
reduces, the overpressure increases approaching a finite limit. Typical design events are in the range
of 10.3 to 10-5. However, adopting one case as the basis of design tends to mask the performance
standards required of essential safety systems to control lesser events with a high degree of reliability
and avoid escalation.
Figure 1: Typical explosion frequency of exceedance versus overpressure curve
Currently, for the design event, load and resistance factors of unity are adopted assuming the 'design
scenario' to be inherently conservative despite the relatively large uncertainty associated with
hydrocarbon explosion events. Normally, it would be expected in a partial factor limit state design
approach that the load and resistance factors would have values that reflected the degree of uncertainty
associated with the loads and resistance respectively.
2 DESIGN LIMIT STATES
2.1 Selected Limit States
ISO 19902 (2000) defines four categories of limit states of which three are relevant to the present
application:
a) an ultimate limit state corresponding to the maximum resistance to an applied action
b) a serviceability limit state governing normal functional use
c) a fatigue limit state that corresponds to the accumulated effect of repeated actions
d) an accidental limit state corresponding to an event where damage occurs. The intention of this
limit state is to ensure that the structure can tolerate the damage due to specified accidental
1271
incidents and can subsequently maintain structural integrity for a sufficient period under
specified environmental conditions to enable evacuation to take place.
The basis for the selected design limit states is discussed by Corr & Tam (1998). It is an overall
approach to dealing with the risks associated with gas explosion events and includes an initiating event,
the release of gas and its composition, the size of the gas cloud, ignition, the resulting overpressure-
time history curve, structural response, and consequences. Three levels of events are identified, of
which the relevant factors are:
a) High probability i (f3 Pa
• Safety Critical Systems should remain intact and functional.

• Primary and secondary steelwork should remain within elastic limits and, in particular, no
permanent damage to primary steelwork. Local damage to tertiary steelwork is acceptable.
b) intermediate probability i(f4 Pa

• Minor damage to primary steelwork is acceptable whilst secondary steelwork can undergo
permanent deformation.
c) Low probability 10.5 Pa
• Decks and primary steelwork may be severely distorted but the structure should have a greater
than 90% probability of withstanding collapse.
3 DYNAMICEFFECTS
3.i General
Explosions produce significant dynamic effects that increase as the severity of the event itself
increases. In addition to the direct impact of blast loads on topsides structure and equipment, indirect
loading occurs as a consequence of equipment and structure deforming and failing as well as motions
and vibrations, a result of the aftermath of the main event. Although in general, the concern would be
for all manifestations involving structural response, namely, beams, columns, and stiffened plates and
webs, the last of which are also prime components of blast walls, the prime concern here is with beams.
3.2 Strain-Rate Effects in Steel
To offset some of the dynamic loading effects, steel undergoes strain-rate effects, which tend to
enhance the basic properties and improve the resistance characteristics. Thus strain-rate as well as
ductile effects is important because these mechanisms help absorb energy in a hydrocarbon explosion
and improve the structural performance in resisting intense transient loads. Strain-rate effects
considered in the present work are addressed in P A F A (1999). This provided a basis for selecting a
rate enhancement factor given a strain rate and also enabled the corresponding uncertainties (bias and
COY - coefficient of variation) to be quantified for use in the reliability assessment described below.
3.3 Yield Stress Values of Analysis
The basis for the high probability value is that the primary and secondary steel should remain elastic
but tertiary steel can suffer some deformations. By using the mean value of yield stress in the
assessment, some yielding will occur based on the above ratio (unity) but it will be minimal. For the
intermediate level, adopting a ratio of 3 allows maximum deflections to reach this value but the
1272
permanent value will be less than this. Permanent deflections less than 3 times the elastic value are
relatively minor in keeping with the limit state requirement. For low probability events, severe
distortions can occur without collapse, for which 10 seems appropriate.
One of the factors affecting this choice of deformation limits was that the ratios between adjacent
numbers should be similar, ie, 1:3 should be approximately equal to 3: 1O. This is necessary to ensure
that consistency with the ratios of probabilities of occurrence is maintained otherwise distortion of the
final outcome will result.
For a beam considered by Biggs (1964) with a span of 6.1 m, the above ratios correspond to
deflections of 13.8, 41.4 and 138 mm or span divided by 442, 147 and 44.2. Solutions have been
obtained for the Biggs' SDOF model for an idealised triangular pressure time history for ratios of
RmlF I equal to 1.6, 1.0, 0.8 and 0.4, where Rm is the plastic moment capacity of the single degree-of-
freedom (SDOF) system and F I the magnitude of the triangular loading. The maximum velocities
corresponding to each of these deflection ratios were determined and are tabulated immediately below.
Given the beam size, the strain-rates consistent with these deflections and corresponding velocities
have been calculated and are also listed. From P A F A (1999), the maximum strain-rate effect on yield
was determined and is tabulated together with the uncertainty in that estimate.
Maximum Maximum
Limit state Strain-rate Maximum strain- Coefficient
deflection ratio velocities (S-I)
probability rate enhancement of variation
(elastic limit = 1.0) (m/s)
High 1 0.785 0.0561 1.213 0.031
Intermediate 3 1.75 0.1252 1.256 0.040
Low 10 3.41 0.2440 1.297 0.050
From the tabulation, it is seen that the effect of the selected deflection ratios has led to yield stress
increases ranging from 1.213 to 1.297. These are maximum values. More representative values will
be smaller than these so, for this study, enhancement factors of 1.182, 1.216 and 1.247 were adopted.
These values approximate to the maximum velocity less one standard deviation.
3.4 SDOF Systems - Load Characterisation
One approach to determining the response of a structural element is to idealise the structural system as
a SDOF and to idealise the applied load as a simple triangular pressure time trace. The solution of the
equations for the idealised form is expressed in the classic Biggs' graph which expresses the key
parameters in non-dimensional form. However, the Biggs' idealisation hides a number of uncertainties.
Some of these issues can be addressed directly by modification of the Biggs approach but other effects
such as the development of membrane action cannot be readily incorporated. In addition, measured
data from full-scale tests depart significantly from the idealised version as can be appreciated from the
measured pressure-time history plot shown in Figure 2.
4 PARTIAL FACTOR DETERMINATION
4.1 Structural Reliability Analysis (SRA) Approach
In the present circumstances, structural failure is assumed to occur following an explosion. Failure
will not occur unless the explosion takes place. Structural failure is therefore conditional on the
explosion having taken place. Formulating this as a conditional SRA approach:
Figure 2: Sample measured pressure-time history
peA and B) = PCB)peA I B) (1)
where PCB)is the probability of an explosion occurring, peA I B) is the probability of structural failure
occurring given an explosion has taken place, and peA and B) is the probability that both structural
failure and an explosion occur. The probability of an explosion occurring has already been determined
for three limit state levels as described above. For structural failure, the normal (Gaussian) version of
the levell reliability index (p) procedure will be used. It has the form
In the present application, although component selection has not been limited in any way, most
consideration has been given to beam-type behaviour as in, for example, the problems extracted from
Biggs. This theme will be continued and the statistical descriptions, as discussed in the next section,
developed accordingly. For beam elements, strength will be a function of yield stress, strain-rate and
geometry parameters. Of these, geometry usually plays a minor role in affecting failure probability.
1274
Accordingly, only yield stress and strain-rate will be considered to influence RJ. For design, RJ ~ Qd,
whilst for analysis, RJ = Qd.
4.3 Input Variables
The input variables are listed in Table 1 together with their distribution parameters that characterise
their uncertainty, ie, bias and COY. The basis for their selection is described in PAFA (1999).
TABLE 1
LIMIT STATE VARIABLES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION PARAMETERS
4.4 Limit State Reliabilities
For partial load and resistance factors of unity, Table 2 surnmarises the derived annual reliabilities.
TABLE 2
PROBABILITIES OF FAILURE PER ANNUM FOR EXPLOSION LIMIT STATES
In can be seen from Table 2 that, for the present range of input parameters, overall probabilities of
failure, ie, when accounting for the frequency of occurrence of the explosions themselves, are
relatively small. This is primarily a result of determining a level of loading that basically satisfies the
design equation, namely, RJ = Qd. This is appropriate in the case of design where account is taken of
the occurrence of explosion events during the design phase. For re-assessment, of course, no such
equality can be presumed to exist. However, no relevant information regarding typical topsides
member sizes and strengths relative to explosion loading is to hand so this aspect cannot be examined
further at this point in time.
4.5 Partial Load and Resistance Factors
As a first-pass to determining load factors, resistance factors were introduced as listed in Table 3,
approximately in keeping with the design limit states. The corresponding load factors were derived for
a target reliability of 10.5• The objective was to minimise the difference between the target and the
achieved probabilities across all nine combinations, ie, high, intermediate and low limit states
1275
combined with load biases of 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0. The load factors were constrained to be equal for each
limit state category and a minimum load factor of 0.5 was introduced. The factors were derived for
system strength biases of 1.5 and 2.0. The resulting partial load factors are listed in Table 3.
TABLE 3
TENTATIVE LOAD AND RESISTANCE FACTORS
Load Factors
Resistance
Limit state System strength bias
factor
1.5 2.0
High probability (l0-~ Pa) 1.1 1.81 1.39
Inter. Probability (10-4 Pa) 1.0 1.40 1.05
Low probability (10-> Pa) 0.9 0.50 0.50
Load factors less than unity are generally not acceptable. In deriving typical probabilities of failure, a
spread of some four orders of magnitude was obtained. Such a spread makes it difficult to determine
an appropriate target reliability and necessarily leads to a wide spread in the load factors calculated to
achieve the selected target. One contributing factor to the spread in reliabilities appears to be the
chosen limits on deflections for each of the limit states. The range of these (1, 3, 10) is probably too
small bearing in mind that the difference in frequency between each of the events covered by the limit
states is one order of magnitude (10.3,10-4, 10-5).
5 CONCLUSIONS
A conditional probability reliability analysis procedure was used to determine typical probabilities of
failure and load and resistance factors for three hydrocarbon explosion limit states. For input
parameters typical of the design of topsides structures subjected to such explosions, the range of
probabilities of failure across the three limit states was found to be 5.7 x 10-8 to 5.1 x 10-4per annum.
These are judged to be low bearing in mind that the 'failure mode' corresponding to the least reliable
values is only first yield.
References
Biggs 1M. (1964). Introduction to Structural Dynamics, McGraw-Hill, USA.
Corr R.B. and Tam V.H.Y. (1998). Development of a Limit State Approach for Design against Gas
Explosions. Proceedings Conference on Fire and Explosion Engineering, ERA Technology,
Leatherhead, UK.
ISO. (2000). ISO 19902 Petroleum and Natural Gas Industries - Offshore Structures - Part 2: Fixed
Steel Structures, ISO (Draft).
P A F A Consulting Engineers. (1999). A Reliability-Based Methodology for Determining Response-

Based Load Factors for Design of Topsides against Hydrocarbon Explosion Loads, P A F A, Hampton,
UK.
Steel Construction Institute. (1993). Interim Guidance Note on The Design and Protection of Topsides
Structures against Explosions and Fire, SCI, Ascot, UK.
DESIGN AGAINST MINOR IMPACTS
Marie Liitzen and Preben Temdrup Pedersen
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maritime Engineering

Technical University of Denmark
DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
ABSTRACT
A procedure for design and for prediction of damages to ship bows and side shells of vessels during
minor impacts is presented. The procedure is illustrated by practical examples.
Many impacts happen during manoeuvring in harbour areas. If the vessel is not completely controlled,
it may have severe impacts with quays or obstacles. Similarly, when a vessel collides with floating
objects energy is released for structural deformation of the vessel. Floating objects may be cargo lost
by other vessels such as containers and barrels or nature-made objects such as logs or floating ice bits.
Two application examples are presented. The first example deals with an impact with a fender system
during a harbour manoeuvre. Contact forces and energy absorbed by the system during the manoeuvre
are calculated and the maximum safe berthing velocity for the vessel is estimated. Secondly, collision
with floating objects is illustrated by an example where a bulk carrier impacts small icebergs.
KEYWORDS
Collision, Minor Impacts, Fender Systems, Floating Objects.
1 INTRODUCTION
Insurance company statistics shows that large sums are paid every year for repair of minor contact
damages. Minor ship impacts may arise at sea during collision with floating objects or by contact with
obstacles during manoeuvring in harbour areas.
When a ship collides with a floating object energy is released for structural deformation of the vessel.
Floating objects can be cargo lost from other ships such as containers and barrels or nature-made
objects such as logs or floating ice bits. Loss of deck cargo may happen in bad weather due to
insufficient lashing combined with large motion or green water on deck. The risk of colliding with a
floating object depends on factors such as the size and the geometrical form of the object. Weather
conditions and traffic density will influence the possibility of detection of the object.
1278
Most minor impacts occur during berthing manoeuvres in the harbour, or when the vessel is alongside
or passing narrow canals or locks. During harbour manoeuvres the vessel is exposed to many forces,
which may arise from own propulsion, mooring lines, wind, current, swell, etc. To avoid unintended
contact, the control options available for the navigator during berthing of the vessel are e.g. rudder,
thrusters, winches, anchors, and occasionally tug assistance. In such a complex situation it is not
surprising that the frequency of severe impacts to a large extent depends on the experience and the
education of the crew.
Since impacts cannot be avoided, it is necessary to design ships so that a certain robustness of the hull
structure is ensured. The purpose of this paper is to present a procedure for design against minor
impacts against floating objects and berthing forces.
2 COLLISION THEORY
The analysis procedure is divided into an external dynamics analysis, e.g. prediction of global motions
of the ship and the struck object, and an internal mechanics analysis, which is the prediction of the
resulting deformation of the structure.
The external dynamics can be solved by numerical solution of the equations of motion or by an
integrated approach where the conservation of energy, momentum and angular momentum during the
impact is used to derive analytical expressions for the dissipated energy. The present paper is based on
a method of the latter kind developed by Pedersen and Zhang (1998). The energy loss for dissipation
by structural deformation is estimated and expressed in closed-form solutions. The procedure is based
on a rigid body mechanism, where it is assumed that there is negligible strain energy for deformation
outside the contact region, and that the contact region is local and small. The collision can then be
considered instantaneous as each body is assumed to exert an impulsive force on the other at the point
of contact. The model includes friction between the impacting surfaces so that situations with glancing
blows can be identified. Three degrees of freedom are considered: surge, sway and yaw. The
interaction between the ship, the object and the surrounding water is approximated by simple added
mass coefficients, which are assumed to remain constant during the collision.
Figure I: Berthing vessel, ship - object collision.
When the energy released for structural deformation during the impact is known, the next step is to
apply the internal mechanics analysis to prediction of the resulting structural deformation. Structural
elements such as plates or beams may withstand a pressure above the limit for elastic deformation
without unacceptably large permanent deformation after unloading. The permanent deformation,
which may be accepted, depends on the design and the type of the vessel. Hughes (1981) has as a
design criterion suggested that a permanent deformation of the plate thickness is acceptable for
merchant ships. If the vessel has been exposed to larger deformation, ship repair may be required. As
the velocity of a vessel is relatively small, dynamic effects can be neglected.
The prediction of the structural deformation is based on a balance between the external work from
loads on the structure and the internal energy stored or dissipated in the structure. Due to page
limitation, the theory (Jones, 1989) is illustrated by an example. A flat plate grillage under uniform
pressure is considered. The plate is stiffened both longitudinally and transversely. As the transverse
stiffeners are deep, it is assumed that these are fully clamped ends. The spacing between transverse
stiffeners is 1016 mm, the plate thickness 6.2 mm and the longitudinal stiffening consists of T-
stiffeners (61.1 x 44.4 x 6.2/8.7) with a spacing of 508 mm. The yield strength of the steel is 323 MPa.
The permanent deformation versus the pressure at the plate is shown in Figure 2, together with
1280
experimental results (Clarkson, 1963). The energy absorbed in the plate is calculated by an integration
procedure.
3 APPLICATION EXAMPLES
Two application examples will be presented. The first example deals with a fender system impact
during a harbour manoeuvre. Contact forces and energy absorbed by the system during the manoeuvre
are calculated, and the maximum safe berthing velocity for the vessel is estimated. Secondly a
collision with a floating object will be illustrated by an example where an ice-strengthened bulk carrier
impacts a small iceberg. The plastic deformation of the bow is given as a function of the mass of the
iceberg and the velocity of the striking vessel. For both examples the energy absorbed by elastic
deformation of the ship structure is negligible.
3.1 Harbour Manoeuvre
The manoeuvre of berthing a vessel is so difficult that the frequency of accidents is very high. The
increase in the size of vessels has made berthing manoeuvres even more difficult. Special problems are
related to large vessels, which are not able to enter some harbours and therefore must berth in locations
exposed to waves, swell and currents.
3.1.1 Berthing velocities
Figure 3: Berthing velocity as a function of navigation conditions for tankers of various displacements,
data from Pianc (1983).
In the berthing procedure the vessel is moved slowly towards the quay by tugs, thrusters or mooring
winches. During this procedure, the wind may push the vessel towards the quay with a speed above
what is desirable, or a strong current may cause the vessel to drift in an undesirable direction. Berthing
forces are a function of the vessel momentum and the berthing velocity, where the impact velocity
depends on the navigational condition, the difficulties of berthing and the location of the quay. Figure
3 shows an empirical relation between navigation conditions and velocity for tankers of various
displacements. The diagram is based on field data analysed by Pianc (1983).
3.1.2 The Fender System
The type and the size of a fender system in a specific harbour are mainly determined with respect to
the following considerations:
The fender system must be capable of absorbing the loss in kinetic energy during the procedure of
berthing the vessel. If berthing the quay is difficult, the requirements of energy absorption are more
strict, as the velocity of the vessel may be increased
1281
• If only small movements of the vessel are allowed during the loading/discharging procedure, a
fender with small deformation for large energy absorption is required
• The size of the reaction force and the contact area of the fender must be considered together with
the design strength of the weakest part of the side shell
From these considerations it can be concluded that the design offender systems is highly dependent on
the vessels expected to berth at a particular quay.
Berthing a tanker of 150 m in length
The added mass coefficients are assumed to be 0.05 for surge, 0.85 for sway and 0.21 for yaw motion.
The coefficient of friction between the fender and the side of the vessel is taken to be 0.6. It is assumed
that the vessel is berthed as parallel to the quay as possible, but that only one fender is in contact with
the side of the vessel. The design berthing velocity for a tanker of approx. 30,000 t is of the size 0.1 to
0.2 mls. (See Figure 3). The smallest velocity is for berthing at sheltered quay and good berthing, the
largest velocity for difficult berthing at exposed quays.
The loss in kinetic energy or the energy to be absorbed by the fender as a function of the collision
location forward of amidships is shown in Figure 4 (right). The velocity is taken to be 0.05 mls to 0.15
mls. It is assumed that the quay is equipped with a fender system of the buckling type (Derocher, 1983)
the deformation diagram for this fender type is shown in Figure 4 (left).
According to Agerschou et al. (1983), the design height and length of a fender are based on the size
and the type of vessels, which will berth at a particular quay. For tankers of 10,000 to 100,000 DWT
the ratio between the fender height and the longitudinal spacing should not be less than about two. For
this example the smallest height is chosen. According to Agerschou et al. (1983), this will give a
length equal to the frame spacing. The limit strength Pc for the side shell is calculated and compared to
the fender reaction force. The absorption of energy by the fender, before the force reaches the limit
strength of the side shell, may now be calculated by integration. The limit strength is calculated to
III? kN, which for the chosen fender system gives an energy absorption of 441 kJ for a travelled
distance of 0.68 m. From Figure 4, where both the energy to be absorbed and the maximum allowable
1282
energy absorbed by the fender are shown, it is seen that at a berthing velocity of 0.13 m/s the fender
can absorb all energy regardless of the striking location. A velocity of 0.13 m/s relates to a berthing
condition referred to as easy berthing at exposed quays, see Figure 3.
3.2 Collision with a Floating Object
A collision between a vessel and floating objects will be illustrated by an example where a bulk carrier
impacts a small iceberg. The struck vessel is a 150,000 DWT bulk carrier of the high ice class (DNV
ice class 1B). The scantlings are found in Pedersen at al. (1993).
The main particulars of the vessel:

Length (L) 274.0 m
Breadth (B) 47.0 m
Draught (1) 15.96 m
Displacement (LI) 174,850 t
Service speed (V) 15 knots
The striking location is assumed to be 7 m aft of the forward perpendicular where the breadth of the
vessel is 6 m. The form of the bow is such that the angle between the centre line and the side of the
vessel is 15°. The bow region is longitudinally stiffened. The frame spacing is 3200 mm; the plate
thickness 33 mrn and the longitudinal stiffeners are T-stiffeners (400 x 100 x 19/19) with a spacing of
600 mrn. The yield strength of the steel is 315 MPa.
The energy absorption due to crushing of the side shell as a function of the ratio between the
permanent deformation and the plate thickness w/h is shown in Figure 5. Figure 5 also shows the loss
in kinetic energy during the collision calculated by use of the described external dynamics analysis. It
is assumed that the vessel has a velocity up to its service speed of 15 knots, and a permanent
deformation of the size of the plate thickness is accepted. Figure 5 shows that a collision with an object
of 10 t is acceptable without reducing the velocity of the vessel. If the velocity is reduced to 13 knots a
collision with a 20 t object is acceptable.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This paper has briefly described a procedure for rational design of ship hulls against minor impacts.
The procedure has been illustrated by two examples. In the first example an impact with a fender
system during berthing of a vessel has been analysed. In this case, it is required that the fender must
absorb all energy for a given set of scantlings. The maximum allowable berthing velocity for a tanker
impacting a specific fender system has been determined. The second example presents a model for
prediction of minor damages to a vessel during collision with a floating object. In this case the object
is considered rigid, which means that the loss in kinetic energy during the collision must be
transformed into deformation of the vessel. Permanent deformations of the size of the plate thickness
are in this case accepted.
References
Agerschou, H., Lundgren, H., Sorensen, T., Ernst, T., Korsgaard, J., Schmidt, L. and Chi, W. (1983),
Planning and Design of Ports and Marine Terminals, A Wiley - Interscience Publication
Bruun, P. (1989), Port Engineering, volume 1, Library of Congress Catalog - in Publication Data, 4th
edition
Clarkson, J. (1963), Test of Flat Plated Grillage under Uniform Pressure, Transactions, Royal
Institution of Naval Architects, 105
Derucher, K. N. (1983), Evaluation of Pier Fendering Systems, The Dock and Harbour Authority
Hughes, O. F. (1981), Design of Laterally Loaded Plating - Uniform Pressure Loads, Journal of Ship
Research, 25(2)
Jones, N. (1989), Structural Impact, Cambridge University Press
Pedersen, P. T., Valsgaard, S., Olsen, D. and Spangenberg, S. (1993), Ship Impacts: Bow Collision, Int.
J of Impact Engineering, 13(2): 163--187
Pedersen, P. T. and Zhang, S. (1998), On Impact Mechanics in Ship Collision, Marine Structures,
11:429-449
Pianc (1983), Report of the International Commision for Improving the Design of Fender Systems,
Permanent International Association of Navigation Congress (Pianc), Supplement to Bulletin (45)
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE BUFFER

BOW STRUCTURES
INational Maritime Research Institute, 6-38-1 Shinkawa, Mitaka,

Tokyo, 181-0004, Japan
2Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Nagasaki R&D Center, 5-717-1 Fukahori,
Nagasaki, 851-0392, Japan
ABSTRACT
In order to prevent a disastrous damage induced by collision accident which might cause cargo oil spill
from a struck oil tanker, the adoption of double hull system in side hull of oil tanker has been
recognized as an effective countermeasures. However, when considering that ocean-going vessels are
increasing not only in size but also in speed, the threat of disastrous collision accident should be
further mitigated also on the responsibility of striking ships. Thus RR76 panel of Shipbuilding
Research Association of Japan and NMRI (SRI by old name) have started, as a joint work, to
investigate into the effectiveness ofb\1ffer bow structure since 1998.
NMRI has conducted a series of crush test using three kinds of simplified scale models of the buffer
bow. The test results have been compared with those obtained by FEA simulation and a simple
analysis method which was developed to evaluate the crashworthiness of buffer bow structure. The
performance of the buffer bow is discussed focusing on the collapse mechanism and the PI a
characteristics. Then the recommendation for the practical design of buffer bow structure is presented.
KEYWORDS
Collision, Buffer bow, Soft bow, Oil spill, Crush test, FEA simulation, Collapse mechanism, Conical
shell, Folding.
INTRODUCTION
Ship-ship collision might cause serious damage to the struck ship and also threaten the safety of life
onboard. When oil tanker is collided by large ship, disastrous oil spill might be induced and marine
environment nearby might be seriously contaminated. In order to prevent such oil spill from a struck
tanker, the double hull(D/H) system in side hull has been recognized as an effective countermeasures.
However, it is the fact that tanker oil spill has been still induced by collision accidents like the case of
1286
oil tanker "Evoikos" which was collided and caused disastrous sea pollution off Singapore in 1997.
Then further improvement to minimize the probability of oil spill accident has been required.
The buffer bow concept has been proposed by ASIS (1997-1998) in order to further decrease the oil
spill probability as the next-step countermeasures. Buffer bow is expected to lessen the threat of the
damage on the side hull of struck ship by absorbing the striking energy.
Although buffer bow (soft bow) concept was proposed by Cheung (1969) in the 1960's for high speed
vessels, only a few research activities, Lee (1983), have been conducted so far. ASIS (The Association
for Structural Improvement of Shipbuilding Industry) has attempted the application of buffer bow to
large cargo ships in their research project between 1991 to 1998. ASIS has shown the preliminary
design of prototype buffer bow and conducted FEM simulation analysis to evaluate its effectiveness,
ASIS (1997-1998) and Kitamura et al.(1998).
In order to introduce the buffer bow concept in the international regulations in the near future, RR76
panel of Shipbuilding Research Association of Japan and NMRI have started, as a joint work, to study
the necessary items for the buffer bow structure since 1998, JSRA (2001) and Kitamura (2000).
In the previous researches on ship-ship collision, the attention have been paid to the side structure of
collided ship. A lot of experimental and analytical works have been dedicated to the crashworthiness
of side hull structure of collided ships especially in relation to nuclear powered ships and radioactive
material carriers, JSRA (1971), JSRA(1978-1980) and JSRA(2000).
As far as the bow structure damage is concerned, only a few researches have been carried out, Cheung
(1969), Lee (1983), JSRA (1978-1980) and Ohnishi et aI. (1983). Ohtsubo and Suzuki (1994)
developed a simplified analysis method to estimate collapse strength of bow. Then they expanded their
simplified method to be applicable to the collapse of bulbous bow, JSRA (2000) and JSRA (2001).
Lehmann et al. (1995) developed an analytical method to follow the collapse mechanism of bulbous
bow and they demonstrated the effectiveness of their method by applying it to the ship-ship collision
accidents which had occurred recently. Lehmann (1995) treated the collapse of bulbous bow based on
the progressive collapse of conical shell.
Bulbous bow is regarded as the threat to struck ship as most of large ships have a bulbous bow and it
usually contacts the struck ship first then might penetrate the side shell. It is considered that structure
after collision bulkhead may be rarely broken in head-on-collision accidents because large ships have
large sectional area at the root of bulbous bow. Then the bulbous bow is regarded as the key structure
part for buffer bow design.
In this research the attention has been focused on the bulbous bow part. For Simplicity the bulbous
bow part was modeled as a symmetric conical shell shape then three kinds of scale models were
constructed and the collapse mechanism and energy absorption capacity of them were experimentally
and analytically studied through the crush test. The models were designed as about one fifth the size of
Suezmax. class tanker which has a transverse stiffening system. In order to study the size effect, the
scale models are designed different in ring frame space and shell thickness.
Simplified analysis method has been developed to evaluate the crashworthiness of buffer bow by
jointing the method by Lehmann (1995) and the method by Ohtsubo (1994). Its accuracy was verified
by comparing the results with the test and FEM calculation as well.
1287
2 EXPERIMENT
2.1 Scale Model of Buffer Bow
In order to investigate the basic characteristics of buffer bow, three kinds of conical buffer bow model
were designed and the crush tests were conducted. As the buffer bow structure the transverse stiffening
system "ring frame" was adopted as it is expected to be advantageous in reducing the axial crushing
strength. Each model was designed so that ring frames space(FS) and shell plate thickness (t) are
different. The particulars of each scale model are shown in Figure 1 and Table 1.
A series of crush tests were conducted with buffer bow models. The models were fixed with the bow
top faced upwards and was compressed quasi-statically by a rigid board from top of the bow as if the
bow collide into the rigid side shell in right angle. Displacement of rigid plate, reaction force and
strains were measured.
2.3 Experimental Results
2.3.1 Collapse mode
In the collapse process all of the models collapsed progressively frame space by frame space from top
of the bow. The collapse mode observed was spherically concentric folding as shown in Figure 8. The
folding span of Model BC-C was about the same as its frame space(=100mm) whereas the folding
span of BC-A and BC-B were larger than that of model BC-C but smaller than the frame space. In both
cases of BC-A and BC-B, the folding span was about 100 to 140mm which corresponds to 1 to 2
folding wrinkles within one frame space. The first folding occurred in Section 1. Folding span of
BC-A and BC-B is equivalent to the interval which the peak of reaction force appears as shown in
Figures 2 , 4 and 6. It was found that the folding span corresponds to the frame space in the case of
small frame space whereas it does not correspond to the frame space in the case of larger frame space.
1288
The folding span is considered to be also affected by the rigidity longitudinal girders.
2.3.2 Time history of reaction force
Relations between reaction force(P) and displacement( 8 ) for each model are shown in Figures 2,4 and
6. It is found that the time history of reaction force shows periodical ups and downs. Observing the test
and P- 8 curve carefully, it is found that the first peak appears at Section I, both the second and the
third peaks at Section 2 and the fourth at Section 3.
In the case of BC-C, no obvious peak force was observed in the test whereas the peak is expected to
appear in FEA results. However, the collapse mode that spherical wrinkle repeats with ring frame span
is quite similar between the test and FEA. The discrepancy in the characteristics of peak force is
regarded due to initial deflection and residual stress caused by welding fabrication. Since the shell
thickness of Model BC-C (t=1.6mm) is much thinner than others ( t=4.5mm), it is supposed to be
highly vulnerable to welding heat input. It should be noted that we had better use steel plate with
thickness of 4 mm or greater as the material for scale models.
The cyclic fluctuation of the reaction force is regarded as highly related to the folding mechanism.
There are two stages in one cycle of folding. After small buckling occurs the reaction force goes down
with developing wrinkle. Then the reaction force goes up after the folding is completed and the surface
of folded plate touches the adjacent plate until the next folding occurs.
2.3.3 Energy absorption capacity
Relations between the absorbed energy and the displacement for BC-A and BC-B are shown in Figures
3 and 5 respectively. Energy absorption capacity for both models was found to be about the same.
3 COLLAPSE ANALYSIS
3.1 Finite Element Analysis
Elasto-plastic finite element analysis was carried out by using FEA program "LS-DYNA 3D" for the
cases of the crush test.
3.1.1 FEA model
Overview of finite element model is illustrated with boundary condition and load application condition
in Figure 7. The element size was so determined as to be able to simulate the folding mechanism of
shell.
3.1.2 Analysis condition
1be model was fixed at the back end and was pressed from top of the bow with a rigid board with right
1290
angle. Colliding velocity of rigid board was set to 5 m/s considering the calculation time. The criteria
for the breaking strain of elements were decided from the strain/gauge-length curves which were
obtained from material tensile tests.
3.1.3 Analysis results
p- D relation and E(absorbed energy)- D relation obtained by FEA are shown in Figures 2 to 6. As for
P- D relation for model BC-A and BC-B, the magnitude of reaction force by FEA is found to agree
with the test results though the intervals between peaks are slightly different. As for absorbed energy
which is considered to be the most important design factor for buffer bow, FEA results are found to
give satisfactory agreements with the test results.
3.2 Simplified Analysis
Endo & Yamada (2001) have developed a simplified analysis method to estimate P- D relation for the
buffer bow structure. The analysis method is summarized as follows:
I. The force deformation relation is obtained on the basis of plastic analysis.
2. The bow structure is modeled as the combined structure of a conical shell and segmented
longitudinal girders.
3. The behavior of conical shell is estimated by Lehmann's method, Lehmann (1995).
4. The behavior of longitudinal girders is estimated by Ohtsubo's method, Ohtsubo (1994).
Please see Endo & Yamada (2001) for the detailed procedure of the analysis method.
The results obtained by the simplified analysis are shown in Figures 2 to 6 with a notation "present"
comparing with the results obtained by test "Exp." and FEA "FEM". This analysis method is found to
give a good estimation for the average tendency of reaction force and absorbed energy though it can
tell us nothing about the fluctuation of reaction force changing from peak to trough in a short period.
4 GUIDELINES ON PRACTICAL DESIGN OF BUFFER BOW STRUCTURE
This guideline is presented on the premise that the design criteria for bow structures are entirely based
on the rule of classification societies.
1. The reaction force per unit sectional area must be minimized to reduce the damage to the struck
ship,
2. though the total force reacting on the whole sectional area should be maximized to enhance energy
absorbing capacity.
3. A blunt shaped bow is advantageous when taking account of above-mentioned conditions. A sharp
bow tip should be avoided.
4. The transverse stiffening system (ring frame) is advantageous in reducing thrust strength while
keeping local out-of-plane resistance to a certain extent.
5. Decreasing the size of the section at the root of bulbous bow is another effective way as it is
expected to be easily bent against horizontal and vertical bending induced by collision. Longer
bulbous bow is also preferable in the same sense.
6. The stem structure should be designed as not so sharp and stiff considering that it might touch the
side hull of struck ship at an early stage of collision.
The bow structure stiffened by ring frame is expected to collapse progressively from bow tip with
spherical concentric folding mode during collision. In this collapse mode the reaction force keeps a
1291
certain degree of level while the peak value is not so high. This performance is quite advantageous for
the buffer bow.
The results obtained by FEA and the simplified analysis have been confirmed to be reliable in
estimating the performance of buffer bow structure.
In this research the bow was simplified as conical shaped and the side hull as a rigid board. The study
needs to be extended to the next step where more realistic structure will be treated.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Shipbuilding Research Association of Japan (JSRA) and the members of
the Regulation Research panels No.76 for their valuable advice and discussions. The authors would like
to extend their sincere gratitude to the Nippon Foundation's support to the activities of JSRA ..
References
AS IS (The Association for Structural Improvement of Shipbuilding). (1997-1998). Report on

Research in Environmental Preservation Technology, (in Japanese)
Cheung L. (1969). A Soft Bow for Ships. European Shipbuilding No.3, 52-53
Endo H. and Yamada Y. (2001). The Performance of Buffer Bow Structures against Collision (1"
Report: Collapse Strength of the Simplified Structure Models ). Journal of the Society of Naval
Architects of Japan. 189, (in Japanese)
JSRA (1971). Studies on Collision Protective Structures of Nuclear Powered Ships. Report of NSR3
71, (in Japanese)
JSRA (1978-1980). Research on Collision Protective Performance of Nuclear Powered Ships. Report
of Nuclear Ship Research Committee 10, (in Japanese)
JSRA (2000). Research on the Safety Sea-transport of Radioactive Materials. Report of RR46, (in
Japanese)
JSRA (Shipbuilding Research Association of Japan) (2001). Research on the Reduction of Oil Spill
from Tanker. Report of RR76, (in Japanese)
Kitamura 0., Kuroiwa T., Kawamoto Y and Kaneko E. (1998). A Study on the Improved Tanker
Structure against Collision and Grounding Damage. Proceedings of the 7'h P RADS, 173-179.
Kitamura O. (2000). Buffer Bow Design for the Improved Safety of Ships. Proc. of
SSC/SNAME/ASNE Symposium
Lee J. W. (1983). On the Optimization Design of Soft Bow Structure. Proc. of the 2nd Intern!.
Symposium on Practical Design in Shipbuilding, 429-435
Lehmann E. and Yu X. (1995). Progressive Folding of Bulbous Bows. Jahrbuch der

Schiffbautechnischen Gesellsca.fi 89, 88-97, (in German)
Ohnishi T., Kawakami H., Yasukawa W. and Nagasawa H. (1983). On the Ultimate Strength of Bow
Construction (Bow in Collision). Proc. of the 2nd Internl. Symposium on Practical Design in
Shipbuilding, 635-642
Ohtsubo H. and Suzuki K. (1994). The Crushing Mechanics of Bow Structure in Head on Collision
(1" Report: The Derivation of Simplified Equations and Their Verification). Journal of the Society of
Naval Architects of Japan 176,301-308, (in Japanese)
Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures ]293
© 2001 E]sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
CALCULATION OF COLLISIONS WITH THE AID OF LINEAR FE

MODELS
E. Lehmann, E.D. Egge, M. Scharrer, L. Zhang
Germanischer Lloyd AG, Vorsetzen 35, 20459 Hamburg, Germany
ABSTRACT
Today, state-of-the-art methods enable us to analyse collisions and groundings to a certain degree of
accuracy by applying the nonlinear finite element technology. However, for the purpose of practical
ship structural design, such calculations are too time-consuming and costly. Therefore, Germanischer
Lloyd is developing a method that permits collision analyses with adequate accuracy by using the FE
models generated for global structural investigations. The method is described in detail. Also,
problems concerning the ultimate load of stiffened plates, box columns and other profiles, rational
failure strain values and local contact forces are discussed.
KEYWORDS
Collision resistance, Linear FE model, Folding, Mean ultimate stress, Failure strain.
1 INTRODUCTION
Due to a number of serious tanker accidents in the past decade, the world-wide interest concerning
ship collisions and grounding has increased considerably. Owing to the recurrence of major disasters,
the safety regulations for tanker transport, tanker operation and newbuildings have been tightened
considerably (MARPOL 73/76, 73/78, OPA 90, TOCA). For instance a the compulsory double hull
design for tanker newbuildings was introduced. Also, methods for calculating the vessel's collision
have evolved significantly. In the future, methods and programs, with which the ship collision
resistance can be calculated, can also be applied for the proof of damage stability for cargo vessels
subject to compliance with the SOLAS convention. In these regulations alternative design for the
proofs are accepted, if the same degree of safety as required is verified.
Besides, the evidence of ecologically advantageous constructions has become an important sales
argument. Also for this reason, Germanischer Lloyd established an additional class notation COLL
classifying the ship's collision resistance in 1984 [6].
It is clear that quick and economically feasible methods will be needed for optimization of the collision
resistance in the design phase. Germanischer Lloyd is therefore pursuing the strategy of first
implementing the structural description in the design program POSEIDON and then using the FE
model generated by this program for collision calculations.
1295
3 ASSUMPTION OF FAILURE STRAINS
Under tension, the load-carrying behaviour and the energy absorption is limited when the failure strain
is attained. Evaluations of stress-strain curves from laboratory tests on tensile specimen show two
ranges of differing strain behaviours. From the point at which the yield stress is reached, the specimen
extends with plastic flow and the cross-section is reduced, whereby the volume remains constant.
Owing to the strain hardening effect, the stress and strain increase uniformly over the length of the
specimen until the nominal fracture stress is attained. This behaviour of the tensile specimen describes
the zone of uniform strain. Once the nominal fracture stress is reached, the strain behaviour changes.
With decreasing nominal stress, the necking of the tensile specimen is constricted only within a small
region, where it extends rapidly until fracture takes place at high plastic strains.
Calculations using DYNA3D have shown that the deformation energies react sensitively with respect
to the assumed failure criteria. Figure 9 contrasts the deformations and energy curves for two
comparable collisionsbut different values for the failure strains (10% and 20%). It can be seen that, if
an unrealistic failure strain is assumed, this can lead to considerable errors in estimating the energy
absorption and indentation depth. Therefore, it is important to set realistic failure criteria. First of all,
the element types and the fineness of the FE mesh play important roles [15]. Because the length of the
necking zone is of the order of magnitude of the plate thickness, it is impossible to consider necking
and fracture details with large element sizes. In order to obtain rational failure strain assumptions, it is
necessary to consider and combine both the uniform strain and the necking strain. For different
element sizes, the failure strain should occur for the same structural deformation energy.
But if the failure strains are derived from tensile tests only, fairly large failure strain values result for
large elements because the uniform strains from tensile tests for ship structural steels are
approximately 20%, while observations of actual collision damages have shown that there are no
considerable deformations near the direct contact zone (fig. 8). At this point it is worthwhile recalling
that, for the methods in which large and simple structural elements are used, low failure strains (approx.
5%) were assumed. In order to clarify which failure strains are to be assumed for the calculation
procedure, failure strains were determined by thickness measurements at damaged structural details of
actual collisions and of full-scale collision test models. The measured strains were divided into
uniform and necking strain. Since the material volume does not change in the yielding process, it may
be assumed that plastic strains occur whenever the thickness changes. However, information about
strain directions cannot be obtained from measurements. It may be assumed that the prevailing strain
component is perpendicular to the fracture line. This assumption can be verified by observing the
fracture line flows on coatings after damage. But measurements also include other phenomena, e.g.,
influences of multiaxiality of the stresses (for a biaxial stress state, failure strain can be as low as half
the value as results for a uniaxial stress state), of direction and kind of collision forces (tension,
compression, bending and shear), of strain rate as well as of notch effects of the local structure. So, in
contrast to laboratory tensile tests, there is the advantage that such influences are not neglected, but
considered in a general sense.
5 COLLISION CALCULATION
The collision calculations are carried out in the time domain. This involves solving a system of
differential equations with initial conditions. Each degree of freedom of a node represents its own
differential equation of second order, which couples to other equations nonlinearly. The acceleration is
calculated as a function of the deformation, the speed and the load. By transformation, two differential
equations of first order can be obtained, which are solved implicitly in a numerically stable manner
using the Newmark integration method. The effective stiffness matrix contains the normal stiffuess
matrix, but also mass and damping components. A singularity of the stiffness matrix can therefore be
removed; the shorter the time step chosen, the more effectively this is done. The effective load vector
also contains terms dependent on mass and damping properties. Having performed a numerically
expensive computation, an effective displacement vector is obtained, from which the actual
acceleration, speed and displacement vectors at the end of the time step are determined. The
deformation energy is obtained by integration of the internal forces.
6 SUMMARY
Germanischer Lloyd is pursuing the strategy of performing collision analyses by utilizing the linear FE
models generated for elastic stress proofs. The basic concepts underlying the development of a
procedure for collision calculations are explained within the scope of this presentation. The essential
point is the use of large-size elements with particular characteristics accounting for tension and folding.
The design of the procedure allows to simulate collisions entirely in the time domain so that
interactions of outer and inner collision mechanics are accounted for. An empirical relationship
between failure strain and element size is derived based on thickness measurements performed on
damaged structural components from actual collisions. Using this procedure, only little additional
input data is required in order to assess the collision resistance of the ship's hull by use of a previously
established linear FE model.
References
[1] Minorsky Y.U. (1959). An Analysis of Ship Collisions with Reference to Protection of
Nuclear Power Plants. Journal of Ship Research. 3:2.
[2] Mc Dermott J.F. (1974). Tanker Structural Analysis for Minor Collisions, SNAME. 82.
[3] Reckling K.A. (1983). Mechanics of Minor Ship Collisions, International Symposium on
1298
Structural Crashworthiness. University Liverpool.

[4] Egge E.D., Bockenhauer M. (1991). Calculation of the Collision Resistance of Ships and its
Assessment for Classification Purposes, Marine Structures. 4, 36-56.
[5] Scharrer M., Egge E.D. (1997). Untersuchungen zum Kollisionswiderstand von RoRo-
Schiffen. Jahrbuch der Schiffbautechnischen Gesellschafi. Bd. 91.
[6] Germanischer Lloyd. (2000). Rulesfor Classification and Construction. 1 Ship Technology. 1
Seagoing Ships.
[7] Scharrer M., Zhang L., Egge E.D. (2000). Abschlul3bericht zum Vorhaben MTK 05884:
Versagensverhalten von Schiffen bei Kollision, Germanischer Lloyd Bericht.
[8] Abramovicz W. (1983). The Effective Crushing Distance in Axially Compressed Thin-Walled
Metal Columns, Int. J of Impact Engineering. 1:3. 309-317.
[9] Amdahl J. (1983). Energy Absorption in Ship-Platform Impacts, PhD. Thesis, Department of
Marine Technology, University of Trondheim, Norway. Report No. UR-83-34.
[10] Yang P. D. c., Caldwell J. B. (1988). Collision Energy Absorption of Ships' Bow Structures.
Int. J ofImpact Engineering. 7:2, 181-196.
[II] Paik J. K., Pederson P. T. (1995) Ultimate and Crushing Strength of Plated Structures. Journal
of Ship Research. 39:3,259-261.
[12] Lee J.W.: On the Optimization Design of Soft Bow Structures, PRADS 1983, 429-435.
[13] Choi S.K., Wierzbicki T. Culbertson-Driscoll J. (1994). Crushing Strength of Web Girder,
Joint MIT-Industry Program on Tanker Safety. Rep. 23.
[14] Lehmann E., Yu X. (1995). Progressive Folding of Bulbous Bows. Jahrbuch der
Schiffbautechnischen Gesellschaft. Bd. 89.
[15] Yu X. (1997). Strukturverhalten mit grol3er Verformung bis zum Brucheintritt und mit
dynamischer Zusammenfaltung. Dissertation, Bericht Nr. 579, Its der Uni. Hamburg.
[16] Peschmann J. (2000). Berechnung der Energieabsorption der Stahlstruktur von Schiffen bei
Kollisionen und Grundbertihrungen. Dissertation, TU Hamburg-Harburg.
[17] Pedersen P.T., Servis D.P., Zhang S., Samuelides M. Design for Structural Safety under
Extreme Loads Collision Mechanics, EU Research Project, No. BE97-4375.
A SIMPLIFIED INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL

MECHANICS MODEL FOR SHIPS' COLLISION
K. Suzuki I, H. Ohtsub02 and K.S. Sajit3
I Institute of Environmental Study, The University of Tokyo

2 Department of Environmental and Ocean Engineering, The University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongo Bunkyo-ku Tokyo Japan
3 American Bureau of Shipping, Asia Pacific
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to present a simplified analytical method for the external and internal
mechanics during a collision situation. The simplified external mechanics model can simulate the rigid
body motion of the colliding ships. Added mass at infinite frequency is assumed to take into account
the surrounding water effects. The derived mathematical model is applied to a collision between two
ships. The results are compared with the results of FEM simulations and good agreement has been
achieved. The simplified external mechanics model can be well integrated with the simplified internal
mechanics model and the simultaneous interaction between the external and internal mechanics can be
simulated.
KEYWORDS
CollisionAnalysis, Simplified method, Internal mechanics, External mechanics
INTRODUCTION
In the classical ship collision theory, the collision problem is separated into two independent problems;
the first being the internal mechanics and the second is the external mechanics. Internal mechanics
involves the evaluation of force-indentation responses of the striking and struck ships. The external
mechanics deals with the motion of the colliding ships and their interaction with the surrounding water.
This separation is possible because the colliding ships and the surrounding water are treated as an
undamped system, using the theory of absolutely inelastic collisions between two bodies.
Minorsky (1959), in his famous paper, has equated the absorbed energy and the loss of kinetic energy of
ships involved in the collision. He has also assumed that the hydrodynamic effect was represented by an
increased inertia force due to added mass effect and estimated the added mass coefficient of the struck
ship to be 0.4; added mass coefficient for lateral vibration. It has been observed that the ratio of external
1302
force to the acceleration of the struck ship varies with the time elapsed; the added mass is not constant but
time dependent. There is always a simultaneous interaction between external and internal mechanics.
Motora et al (1969) first introduced the concept of equivalent added mass which, dividing the external
force by it, will give an acceleration equal to the exact value of acceleration at the end of collision. This
equivalent added mass is also time dependent. If the duration of collision is very small, the added mass at
infinite fTequency is a good approximation.
In this paper, the simplified external mechanics model can be well integrated with the simplified internal
mechanics model and the simultaneous interaction between the external and internal mechanics is
simulated.
2 INTERNAL MECHANICS
Recent development of the explicit dynamic finite element codes enabled the simulation of the collision
situation. However, the application of this method is prohibitively expensive in both model generation
and computation. The objective of the simplified analysis is to derive theoretical models based on
observed deformation patterns, which capture the major details without tremendous modeling effort. The
procedure is to find the kinematically admissible deformation of the structure that yields the lowest force -
least upper bound.
2.1 The Crushing Mechanics of the Side Structure

For the striking ship only the surge motion need to be considered. The hydrodynamic forces related to the
surge motion cannot be found by strip method. The force is however very small compared to sway force.
According to Motora et al (1969), the added mass can be approximated to (0.02 - 0.07)m , where m is
the mass of the ship.
The sway and yaw motions of the struck ship along with the surge motion of the striking ship can be
written as follows. The suffixes 'I' and '2' represent the striking as well as the struck ship respectively.
In these equations there is no coupling between the motions of the two ships. The interaction of them
comes from internal mechanics. The non-linear spring is introduced between them, and the spring
relation between deformation and force is derived using internal mechanics, as described in the next
section.
(6)
For a center line collision as shown in Figure 4, if we assume the external force to a stepwise one of
magnitude for a duration, the longitudinal motion of the striking ship and the sway motion of the struck
ship can be written as:
4 SIMULATION OF COLLISION
The above method is used to evaluate the strength of a 7000 t ship with anti-collision structure side being
hit by a Suezmax tanker (150,000 DWT) and a VLCC (280,000 DWT). The collisions are assumed to be
central right-angled as this situation is more pertinent inducing greater damage to the struck side. The
results are compared with the finite element analysis of the same situations by Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Japan. Two conditions are analyzed each for the Suezmax and VLCC tankers. The first one is
the ballast condition and the second is the fully loaded condition.
4.1 Suezmax Tanker VS 7000 ton ship

5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a simplified external mechanics model was derived, and integrated with the simplified
internal mechanics model to simulate a collision scenario. Two practical cases were analyzed and
compared with FEM simulations. The results are quite encouraging. The greatest challenge for the
designer will be arriving at realistic force-indentation curves for the colliding ships. This part of the
analysis will be more difficult as it depends on the structural details of the colliding ships, the location
of collision, the relative displacements of the ships, the loading conditions, the striking speed etc. A
central right-angled collision is assumed in the analysis, as this situation is more pertinent inducing
severe structural damage. In certain situations, the energy loss due to friction will be quite substantial
and has to be taken into account. In the present simplified analysis, it is assumed that an increase in the
flow stress takes into account the material dynamic effects. In certain practical situations a higher
1307
collision resistance for a side structure has been observed due to material dynamic effects. The authors
strongly believe that the above simplified collision analysis can be used for a quick assessment of a
collision situation within a day with the help of a personal computer.
References
Minorsky VU. (1959). An Analysis of Ship Collisions with Reference to Protection of Nuclear Power
Plants. Journal of Ship Research, October: I - 4
Motora S, Fujino M, et al. (1969). Equivalent Added mass of Ships in Collisions. Journal of lhe
Society ojNaval ArchileClS of Japan. 126, 138-147
Landweber I, Macagno M. (1957). Added mass of two-dimensional fonns oscillating in a free surface.
Journal of Ship Research. November: 20-30
Ohtsubo H, Suzuki K, Yonesato N. (1995). Prediction of Collision Strength of Side Structures. Journal
of the Society of Naval ArchileClS of Japan. 178, 421-427
Wang G., Suzuki K, Ohtsubo H. (1995). Predicting Collision Strength of Bow Structure.
MARIENV'95 Proceedings. 1,40 - 43
Wierzbicki, T. (1983). Crushing Behaviour of Plate Intersections. Struclural Crashworthiness. edited
by N. Jones and T. Wierzbicki, Chapter 3, Butterworth & Co. Ltd.
NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SHIP-SUBMARINE COLLISIONS
R. Donner F. Besnier H. Le Soume
I Institut de Recherches de la Construction Navale,

Nantes, France
ABSTRACT
The continuously increase of maritime traffic makes the risk of collisions greater and several incidents
have been reported during the last few years. Research work has been done for tanker collisions: this
paper describes numerical methods, tools and methodology used in the simulation of a ship-submarine
collision in various configurations. Though ship-submarine collisions are a particular case of ship-ship
collisions, they exhibit specific difficulties, like the difference of displacements between the two ships,
leading to large amplitude rotational motions for the submarine and the high local stiffness of the
submarine hull compared to the impacting bow stiffness. The global collision dynamics, i.e. global
motions of the two ships considered as rigid bodies are computed under collision forces and
hydrodynamic forces. The influence of hydrodynamic effects will be highlighted in the ship-submarine
collisions. The local collision mechanics, i.e. local crushes of the two ships are investigated using an
explicit finite element approach. Collision forces are computed in this step. The importance of mesh
size and material behaviour laws will be shown. Tools and methodology presented above have been
applied to two LNG bow-submarine collisions and to the numerical simulation of a scaled ship-
submarine collision test. Main difficulties and results will be presented and also on going
developments of the tools which will allow to carry out industrial applications in submarine design.
KEYWORDS
Collisions, Submarines, Numerical methods, Finite elements, Hydrodynamic effects.
1 INTRODUCTION
Several ship-ship collisions and ship grounding with heavy consequences for passengers and marine
environment have been reported for fifteen years. Extensive research has been done about prediction
of structural damage and increased crashworthiness of ships, especially tankers. A seven-year research
project on tanker structural failure and crashworthiness was carried out by Japan, Holland and
Germany as described in Kitamura et al (1998). A numerical simulation system based on the explicit
finite element code LS-DYNA was developed and verified by large-scale tanker collisions and
grounding experiments.
1310
Some cases of ship-submarine collisions near the sea-surface and head-on collisions of submarines
with rocks occurred during the last few years, a head-on collision is analysed in Chauvet and Montfort
(1996). A research program on submarine behaviour in ship-submarine collisions has been initiated by
the French Navy, in 1995. The numerical simulation system with LS-DYNA described in Kuroiwa et
al (1995) and in Kitamura et al (1998) has been used in this research program and is now under
development. In this paper, applications of the tool to numerical simulations of LNG bow-submarine
collisions and to the simulation of a scaled bow-submarine collision test are presented with further
improvements of the methods.
2 NUMERICAL METHODS AND COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS
The ship-ship collision mechanics, described in Pedersen (1995) and Petersen (1982) can be
subdivided into inner collision mechanics and outer collision dynamics.
The inner collision mechanics is a crash problem governed by buckling, yielding, rupture of materials
and assemblies. It is investigated using the explicit finite element code LS-DYNA Collision forces are
computed at this step.
The outer collision dynamics, i.e. global motions of the two ships considered as rigid bodies under
collision forces and hydrodynamic pressure forces, are computed with the program MCOL, coupled
with LS-DYNA Hydrodynamic loads are calculated with the hydrostatic restoring matrix, the added
mass matrix and the frequency dependant added damping matrices computed for each ship by the 3D
sea-keeping code AQUA+. A model of the collision analysis is shown on figure 1.
3 STUDY OF COLLISION SCENARIOS
Two collision scenarios between a bulk carrier of 93 000 tons displacement with 10.6 m draught and
12 knots forward speed and a submarine of 3 000 tons DWT resting at periscopic immersion, or at free
surface were investigated. A view of the two scenarios is shown in figure 2.
The deformations of the structures at the end of two numerical simulations of the scenario 1, using LS-
DYNA and LS-DYNA + MCOL with simplified bi-dimensional models are shown on figure 3.
In the two analyses the submarine superstructures exhibit a significative bending. The global motion of
the submarine is purely translational in the first simulation and contains a large rolling component in
the second one, as can be expected from the displacement differences between the two ships. The
importance of hydrodynamic effects in ship-submarine collisions is demonstrated and also the
necessity of taking into account large rotations into MCOL, not accounted for in the original program.
The deformations ofthe ship bow and of the submarine hull at the end of two numerical simulations of
the scenario 2, using two mesh sizes of 40 cm and 10 cm for the bow and one mesh size of 10 cm for
the submarine hull are shown on figure 4.
The bow is made of mild steel with plating thickness ranging trom 10 mm to 15 mm. The submarine
hull is made of high strength steel, with a thickness greater than 30 mm. So in this case the local
stiffness of the struck hull is greater than the bow stiffness, contrary to the situation encountered in
ship-ship collisions where the striking bow is often assumed rigid. In the second simulation with fine
meshes, the bulb mainly crushes against the submarine hull, as expected. In the first simulation, the
coarse meshing of the bow makes it too much stiff relatively to the submarine hull and a non-physical
deformation of the hull is obtained. The importance of mesh size and material behaviour in ship-
submarine collisions is highlighted.
Scenario 1 Scenario 2
Figure 2: Collision scenarios
The deformations of the structures at the end of two numerical simulations of the scenario I, using LS-
DYNA and LS-DYNA + MCOL with simplified bi-dimensional models are shown on figure 3.
In the two analyses the submarine superstructures exhibit a significative bending. The global motion of
the submarine is purely translational in the first simulation and contains a large rolling component in
the second one, as can be expected from the displacement differences between the two ships. The
importance of hydrodynamic effects in ship-submarine collisions is demonstrated and also the
necessity of taking into account large rotations into MCOL, not accounted for in the original program.
LS-DYNA LS-DYNA+MCOL
Figure 3: Bulb/superstructures collision
The deformations of the ship bow and of the submarine hull at the end of two numerical simulations of
the scenario 2, using two mesh sizes of 40 cm and 10 cm for the bow and one mesh size of 10 cm for
the submarine hull are shown on figure 4.
The bow is made of mild steel with plating thickness ranging ITom 10 mm to 15 mm. The submarine
hull is made of high strength steel, with a thickness greater than 30 mm. So in this case the local
stiffness of the struck hull is greater than the bow stiffness, contrary to the situation encountered in
ship-ship collisions where the striking bow is often assumed rigid. In the second simulation with fine
meshes, the bulb mainly crushes against the submarine hull, as expected. In the first simulation, the
coarse meshing of the bow makes it too much stiff relatively to the submarine hull and a non-physical
deformation of the hull is obtained. The importance of mesh size and material behaviour in ship-
submarine collisions is highlighted.
Figure 4: Bulb/hull collision
4 NUMERICAL SIMULAnON OF A COLLISION TEST
A scaled collision test between a ship and a submarine was carried out by the French Navy in 1974.
Two views of the collision experiment are shown on figure 5.
The submarine has a DWT of 1150 kg, a length of 6.40 m and a diameter of 0.53 m. The striking ship
has a DWT of 1040 kg, a length of5.51 m and a bow length of 1.52 m. The ship collides at an angle of
135° and with a forward speed of 15 knots with the submarine.
Figure 6 shows the experimental damage and the computed damage to the submarine hull. The
damages are localised, the experimental indentation is 1.5 mm, the numerical indentation is 2.5 mm.
Figure 7 shows the damaged inside of the bow and the related computational result. The crushing of
the plating is well-reproduced by the numerical simulation.
The plating and the hull are connected by spotwelds and a proper modelling of failure of the plating
and rupture of the welding, based on cumulative plastic strain was used in LS-DYNA in order to
obtain a correct crushing of the bow and a correct indentation of the submarine hull. The initial
numerical simulations of the collision tests were carried out without taking into account the rupture of
the spotwelds and led to an overstiffening of the bow with an indentation of 20 mm of the submarine
hull. The importance of taking into account properly the failure phenomena in numerical simulation of
ship-ship collisions is well known, as pointed out in Kuroiwa et al (1995).
Figure 7: Damage to the ship bow
5 ON GOING DEVELOPMENTS OF MCOL
As shown in section 3, due to the great displacement difference between the striking ship and the
struck submarine, the submarine will be subjected to large amplitude translational and rotational
motions during the collision and after the collision.
In order to compute properly the submarine movements, the following developments are now being
introduced in MCOL:
I) Introduction of large rotations and Coriolis and centrifugal couplings,

2) Introduction of non linear drag damping and uncoupling of MCOL from LS-DYNA, in order to
simulate the submarine motions after loss of contact and during a long time (15-20 seconds).
Two numerical simulations of the scenario I described in section 3 during the collision and after loss
of contact were carried out with the original MCOL program and by introducing drag damping. The
resulting roll speeds for the submarine are shown in figure 8, as expected, the drag forces lower
significantlythe roll speed.
Figure 8: Influence of drag damping
6 CONCLUSIONS
Numerical simulations of ship-submarine collisions can be carried out using the special features for
ship-ship collisions integrated to LS-DYNA.
However ship-submarine collisions exhibit specific difficulties, like the high stiffness of the submarine
hull compared to the impacting bow stiffness and large amplitude motions of the submarine.
The on going development of the MCOL program, i.e. introduction of large rotations, drag damping
and uncoupling of MCOL ITom LS-DYNA will allow to apply the resulting intregrated tool for
industrial applications in submarine design and will improve the capabilities of surface ship collisions
References
Chauvet M., Montfort C. (1996). Analyse de la collision d'un sous-marin. Bulletin de ['Association
Technique Maritime et Aeronautique 96, 61-88
Kitamura 0., Kuroiwa T., Kawamoto Y and Kameko E. (1998). A Study on the Improved Tanker
Structure against Collision and Grounding. Proceedings of PRADS 98, 173-179.
Kuroiwa T., Kawamoto Y, Kusuba S. and Stillman D. (1995). Numerical Simulation of Collision and
Grounding of Ships. Proceedings of MARlENV'95, 1, 66-70.
Pedersen P.T. (1995). Collision and Grounding Mechanics. Proceedings ofWEMT'95, 125-157.
Petersen MJ. (1982). Dynamics of Ship Collisions. Ocean Engineering 9:2, 295-329.
FLUID MESH MODELING ON SURFACE SHIP SHOCK RESPONSE

UNDER UNDERWATER EXPLOSION
Sang-Gab Lee', Jeong-II Kwon' and Jung-Hoon Chung2
'Division of Marine Systems Engineering, Korea Maritime University

#1, Dongsam-Dong Yeongdo-Gu, Pusan, 606-791, Korea
2Dept. of Structural Systems Eng., Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials,
Yusung P.O. Box 101, Daejeon, 305-600, Korea
ABSTRACT
In this study, for the investigation of the effects of several important parameters, such as fluid mesh
size, its box or cylinder shape, its dimension of breadth, length and depth on free surface, on the
reliable shock response of a finite element model under underwater explosion, analysis of a simplified
surface ship was carried out using the LS-DYNA3D/USA code. The shock responses were not much
affected by the fluid mesh parameters. The computational time was greatly dependent on the number
of DAA boundary segments. It is desirable to reduce the DAA boundary segments, and it is not
necessary to cover the fluid mesh boundary to or beyond the bulk cavitation zone just for the concerns
about the initial shock wave response.
KEYWORDS
Underwater explosion, Surface ship, LS-DYNA3D/USA code, Shock response, DAA boundary
segments, Bulk cavitation
1 INTRODUCTION
Surface ship structure and shipboard equipments must be designed to withstand severe shock
excitations induced by underwater explosion. The ship shock test/trials identify the design and
construction deficiencies giving a serious negative effect on the survivability of ship, equipment and
crew, and also validate shock hardening criteria and performance. Unfortunately, the ship shock trials
are very time consuming and expensive. With the advent and ongoing advances in simulation
capabilities and sophisticated simulation tools, numerical modeling and simulation has become a
viable, less costly alternative as well as more reliable aids to live fire testing (Mair 1997).
Surface ship shock simulation under underwater explosion is generally complicated by free surface
effects, such as bulk cavitation resulting from surface reflection wave, in addition to local cavitation,
gas bubble oscillation and migration toward free surface, and cavitation closure pulses (Santiago 1996).
1316
Furthermore, complex fluid-structure interaction phenomena occur, as well as the complicated

dynamic behavior of the ship and shipboard equipments. For a reliable and accurate shock response of
surface ship, therefore, the surrounding fluid mesh model must be constructed to mate exactly with the
finite element mesh of ship structure, and must be of sufficient size to capture a bulk cavitation zone.
Since the bulk cavitation zone can become quite large, greater computational memory and time are
required, depending on the size and depth of the charge.
Three-dimensional surface ship shock analyses were performed using a large scale finite element
model of a coupled ship and surrounding fluid using LS-DYNA code (LSTC 2000) coupled with USA
code (Shin 1996), and the predicted results were compared with ship shock test results (Shin 1999).
The effects of reducing the box type fluid mesh size were investigated on the accuracy of the structural
response of Navy's Floating Shock Platform (FSP) under underwater explosion, also using the LS-
DYNA3DfUSA coupled code (Smith 1996). LS-DYNA is a nonlinear dynamic analysis of structure in
three dimensions based on the explicit integration, whereas the USA code, a boundary element code
for the underwater shock fluid-structure interaction problem based on doubly asymptotic
approximation (DAA) consisting of three main modules: FLUMAS, AUGMAT and TIMINT.
In this study, to investigate the effects of several important parameters, such as fluid mesh size, its box
or cylinder shape, its dimension of breadth, length and depth on free surface, on the reliable shock
response of a finite element model tinder underwater explosion, analysis of a simplified surface ship is
carried out using the LS-DYNA3DfUSA code.
2 FLUID MESH MODELING AND SIMULATION SCENARIOS
Two different charge location geometries were used in the shock simulation runs for this study, as
shown in Figure I, where both geometries consisted of the same TNT 100 lb charge and of the same
Keel Shock Factor. One attack geometry placed the charge directly under ship model in midsection
plane at depth of 30.0 ft with standoff distance of 29.0 ft, whereas the second one, from longitudinal
center plane by 18.1 ft and at depth of 19.1 ft with standoff distance 25.6 ft. Figure 2 shows the
dimensions of ship model, and TABLE I, a list of material properties of mild steel plate and sea water.
UNDEX parameters of the explosion are also summarized in TABLE 2.
The computed bulk cavitation zones for both geometries are shown in Figure 3 in their entirety, and
five fluid mesh boundary sizes of cylinder type with respect to ship model, also in Figure 4(a) and (b)
on a large scale. Their radius in midsection plane was set to 5.0, 7.5, 10.0, 12.5, and 15.0 ft for charge
under ship model and offset charge, respectively. Figure 5 shows the configuration of finite element
meshes of ship and fluid mesh models typically with radius 7.5 and 15.0 ft, respectively. The fluid
mesh element size to the radial direction increases proportionally for both attack geometries. The ship
model contains 1,464 4-noded shell elements, and the wetted surface, 464 elements. LS-DYNA's
Material Type 90 (acoustic pressure 8-noded solid element) is used to model the pressure wave
translation properties of water. The length of each fluid mesh model fore and aft ship is the same as its
breadth at free surface. TABLE 3 shows a list of fluid mesh model such as total number of nodes,
acoustic elements, and ADD boundary segments, and CPU time. An important aspect of fluid mesh
model is the finite element size next to the structural mesh. For cavitation analysis using the USA code,
critical element size is determined by the equation, 2Tp / Ps ts ::; 5, where p =density of water,
T=thickness of the fluid element in the direction normal to the wetted surface of the structure, ps
=density of the submerged structure, and ts =thickness of the submerged structure. The elements
adjacent to the structural model were set a value less than this value of thickness.
In addition, the effect of fluid mesh element size to the radial direction in midsection plane on the
shock response was considered comparing proportional increasing element size (Case 1_2) with
1317
uniform one (Case 1_6), as shown in Figures 5(a) and 6(a). The following fluid mesh parameters were
also examined: fluid mesh shape such as cylinder type (Case 1_2) and box one (Case 2_1) in Figure
6(b), and fluid mesh dimensions at free surface such as depth (Case 2_2), breadth (Case 2_3), and
length (Case 2_4) compared with standard one (Case 2_1), respectively. L is referred to fluid mesh
length fore or aft ship at free surface, B, its breadth to port or starboard, and 0, its depth in TABLE 3.
3 SHOCK SIMULATION RESULTS
The shock simulation results for the scenarios in the previously mentioned chapter were compared to
the kick off velocity of ship under free surface and the peak pressure under the keel for both attack
geometries from the empirical formulation, as shown in TABLE 4.
The vertical velocity responses and fluid mesh pressure profiles were almost the same as the empirical
calculations, and the results of five fluid mesh boundary models for each attack geometry, as shown in
Figures. 7-10, except that cavitation closure pulses occurred a little bit late according to an increase of
fluid mesh boundary, and a little bit of fluctuation phenomena on the response were found in the case
of relatively small fluid mesh boundary, 5.0 ft (Case I_I). There was not much difference in the
effects of several fluid mesh parameters on the shock response, as shown in Figures. II and 12, such as
element size of fluid mesh boundary to the radial direction, fluid mesh shape type, dimensions of fluid
mesh boundary at free surface.
Total CPU computational time was affected greatly by the number of DAA boundary segments, as
shown in TABLE 3. In addition to the restriction of number of DAA boundary segments of the USA
code, it could be found again to reduce its segment number as small as possible. It might be desirable
to model the fluid mesh boundary in a way to increase element size proportionally to the radial
direction. The lower cavitation boundary must not be included to the fluid mesh boundary for the
consideration of the bulk cavitation effects and the initial shock wave response. However, too small
fluid mesh boundary is not desirable through this study ..
4 CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the shock simulations have been carried out to investigate the effects of the several fluid
mesh parameters on the shock response with respective to the simplified surface ship using LS-
DYNAIUSA code. The shock responses were not much affected by the fluid mesh parameters. The
computational time was greatly dependent on the number of DAA boundary segments. It is desirable
to reduce the DAA boundary segments, and it is not necessary to cover the fluid mesh boundary to or
beyond the bulk cavitation zone just for the concerns about the initial shock wave response. As the
next study, more reliable response of cavitation closure time and bubble characteristics will be
examined using the test results.
References
LSTC, LS/DYNA3D User's Manual, Version 9.50. (2000). Livermore Software Technology Corp.
Mair, Hans U., Reese, Ronald M. and Hartsough, Kurt. (1997). Simulated ship shock TestslTrials?,
Proceedings of the 68th Shock and Vibration Symposium, 475-482.
Santiago, Leonard D. (1996). Fluid-interaction and cavitation effects on a surface ship model due to an
underwater explosion. Master Thesis. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA.
Shin, Y. S., DeRunts, 1. A. (1996). USA/LS-DYNA3D Software Training Course. 5.
Shin, Y. S and Park, S. Y. (1999). Ship shock trial simulation of USS John Paul Jones (DGG53) using
LS-DYNA3D/USA: Three dimensional analysis, Proceedings of the 7(Jh Shock and Vibration
1318
Symposium, Albuquerque, NM., USA.

Smith, James R. (1996). Effect of fluid mesh truncation on the response of a Floating Shock Platform
subjected to an underwater explosion. Master Thesis. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA., USA.
WEIGHT REDUCTION IN SANDWICH STRUCTURES BY USE OF

CURVED PANELS
C. Berggreen and B. C. Simonsen
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maritime Engineering

Technical University of Denmark
DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the membrane effects of laterally loaded, curved
sandwich panels can save weight. Previous studies have indicated that significant weight reductions
may be obtained, but the studies have been based on highly idealized boundary conditions and none of
the studies have actually quantified the weight savings.
In this paper a representative bottom panel in a sandwich vessel is considered. The considered panel is
2000mm wide and 2700mm high, has a camber of 240mm and is subjected to uniform lateral pressure,
of an amplitude varying between 37 kPa and 180 kPa.
In the first part of the paper the panel and the surrounding ship structure is modeled in a standard non-
linear finite element program. In order to determine the effect of panel curvature a model with a plane
panel with the same dimensions is also considered. The comparative analyses show that the minimum
weight of the curved panel is 20% lower than that of the plane panel. Thus, the weight reduction
potential is significant.
In order to utilize the membrane effect of the shell and obtain the weight reduction, it is essential,
however, that the structure around the panel can hold the compressive membrane forces. In the second
part of the paper, different surrounding structures are investigated, in order to determine under which
conditions the advantages of the panel curvature can be obtained. First of all, it turns out that the real
structure behaves very differently from the idealized, fully clamped boundary conditions considered in
other studies. Secondly, it is shown how much structure is needed around a panel edge, in order to
obtain the desired membrane effect. It turns out that the structure around the panel needs to be quite
rigid. If the panel is at a weather deck, for example, the effect of the panel curvature on the weight will
be insignificant.
KEYWORDS
Curved, Sandwich, Panel, Weight, Reduction, Optimization, Boundary, Condition, Surrounding,

Structure, Stiffness
1324
1 INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE OF WORK
In the last 30 years the demand trom navies and civilian operators for lighter and faster vessels has
been steadily increasing. Fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) composites are among the most commonly
used building materials for high speed light craft (HSLC) hulls. This is mainly because of the high
strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios but also due to advantageous properties with regards
to thermal and acoustic insulation, fatigue and corrosion.
The key aspect in the design of weight-critical structures it to be able to take advantage of the building
material and use it to the limits. This, in turn, leads to requirements to theoretical tools for accurate
prediction of the loads and the structural response. This paper is focused on structural optimization and
on the structural response, but it is recognized that in order to push the design further towards the true
optimum, further investigation of the loads is necessary.
The understanding of geometrically non-linear behavior, due to large lateral deflections, may in some
cases be essential in order to produce an optimal design. For initially flat plates it has long been known
that even at relatively low levels ofload, the effect of the geometrical non-linearity may be significant.
The non-linearity arises because the membrane stresses in the plate are activated gradually as the
maximum deflection of the plate has a finite magnitude. This effect has been documented
experimentally by Shenoi, Moy and Allen (1996) for single skin plates and by Bau-Madsen, Svendsen
and Kildegaard (1993) for sandwich plates. Furthermore, Riber (1997) presented a thorough theoretical
analysis of flat sandwich plates and showed that it is possible to derive a closed-form expression for
the non-linear, membrane effect of a sandwich plate, similar to the one DNV (1991) is using for single
skin panels.
1325
On the other hand, the so-called direct calculations, i.e. finite element modeling of the structure, may
account for complex geometries, boundary conditions and membrane effects. The classification
societies have allowed for direct calculations in the rules and specify requirements to the loads, to the
modeling techniques and also to the allowable utilization of the nominal material strength and
maximum deflections, see for example Det Norske Veritas (1991.1999).
To activate and take advantage of the membrane loads obviously requires that the structure around the
considered panel provides the strength and stiffness necessary to hold the in-plane loads. In the work
of Riber (1997), for example, it was assumed that the boundaries were fixed against in-plane
movement. In the work done by Bozhevolnaya (1998) it was shown, that the magnitude of extra
loading capacity in a curved sandwich panel is closely linked to the stiffness of the panel's boundaries.
The purpose of the first part of the paper is to investigate how much weight can be saved by taking
advantage of the panel curvature. The purpose of the second part of the paper is to investigate what
requirements should be put to the surrounding structure in order to hold the membrane loads.
2 THE VESSEL, MATERIALS AND DESIGN PARAMETERS
The analyses are based on one specific case: a bottom panel in a representative medium size vessel.
The vessel length is 25m, breadth is 7.0m, draught is 1.8m, displacement is 125tons and speed is 12
knots.
One specific representative bottom panel is considered in the analyses. The panel is located between
16.0 and 18.0 m trom the aft end of the vessel. The breadth of the panel is 2000mm and the average
height (the chord length) is 2700mm. The panel is approximately cylindrical with a camber of 240mm,
i.e. the radius of curvature of 3917mm. The geometry of the considered panel can be seen in .
The faces of the sandwich panel are built of quadri-axial glass fiber mats, with polyester resin. Thus,
each laminate consists of a number of sets of layers of unidirectional (UD) plies angled in 0, 45, 90
and -45 degrees. On the top and bottom of each face laminate is a chopped stand mat (CSM). The
mechanical properties of both laminates and the lay-up sequence can be seen on Table 1.
TABLE I
UNI-DIRECTIONAL AND CHOPPED STRAND MAT GRP LAMINA
UD-Iamina: E-2Iass/pol vester CSM-Iamina: E-!!Iass/oolvester, 300 !!/mz

EI 25.8 GPa Xt 720 MPa EI 6.0 GPa Xt 80 MPa
Ez 8.0 GPa Xc -351 MPa Ez 6.0 GPa Xc -100 MPa
VIZ 0.26 Yt 70 MPa V12 0.35 Yt 80 MPa
G12 4.9 GPa Yc -122 MPa G12 2.3 Gpa Yc -100 MPa
t varying S 63 MPa t 0.64 mm S 20 MPa
Quad-mat with lay-up sequence: [0 45 90 -45]
The core consists of cellular PVC foam with densities ranging trom 45 to 250 kg/m3 (Divinycell H-
series). The mechanical properties for this material can be seen on Table 2. The maximum thickness of
the core is set to 100mm.
1326
TABLE 2
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES FOR 1HE CORE MATERIAL
Core Material (Divinycell H-series)

Code P Ikglm3) E IMPa) G IMPa) Xt IMPa) Xc IMP a ) S IMPa)
H60 60 55 22 1.5 -0.8 0.7
H80 80 75 30 2.1 -125 1.05
HlOO 100 110 45 3.1 -1.7 14
HI30 130 165 55 4.0 -2.8 2.15
Hl60 160 230 66 5.1 -34 2.6
moo 200 310 85 64 -4.4 3.3
H250 250 400 108 8.8 -5.8 4.5
3 PANEL DESIGN BY USE OF ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS
The purpose of this section is to investigate how much weight can be saved by taking advantage of the
panel curvature. Furthermore, the analysis will show how much weight is saved by going from a linear
analytical rule calculation (based on a flat plate) to a direct calculation for this particular configuration.
The designs are developed in agreement with the Rules ofDet Norske Veritas (I991, 1996, 1999). The
vessel is designed to Class Light Craft (LC), Type: Patrol, Service Restriction: RO. The design pressure
is 364 kPa and is acting from the keel to the middle deck, see Figure 2.
Figure 2When the panel is designed by use of the analytical formulae given in the Rules, the optimum
weight is found to be 80.8 kg, assuming fully clamped boundaries according to normal standard.
In order to design the panel by use of direct calculations, the finite element model shown in Figure 2 is
used, and the commercial FEM code, ANSYS, is used for the analyses. The model includes the ship
structure around the panel, from keel to deck and between the frames 13.5m and 19.5m from the aft
section. The free boundaries of the shell plating are fully fixed and the nodes in the center plane are
treated with a symmetry condition. The model contains 5116 elements and 15220 nodes. A non-linear
8 node layered composite shell element (SHELL91) has been used. The element has 4 integration point
in the plane and 3 through the thickness for each layer. The element incorporates furthermore a
sandwich option, which takes into account the out-of-plane shear deformation
The weight of the optimized curved panel becomes 72.8kg, when the rules for direct calculation are
applied, see Configuration 3 in TABLE 3. The final design is determined by the required minimum
face laminate thickness, the stress level in core and the maximum panel deflection. This design is 9.8%
lighter than the basis design, Configuration I in TABLE 3. This saving of weight is caused partically
by going from a linear plate theory to direct non-linear calculations and by going from a flat plate to a
curved paneL In order to extract the effect of panel curvature, Configuration 2, was considered.
Configuration 2 was
designed based on direct calculation with a modified finite element model with a plane panel. It is seen
that in this case the minimum weight becomes 89.7 kg, which corresponds to a weight increase of II %.
The reason why this panel becomes heavier than Configuration 1 is that this design was based on the
assumption of fully clamped boundaries. By comparison of Configurations 2 and 3 it can be seen that
the
weight saved by use of the panel curvature is 18.8 % of the total panel weight. Thus, the reduction of
weight is quite significant. The extra load-carrying capacity is obtained by taking advantage of
membrane loads. In order to reach general conclusions regarding the effect of panel curvature, it is
therefore necessary to investigate what in-plane stiffness and strength is required for the structure
around the paneL That is the objective of the following section.
1327
Figure 2: Finite element representation of the vessel
TABLE 3
RESULTS FROM TIlE WEIGlIT OPTIMIZATION
Results of Weight Optimization

tf,inner tf,outer tc Core density Weight Savings
Configuration
rmm1 rmm1 rmm1 rkg/m31 rkg1 0/0
1. Linear theory CL 3.64 3.64 60 80 80.8 0%

2. FEM flat 3.64 3.64 80 80 89.7 -11.0%
3. FEM curved 3.64 3.64 26 130 72.8 +9.8%
4. FEM curved
2.46 3.64 37 100 59.5 +26.4%
(allow small tfJnner)
4 EFFECT OF BOUNDARY IN-PLANE STIFFNESS ON MINIMUM PANEL WEIGHT
In order to investigate the effect of boundary stiffness on the weight of the curved panel, the model
shown in Figure is considered. The model is an idealization of the real geometry using a perfectly
cylindrical center part surrounded by two plane parts extending in the tangential direction to the keel
and weather deck. The basic idea of this model is that strips may be removed from the upper boundary
of the model, reducing the in-plane stiffness of the upper boundary. The plates are restricted against
rotation around the q and r lines.
The results are shown in the two graphs in Figure 4 for two different pressures. For both configurations
the internal structure is made sufficiently stiff that it does not deflect significantly. The figures show
the weight of the optimized panel as a function of the strip-size, i.e. the amount of structure above the
panel, see Figure. The weight is made non-dimensional by the weight of the panel if the boundaries
had been fully fixed. From the left plot in Figure 4 it is seen that the weight ratio is gradually
decreasing from 1.5 to 1.37 as the strip size is increased trom 0 to 2000mm. This means that if the
upper boundary is a free edge (for example at the weather deck) the weight is 13% higher than if the
panel was embedded with a large amount of structure around it. On the other hand, if the in-plane
deformations of the boundary could be fully held, 50% weight could be saved. For the panel with a
very high load, the right plot in Figure 4, the numbers are different but the tendencies are the same.
Figure3: Geometry of idealized section with removable plate strips
5 CONCLUSIONS
Previous studies have shown that the weight of curved sandwich panels may be reduced, if the
membrane effect is taken properly into account in the structural analysis. It has, however, never been
made clear how much weight can actually be saved and also what extra requirements the structure
around the panel should fulfill, since it has to carry an additional in-plane load. The analyses presented
here have considered a curved bottom panel in a representative medium size.
In the first part of the paper, the bottom panel is designed for minimum weight both by use ofDNV's
Rules for High Speed Light Craft and by direct calculations. The Rules are based on linear theory for a
plane panel, with the usual idealized boundary conditions. The direct calculations are carried out for a
large section of the hull in order to model boundary conditions correctly. Furthermore, the direct
calculations are carried out both for the actual curved panel of the vessel and for a plane panel with the
same dimensions embedded in the same structure. The analyses show that by taking into account the
panel curvature in the structural analysis, approximately 20% weight can be saved. This weight
reduction is sufficiently high that it should be utilized in truly weight critical ship structures.
The weight reduction is made possible by activation of compressive membrane forces in the panel.
Therefore, in order to obtain this weight reduction, the structure around the panel must be able to hold
those forces. The purpose of the second part of the paper is to investigate how close to a free boundary
the panel can be placed without losing the potential of weight reduction. The analysis shows that there
must be a significant in-plane stiffness of the structure around the panel in order to reach the weight
reduction. For the considered panel, the width of the plate strip around the panel must be comparable
in size to the panel itself in order to reach the 10-15% weight reduction. Remarkably, the analysis
shows that the difference in weight between a panel that is fully clamped and one that has only a small
strip around it, is 40-50% for certain loads. Similar results may apply to plane panels with large
deflections. This means that previously published analyses, which are typically based an assumption of
full fixation against in-plane movement of the boundaries, should be followed up by a critical
assessment of the realism of this assumption.
The reliability of the structure is closely linked to the uncertainty of the loads. At present the Rules
prescribe uniform pressure loads. For a plane panel the, stresses and deflections are not very sensitive
to the distribution of the lateral pressure. When the panel curvature is utilized, on the other hand, the
pressure distribution may have a large effect on the response (cf loading of an egg shell) so the load
requirements should be revised to check if some non-uniform pressure distribution would be more
reasonable.
References
Bau-Madsen N.K., Svendsen, K.H. and Kildegaard A. (1993), Large Deflections of Sandwich Plates -
an Experimental Investigation, Composite Structures 23:1,47-52
Berggreen C. (2000), Load-carrying Capacity of Curved Sandwich Panels (in Danish), Master thesis,
Department of Naval Architecture and Offshore Engineering, Technical University of Denmark,
Lyngby.
Bozhevolnaya E. (1998), A Theoretical and Experimental Study of Shallow Sandwich Panels, Ph.D
thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Det Norske Veritas (1991-1999), Rulesfor Classification, High Speed Light Craft and Naval Surface
Craft, Pt. 3, Ch. J, 4 and 9, Pt.5, Ch. 6, Hovik, Norway
Rasmussen I. (1989), Design of Sandwich Structures (in Danish), Ph.D thesis, Department of Ocean
Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby.
Riber, H.J. (1997), Non-linear analytical solutions for laterally loaded sandwich plates, Composite
Structures, 39:1-2, 63-83
Shenoi, R.A., Allen H.G. and Moy S.S.I. (1996), Strength and Stiffness ofFRP Plates, Proc. Inst. Civil
Engrs., Structures and Buildings, May
Skvortsov V. and Bozhevolnaya E. (2000), Two-Dimensional Analysis of the Shallow Singly-Curved

Sandwich Panels, Report No. 104, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aalborg University,
Aalborg, Denmark
Smidt S. (1993), Curved Sandwich Beams and Panels: Theoretical and Experimental studies, Report
No.93-10, Department of Lightweight Structures, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
USE OF LARGE-DEFLECTION THEORIES FOR DESIGN OF FRP

PANELS
Brian Hayman, Martin lung Larsen, Dag McGeorge and Philippe Noury
Det Norske Veritas, N-1322 Hovik, Norway
ABSTRACT
Large-deflection plate theory forms the basis of the strength and deflection requirements for FRP
single-skin laminates in the High Speed and Light Craft Rules of Det Norske Veritas (DNV). In the
current version of the DNV Rules the restrictions set for allowable deflections limit the benefit to be
gained from using this non-linear formulation. The paper examines the benefits of using a non-linear
formulation within the current deflection limits, and the potential benefits of relaxing these limits. The
current non-linear formulation is evaluated and compared with non-linear finite element calculations.
KEYWORDS
High speed craft, structural design, classification rules, fibre reinforced polymers, single-skin panels,
strength, large deflections, geometrical non-linearity.
1 INTRODUCTION
Composite structures consisting of fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) are widely used in high speed and
light craft and certain types of naval vessels. The applications range from sailing yachts to passenger
ferries and high-performance marine vehicles such as patrol, rescue and fast attack craft.
The structural design of FRP hulls and superstructures is covered by Chapter 3 Part 4 of the DNV
Rules for Classification of High Speed Light Craft and Naval Vessels (Det Norske Veritas, 1991).
These Rules, which are currently under review, apply acceptance criteria that are concerned with both
strength and stiffness. For simple structural geometries and FRP lay-ups the strength requirements are
expressed in terms of allowable stresses. Formulae are provided for calculating the stresses for a given
lateral pressure loading, for cases of both single-skin panels (i.e. single laminates) and sandwich panels.
The stiffness requirements are expressed in terms of permissible deflections, which vary slightly
according to the application and location of the panel. For single-skin panels they are expressed as a
specified fraction of the laminate thickness. Either the strength or the stiffness/deflection requirement
may be the governing criterion, depending on (amongst other parameters) the intensity of loading for
which the panel is being designed.
1332
For both single-skin and sandwich applications there has been some concern in the industry that the
deflection limits being applied are more severe than they need to be. In particular there is a feeling that
there are benefits to be gained from allowing greater non-linear membrane effects to develop so that
the panel carries a significant proportion of the lateral loading through in-plane tensile stresses rather
than by bending alone.
The present paper focuses on the case of single-skin panels. For such panels the DNV Rules already
include a non-linear analytical formulation, although the imposed deflection limits are commonly
believed to prevent significant non-linearity from developing. Studies are being conducted to explore
the possibility of developing the Rules to allow larger deflections while ensuring a safe and reliable
structural design. As a first step an assessment has been made of the benefits achieved by using the
existing non-linear formulation within the existing deflection limits, and of the potential benefits of
allowing a larger deflection limit. The range of validity of the current non-linear formulation has also
been tested by comparison with non-linear finite element calculations. The results of these studies and
their significance for future design are discussed in the sections that follow.
2 LARGE-DEFLECTION FORMULATION FOR SINGLE-SKIN PANELS
2.1 Formulation in Current DNV Rules
For single-skin FRP panels under uniformly distributed pressure loading, the current DNV Rules for
High Speed and Light Craft (DNV, 1991) provide strength and stiffness requirements based on the
following non-linear formulation. This formulation is restricted to rectangular panels for which the
principal directions of reinforcement are parallel to the edges of the panel, and the difference between
the moduli of elasticity in the two principal directions of reinforcement is not more than 20%.
First the location of the panel is established in relation to the entries in Table 1. This table specifies
both the allowable value of stress (Tc and the allowable deflection parameter J for the case in question.
The deflection parameter is defined by
(1)
where w is the mid-panel deflection and t is the thickness. The required panel thickness t is then given
by substituting this value of J into the equation
(2)
where p is the applied pressure loading in kPa, E the Young's modulus in MPa and b the smaller panel
dimension in metres. The coefficients C, and C2 are functions of the panel aspect ratio bla (where a is
the larger panel dimension) as given in Fig. I.
Next the maximum in-plane tensile stress due to the combination of bending and membrane stresses is
calculated from
(3)
1336
factor C, (which is associated with the bending deformation) is very much larger for fixed edges than
clamped edges, whereas C2 (which is associated with membrane deformation) is the same for both
cases .
• The strength criterion curves for linear and non-linear analyses are very close for pressures above
about 60 kPa.
Figure 2b shows also the effect of relaxing the deflection criterion by a factor of 2. This appears to
allow lower thicknesses. However, as this only applies at pressures below the transition point between
the deflection and strength criteria, i.e. at very low applied pressures, the benefit is limited.
4 ANALYSES TO CHECK THE VALIDITY OF THE NON-LINEAR FORMULA nON
4.1 Approach
Figure 2b cast severe doubt on the validity ofthe non-linear formulation for the case of clamped edges,
particularly with regard to the application of the strength criterion. To explore this in some detail, the
results are compared with finite element analyses, and the theoretical basis of the non-linear analytical
formulation as used in the DNV Rules is investigated. This is checked for the simply supported panel
as well as the clamped one.
4.2 Non-linear finite element analyses
A series of non-linear finite element analyses has been performed using the ABAQUS/ADV ANCE
package. Comprehensive mesh refinement studies were performed but only the results of the final
analyse after such refinement are reported here. The analyses were performed using a model of one-
quarter of the panel, with symmetry conditions applied on two adjacent edges. Type S8R5 thin shell
elements were used. An isotropic material model was assumed; the values of E and ere were the same
as for the analytical solutions described previously, but now the in-plane Poisson's ratio V12 = 0.17 was
inserted in addition, this being typical for a traditional marine GRP laminate with glass woven roving.
The procedure used was to assume a thickness value and then apply a series of increasing pressure
loads until the maximum tensile stress exceeded the allowable stress. This was then repeated for a
series of different thickness values so as to give the relation between applied pressure and the required
thickness to satisfy the strength criterion.
The results for the case with clamped edges, shown in Fig. 3b, are discussed first. The curve is very
different from that given by the non-linear analytical formulation; in fact it is quite close to that given
by the linear formulation. However, all three curves are very close together for p > 40 kPa; below this
the deflection limit applies in any case. The main conclusion is thus that the deflection limit J < I
must be kept if the validity of the non-linear analytical formulation is to be maintained.
A corresponding finite element study on the panel with simply supported edges gave the results shown
in Fig. 3a. For this case the form of the strength criterion curve is the same for both the finite element
analysis and the non-linear analytical solution. However there is a horizontal shift between the curves.
Closer study of this difference showed that this difference was due (at least partly) to differences in the
material properties assumed in the two cases. Study of the origin of the analytical formulae in the
DNV Rules revealed that they are based on an isotropic material model with V'2 = 0.3, whereas in the
FE analyses the Young's modulus is the same but VI2 was only 0.17. Some fresh FE analyses with V12
= 0.3 indicated a curve that was much closer to the non-linear analytical curve (see Fig. 3a).
Figure 3: Required thicknesses according to strength and deflection criteria by non-linear finite element
calculation, compared with analytical formulation, for (a) simply supported and (b) clamped edges.
4.3 Explanation of the differences between non-linear analytical and FE models
The non-linear analytical formulation in the DNV Rules is taken from a design manual for structural
plastics published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (1984). The formulation is achieved by
superposing the linear solution considering only bending deformations and a non-linear solution that
considers only membrane deformations. For the simply supported panel the deformed shape for the
membrane and bending cases are fairly similar until quite large out-of-plane displacements are reached,
so this method of combination works quite well. However, this is not the case for the panel with
clamped edges since the bending solution has a zero slope at the panel edges while the pure membrane
solution (which is the same for both clamped and simply supported edges) has a non-zero slope. This
is illustrated in Fig. 4, which shows the combined deformation predicted by the FE analysis for a fairly
high load level together with the deformed shape for bending of a clamped beam. The non-linear FE
solution shows a much sharper curvature at the panel edge caused by the panel trying to take up the
membrane shape.
Figure 4: Deformed shape of panel with clamped edges (seen from end of panel) predicted by non-
linear FE analysis compared with deformed shape from linear beam bending theory (both magnified
and scaled to give the same maximum deflection).
The high bending stresses associated with this curvature cannot be reproduced by the linear bending
part of the solution, so the analytical model greatly underestimates these stresses. Thus it is unsafe to
1338
use the non-linear analytical model when the deflections reach a level at which this happens. It turns
out that applying the deflection limit b = I ensures that the approximation remains fairly accurate.
However, in this range there is little difference between the linear and non-linear solutions for the
clamped edge case.
5 MAIN CONCLUSIONS AND FINAL COMMENTS
The following are the main conclusions from this study of the application to singe-skin GRP laminates
of the non-linear analytical formulation for stresses and deflections used in the DNV Rules:
In practice there is usually some uncertainty about the boundary conditions that are appropriate for a
given application, and it is not uncommon to analyse a panel assuming both sets of boundary
conditions in the expectation that these represent opposite extremes. The studies show that the simply
supported panel assumption leads to higher thicknesses to satisfy the deflection criterion (though only
slightly higher when a non-linear formulation is used). However, for much of the range of design
pressures considered, the simply supported panel requires lower thicknesses than the clamped one in
order to satisfy the strength criterion.
The conclusions have been based on studies of panels with conventional glass reinforcements, and may
have to be modified for laminates with appreciably different mechanical properties from these.
Acknowledgements
The work was carried out as part of the Nordsandwich project, which is a Nordic research
collaboration on sandwich technology, co-ordinated by VTT Manufacturing Technology. Financial
support was provided by the Nordic Industrial Fund and the Research Council of Norway.
References
Det Norske Veritas (1991). Rules for the Classification of High Speed and Light Craft, Part 3 Chapter
4, Hull Structural Design. Fibre Composite and Sandwich Constructions, Det Norske Veritas, H0vik,
Norway.
American Society of Civil Engineers (1984). Structural Plastics Design Manual, ASCE Manuals and
Reports on Engineering Practice, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, USA.
DESIGN OF TEE CONNECTIONS IN FRP SHIPS USING AN

ANAL YTICAL APPROACH
R.A.Shenoi and W.Wang
School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 I B1,UK
ABSTRACT
An elasticity-theory-based approach is developed for studying the design of the curved overlaminates
forming the boundary angles in tee connections in FRP ship structures. The approach ensures an
accurate description of the through-thickness and in-plane stresses in curved laminate beams. The
solutions for various geometrical configurations are provided. The effects of various parameters, such
as stacking sequence of the laminate, thickness of the skin are also studied in the applications.
KEYWORDS
FRP ships, Structural design, Through-thickness stress; Delamination, Curved composite laminate
1 INTRODUCTION
Fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) composite materials are finding increased usage in a wide variety of
structural applications in the aerospace, civil construction, marine and offshore industries. A key
feature of most such structures is the presence of bonded joints connecting two plate panels either
butted together in-plane or placed in a tee fashion for out-of plane load transfer. In either case straps of
laminated plates (or overlaminates) are bonded together to the base place to effect the load transfer.
The strength of the joints then is dependent on correct selection of the adhesive and proper design of
the overlaminate.
A typical ship section illustrating the boundary angles for top hat stiffeners and bulkhead to hull
connections is shown in Figure I. Most work on the strength characterisation of such joints has been
done using experimental and/or numerical modelling techniques, for example Pei & Shenoi (1996).
These are expensive and time consuming. This paper presents a simple approach which simulates the
behaviour of the overlaminate as curved beam on an elastic foundation. The problem is solved using
classical elasticity theory principles.
1343
The developed approach could be applicable in practical contexts involving the design and
characterisation of tee joints, for example. A typical tee joint, with variables influencing the design, is
shown in Figure 3. Currently such structures are analysed using physical or nwnerical modelling, for
example Shenoi and Hawkins (1995). Much of the experimental (and FEA) work relates to a 45° pull-
off condition, where the tee piece is clamped on the two flanges and a load (at 45°) is applied to the tip
of the web. In most of the work it has been shown that the performance ofthe joint is dependent on the
strength of the boundary angle. A critical condition determining performance is the value of through-
thickness inter-laminar tensile stresses, which induce the first delamination in the overlaminate or
boundary angle and thus lead to eventual failure of the joint. Currently such conclusions can only be
drawn after comprehensive and detailed nwnerical modelling.
The analytical approach developed in this paper is amenable for a relatively simple application to the
boundary angle in the tee joint. Table I lists the design particulars of four different joint designs - all
subjected to a 17.23kN pull-off load. The inter-laminar tensile stresses calculated ITom the curved
beam model are listed in Table 2 and compared with values deduced from previous FEA analyses, see
Shenoi & Hawkins (1995). As can be observed, there is close qualitative agreement of results in all
cases. Importantly the trend is consistent. The reasons for the differences are two-fold. Firstly,
deducing the boundary conditions at the edge of the boundary angles for purposes of analytical
calculations proved difficult. Therefore some simplifications had to be made regarding the fixity and
rigidity of the root region of the joint. These asswnptions led to increased apparent stiffuess in the
boundary angle, leading to increased stresses. Secondly, the nwnerical analyses were carried out with a
geometrical non-linearity option whereas the curved beam analytical model is based on inherent
geometric and material linearities. This again would tend to increase (deflection, strains and thus)
stresses. Such simple closed form, curved beam analyses can thus be used as a quick design reference
to check for adequacy in a load-bearing context.
TABLE 1
DESIGN DETAILS OF THE TEE JOINTS
Boundary angle Fillet Edge

Sample Fillet overlay Resin
thickness (mm) radius (mm) gap (mm)
B 15 50 --- CR1200 20
F 2 75 2WR' CR1200 15
K 2 50 2WR CR1200 15
L 2 75 2WR+CS~ polyester 15
* WR - woven roving; + CSM - chopped strand mat
TABLE 2
COMPARISON OF FEA WITH CURVED BEAM MODEL RESULTS
Numerical Result Theoretical Result

Sample
Maximwn T-T' Stress (MPa) Maximum T-T Stress (MPa) Location
B 10.85 Very large (>50.00) Near midplane
F 2.79 5.79 interface
K 9.10 14.28 interface
L 8.05 8.09 interface
* Through-thickness
1344
In conclusion, the paper has presented a new approach to the design of tee connections in FRP ships.
An analytical formulation based on the flexural behaviour of a curved orthotropic beam on an elastic
foundation has been applied to the overlaminate in a typical tee joints.
References
Pei J. and Shenoi R.A. (1996). Examination Of Key Aspects Defining The Performance
Characteristics Of Out- Of-Plane Joints In FRP Marine Structures. Composites 27A:2, 89-103.
Shenoi R.A. and Hawkins G.L. (1995). An Investigation into the Performance Characteristics Of Top-
Hat Stiffener to Shell Plating Joints. Composite Structures 30,109-121.
Shenoi R.A. and Wang W. (2001). Flexural Behaviour of A Curved Orthotropic Beam on an Elastic
Foundation. Journal of Strain Analysisfor Engineering Design 36:1,1-16.
Shenoi R.A. and Wang W. Through-Thickness Stresses in Curved Composite Laminate and Sandwich,
Composite Science and Tecnology, (accepted for publication, to appear).
Timoshenko S. (1934). Theory of Elasticity. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York and
London.
You-Sheng Wu, Wei-Cheng Cui and Ouo-Jun Zhou (Eds)
HISTORY OF PRADS
Masaki Mano
Consulting Naval Architect,

1988-57, Totsuka-Cho, Totsuka-Ku, Yokohama 244-0003, Japan
ABSTRACT
PRADS started in 1977 as a memorial event of the Society of Naval Architects Japan's 80 Years
Anniversary with two main aims. One was to discuss the practical problems which are useful for actual
ship design not to incline toward an academic theory. The other was to promote the friendship among
people in shipbuilding industry and academic circles in mainly Asian countries. It has been a quarter
century since PRADS started and at the beginning of the 21 st century it will be meaningful to review
the history of PRADS and to find the way to go on.
In this paper the Author reviewed statistically the tendency of PRADS, numbers of papers, numbers of
participants, kinds of papers (practical or academic, hydrodynamic, structure etc.). The result of the
review shows that the first aim of PRADS, to discuss practical problems which are useful for actual
ship design, seems to be faded and the second aim, to promote the friendship among people in
shipbuilding industry and academic circles, is developing not only in Asian region but also in world
wide community.
The main reason why the first aim seems to be faded, the Author considers, will be small numbers of
the participants from shipyards where practical problems are being generated every day. How to solve
this problem is discussed in this paper.
The Author participated all PRADS since 1978 and has many memories of the important events which
are to be kept in mind of PRADS participants. In this paper the important events in each PRADS are
introduced.
KEYWORDS
Ship design, Practical design, International symposium, International friendship, Technical conference,
Society of naval architects, Structure, hydrodynamics
1 OUTLINE OF PRADS
The idea of PRADS was born around 1975 in Ship Structure Committee, the Society of Naval
Architects Japan. One of the main aims was to promote the friendship among the Asian naval
architects and marine engineers. And the contacts with the presidents of the societies of naval
1346
architects in Asian countries show that they have positive opinions. In April 1976 PRADS Organizing
Committee and PRADS Executive Committee started with a financial support of Japan Ship
Promotion Association. And the covering area of the symposium was expanded not only ship structure
but also to ship resistance, propulsion and ship motion etc .. PRADS symposium was to be held as an
event celebrating 80 years anniversary of the Society of Naval Architects Japan.
The first aim of PRADS was to discuss the practical problems which are useful for the actual ship
design not to incline toward academic theories. And the second was to promote the friendship among
people in shipbuilding industry and academic circles in mainly Asian countries. However, as the
announcement was distributed not only to Asian area but also to European and American areas, many
European and American jointed.
The first PRADS was held under the auspices of the Society of Naval Architects Japan from 17th
(Mon.) to 21st (Fri.) of October 1977 at Sasagawa Memorial Hall, Tokyo, Japan with 245 participants
among which 90 persons came from 26 countries out of Japan. As the general lectures, the presidents
of societies of naval architects of six Asian countries (Mr.Wu Ruen-ting of P.R.O.C.,
Mr.S.Hadisoemarto of Indonesia, Mr.SJ.Yim of Korea, Mr.V.Jovellanos of Philippines, Mr.Chua
Chor Teck of Singapore and Mr.Y.Akita, Chairman ofPRADS Organizing Committee) introduced the
existing condition of the society of naval architects and ship building industry of each country. And 56
papers were presented. Almost of them were the paper on the practical ship design. On 21 st Oct. a
technical tour visiting IHI (Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd.) Yokohama Shipyard and
Kamakura (famous old town) was held.
The second PRADS was held under the auspices of the Society of Naval Architects Japan and the
Society of Naval Architects Korea on 17th (Mon.) and 18th (Tues.) of October 1983 at Sasagawa
Memorial Hall, Tokyo, Japan and on 21st (Fri.) and 22nd (Sat.) of October 1983 at Hotel Lotte, Seoul,
Korea. After first PRADS it was decided by the important persons of several countries that PRADS
will be an international symposium and this time 366 participants came from all over the world. And
85 papers were presented. Between Tokyo and Seoul conferences on 19th (Wed.) and 20th (Thurs.)
three technical tours were arranged as follows.
Course A: Tokyo - Pusan - Chungmu (stay one night) - Samsung Shipyard - Daewoo Shipyard - Pusan
- Seoul.
Course B: Tokyo - Pusan - Korean Shipbuilding & Engineering Corp. - Ulsan (stay one night) -
Hyundai Shipyard - Kyeonju (famous old capital) - Pusan - Seoul.
Course C : Tokyo - Sumitomo Oppama Shipyard - Kamakura - Tokyo Bay Sea Transport Control
Centre - Tokyo
The third PRADS was held under the auspices of Norwegian Institute of Technology (NIT.) from 22nd
(Mon.) to 26th (Fri.) of June 1987 at NIT., Trondheim, Norway with 235 participants. And 110 papers
were presented. Every evening social event was held under the midnight sun until midnight as follows.
22nd, 22:00 pm. : Reception at Maritime Technical Centre with a demonstration of old ships in
maneuvering tank
23rd, 19:00 pm. : After Nidelva river cruising, landed on Munkholmen Island off Trondheim and
fishing around the island.
24th, 22:00 pm. : Midnight golf with "Midnight golf certificate"
25th, 19:00 pm. : Banquet
The fourth PRADS was held under the auspices of Bulgarian Ship Hydrodynamic Centre (BSHC) from
23rd (Mon.) to 28th (Sat.) of October 1989 at Chernomore Hotel, Varna, Bulgaria with 310
participants. And 141 papers were presented. Prof. S.Motora confirmed the characteristics of PRADS
in his official speech at the banquet as follows.
1347
I) Anyone who has interest in the PRADS objective can join.

2) Anyone can submit his paper. The paper submitted is to be selected by the committee.
3) The contents of the symposium is to be well balanced in basic and application, hydrodynamics,
structure and design.
4) Anyone other than the authors can join to the discussion.
The fifth PRADS was held under the auspices of British Maritime Technology Ltd. (BMT), British
Shipbuilders, Kokums Computer Systems A.B., Lloyd's Register of Shipping, Marine Technology
Directorate Ltd., North East Coast Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders (NECIES), Press Offshore
Ltd., Swan Hunter Shipbuilders and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne from 17th (Sun.) to 22nd
(Fri.) of May 1992 at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. with 369
participants. And 107 papers were presented. After opening ceremony, two general lectures were given
as follows.
"Engineering Design: Its Research and its Improvement" by Prof. Peter Hills of UK's Science and
Engineering Research Council
"Marine Design: Advancing with Realism" by Dr. Marshal Meek, President ofRINA
The sixth PRADS was held under the auspices of the Society of Naval Architects Korea from 17th
(Sun.) to 22nd (Fri.) of September 1995 at Korea Exhibition Centre (KOEX), Seoul, Korea with 293
participants. And 125 papers were presented. After opening ceremony, two plenary lectures were given
as follows.
"What about Double Hull for Bulk Carrier" by Dr. Frank S.B.Chao, President of Wahkwong Shipping
Co. Ltd. Hongkong
"Korean's Role in the World Shipbuilding Industry" by Mr.Y.S.Song, President of Korean
Shipbuilding Association
The cultural tour was visiting Korean Folk's Village in south part of Seoul, and the technical tour was
to visit Samsung and Daewoo shipyards.
The seventh PRADS was held with Dr. M.W.C.Oosterveld, President of MARIN, in chair from 20th
(Sun.) to 25th (Fri.) of September 1998 at the Netherlands Congress Centre, the Hague, the
Netherlands with 235 participants. And 126 papers were presented. After opening ceremony, five
plenary lectures were given as follows.
"Safety and Ship Design" and "Construction of Complicated Ship" by Prof. A.Aalbers of De1f
University of Technology
"Model Test and Calculated Result of Ship and Structure in Waves" by Prof. J.A.Pinkster of Delf
University of Technology
"Consideration on Hull Structure and Material Design" by Mr. G.T.M.Janssen of the Netherlands
Applied Research Association
"Review on Ocean Technology" by Mr. J.H.Vugts of Royal Technical Society
The technical and cultural tour was held on 23rd afternoon visiting MARIN in Wageningen followed
by a visit to the National Museum Kroller-Muller in the National Park the 'Hoge Veluwe' ..
2 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND CONSIDERATIONS
The numbers of participants and the numbers of papers were statistically analyzed. Table I shows the
numbers of the participants. Very roughly speaking, the foreign participants is about 70 % in the
conferences held in Europe and 40 % in the conferences held in Asia because of many participants
from the host country of Korea or Japan. The ratio of participants from the universities is about 40 %,
that from the shipyards is about 20 % and that from others (research organizations, classification
societies, governments etc.) is about 40 %. Naval architects and marine engineers in shipyards, the
1348
Author considers, should attend PRADS conferences and absorb new knowledges to build better ships.
PRADS started in 1977 aiming to discuss the practical problems which are useful for the actual ship
design not to incline toward academic theories. This is a very important point, the Author considers,
because a ship which brings happiness to people in the world carrying necessary materials can be
designed and built by the naval architects and marine engineers in shipyards. From the other viewpoint
PRADS should be more attractive to the naval architects and marine engineers in shipyards.
Table 2 shows the numbers of papers applied, presented, for design, for theoretical structure, for
theoretical hydrodynamics and others. It seems that the capacity of the PRADS is limited up to about
120-140 papers. In PRADS'89 Varna, over 400 papers were applied among which 141 papers were
selected for presentation. In PRADS'95 Seoul and in PRADS'98 The Hague over 200 papers were
applied and 119 and 126 papers were presented respectively.
In PRADS, as its name shows, papers on practical design will be particularly welcome. From this
viewpoint, PRADS'77 Tokyo and PRADS'92 Newcastle upon Tyne can be acceptable. PRADS'77
Tokyo was the first PRADS aiming to discuss the practical problems which are useful for the actual
ship design not to incline toward academic theories. And PRADS'92 Newcastle upon Tyne was held
focusing strictly on DESIGN as its central theme. These will be the reason of the success. Generally
speaking, the ratio of the papers for design is 20 %, , that for theoretical structure is 30 %, that for
theoretical hydrodynamics is 35 % and that for others is 15 %. The ratio of the papers for design of
20 % happened to coincide the ratio of the participants from the shipyards of 20 %. Less papers for
design caused less participants from shipyards or less participants from shipyards caused less papers
for design. This is a story of egg and hen. Anyway this is a point to be improved in future PRADS.
The ratio between numbers of papers of structure and hydrodynamics is well balanced except
PRADS'89 Varna where Bulgarian Ship Hydrodynamics Centre - BSHC is famous and active. The
ratio between numbers of papers of each category will be controlled by the committee of the host
country, so it will be natural. The author considers that the papers for theoretical structure will be a
little more effective in the practical ship design than those for theoretical hydrodynamics, because the
structure of a ship sustains its life on the other hand the resistance and the propulsion improve the
operational efficiency. On this viewpoint the ratio for theoretical structure of 30 % and that for
theoretical hydrodynamics of35 % will be reverse.
3 MEMORIAL EVENTS
PRADS'83 Tokyo & Seoul was successfully organized by the cooperation of Korean and Japanese
Organizing Committees. Especially Korean Committee members, the A~thor appreciates, played their
1349
role wonderfully. The participants moved from Tokyo to Seoul enjoying two days technical tour in
three groups. Everything was best prepared and all of the participants arrived at Seoul with full of
satisfaction. Visiting and observing shipyards will be effective for the naval architects and marine
engineers in shipyards. The modem and powerful four Korean shipyards, Samsung, Daewoo, KSEC
and Hyundai, were open to the participants.
TABLE 2
NUMBERS AND PERCENTAGES OF PAPERS
In PRADS'87 Trondheim, thanks to the midnight sun the participants enjoyed after conference time
until midnight. The weather was not so good and the fishing tour was held in cold and rainy wind. Only
three fishes were caught two of which were by Prof. Schmiechen of Berlin University..
The motto of PRADS'89 Varna was "The Shipbuilding Industry on the Threshold of 21st Century".
Through the conference it had been fine weather. At the end of the conference Prof. J.B.Caldwell of the
University of Newcastle upon Tyne asked the participants "Come to PRADS'92 Newcastle upon Tyne
bringing your wife or girl friend, probably not both".
PRADS'92 Newcastle was held on perfectly fine days no cloud at all. The conference was prepared
mainly by old men, Prof. lB. Caldwell, Mr.R.C.Gray and Dr.G.Ward who retired or retiring. One
evening the participants visited Beamish open air museum which is a reconstruction of life in the year
1913 as it was experienced in the North East of England.
In PRADS'95 Seoul the most impressive was the welcome address of Prof. K.C.Kim of Seoul National
University, that was "---In the history of the Korean shipbuilding industry, the year 1981 was an
epoch-making year in sense that the annual ship production exceeded 1,000,000 GT. The PRADS'83
gave a considerable impact on the promotion of the technical research and development activity of
Korean shipbuilding industry. _m The significance we host the PRADS'95 in Seoul is to recompense
the community of the world maritime industry for their friendship with Korean shipbuilding industry.
"
4 PROPOSAL AND CONCLUSIONS
From a viewpoint that a ship which brings happiness to people in the world carrying necessary
materials can be designed and built by the naval architects and marine engineers in shipyards, they
should more often attend and present papers on practical ship design and construction. In this respect,
the Author would like propose following items.
1) In the call for papers, DESIGN is to be footlighted as PRADS'92 Newcastle upon Tyne.
2) More naval architects and marine engineers in shipyards are to be members of the standing
committee or organizing committee.
1350
3) The committee in the host country is to control the number of papers of each category to meet the
PRADS original idea.
As a conclusion, the Author would like to emphasize that PRADS will develop successfully in future
provided it is practical and attractive to shipyards.
References (in Japanese)
Mano M. (1984). Report ofPRADS'83 (No.1). Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects Japan 655,
26-33
Mano M. (1984). Report of PRADS'83 (No.2). Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects Japan 656,
42-48
Mano M. (1987). Report of PRADS' 87. Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects Japan 698, 41-44
Mano M. (1990). Report ofPRADS'89 VARNA. Science of Ship 43-1,92-97
Mano M. (1992). Report ofPRADS'92 NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE. Science of Ship 45-9, 42-46
Mano M. (1995). Report ofPRADS'95 SEOUL. Science of Ship 48-12,48-53
Mano M. (1998). Report ofPRADS'98 (The Hague, The Netherlands). Science of Ship 52-3, 43-51
PRADS Executive Committee (1977). PRADS (International Ship Design Symposium). Bulletin of the
Society of Naval Architects Japan 581, 10- I 5
II
AUTHOR INDEX
V olumes I and II
Abdul Rahim, M. 971 Cho, Doo-Yeoun 3]5

Abt, C. 67 Choi, Yoon-Rak 525
Ahn,IlJun 113 Choi, Young-Bok 3]5
Ahn, J.H. 679 Chou, S.K. 777
Andersen, L.F. 403 Chung, Duk Soo 367
Anderson, C.D. 517 Chung, J.H. 205
Ando,J. 645,719 Chung,Jung-Hoon 1315
Arai, M. 33] Chung, Kyoon-Yang 1221
Arita, M. 221 Chung, T.Y. 205
Adar, M. 517 Clausen, H.B. 349
Clauss, G.F. 275, 1227
Baarholm, G.S. 879 Colbourne, B. 741
Baarholm, R. 621 Coppola, T. 127
Baatrup, J. 261 Corr, R.B. 1269
Bade, S.D. 67 Crossland, P. 563
Bai, Y. 175, 1005 Cui, W.e. 979
Bailey, P.A. 571
Ballard, EJ. 571 Dahle, E.A. 925
Baritrop,N.D.P.1121 Das,P.K. 1121
Barry, C.D. 119 de Jager, A. 437
Bechepay, G. 1177 Deng, Yanping 397
Begovic, E. 135 Dijkstra, a.D. 1145
Benvenuto, G. 657 Doerk, a. 1137
Bereznitski, A. 911 Dogliani, M. 1243
Berge, S. 1071 Dong, Shi-Tang 693
Berggreen, C. 1323 Dong, Wen-Cai 1213
Bertorello, e. 135,143 Dong, Zu-Shun 97
Besnier, F. 1177, 1309 Donner, R. 1309
Birk, L. 67,275 Du, S.X. 847
Bjorheim, L.G. 107] Du, Shuang-Xing 871
Bjorneboe, N. 349 Duffty, B. 119
Brizzolara, S. 657
Bruzzone, D. 143,547 Egge, E.D. 1293
Buxton, I.L. 293 Egorov, G.V. 1013
Endo, H. 1285
Candries, M. 517 Esposito, P.G. 705
Cassella, P. 135,143 Estefen, S.F. 1037
Chan, Hoi-Sang 857
Chang, B.-J. 467 Faltinsen, a.M. 475,621
Chau, S.W. 777 Fang, C.e. 857
Chen, Chang-Lung 445 Ferry, M. 1177
Chen, Rui-Zhang 871 Figari, M. 657
Chen, Shun-Huai 37 Fricke, W. 1061
Chen, W.e. 777 Friesch, J. 749
Chen, Ying-Qiu 245 Frieze, P.A. 1269
Chen, You-Fang 865 Friis-Hansen, A. 349
Cheng, Jing-Yun 373 Fujino, M. 213
Cho, C.-H. 685 Fukasawa, T. 1081
12
Fukuehi, N. ]253, 126] Jensen, U. 261,839

Funeno, I. 485 Ji, YJ. 205
Ji, Zhuoshang 397
Gao, H.Q. 555 Jiang, T. 509
Gao, Xiao-Peng 97 Jin, Eunseok 459
Garme, K. 579 Johannsen, C. 8]5
Gu, X.K. 887 Johansen, A. 107]
Gua1eni, P. 547 Johnson, M.C. 563
Guerrero, A. 517 Joseph, P.F. ] 185
Guo, R.X. 12]3
Ha, M.K. 587 Kiillstam, T. 253

Hiimiiliiinen, R. 757 Kang, Dae Sun 367
Han, D.G. 451 Kang, Jeom-Moon 229
Harries, S. 67 Kang, K.J. 151
Hashimoto, K. 389 Kang, S.H. ]05
Hayman, B. 133] Karlsen, S.I. 593
He, Mo-Qin 823 Kawabe, H. ]089
He, Shu-Long 823 Kawamura, Y. 341
Hellan,0. 611 Kierkegaard, H. 1137
Heo, Joo-Ho 323 Kim, D.H. ] 51
Herfjord, K. 621 Kim, Doe Hyun 1129,] 161
Hess, P.E. 237 Kim, Eun-Chan 525
Himeno, Y. 7]9 Kim, H.T. 301
Hino, T. 699 Kim, Hoehung 1045
Hirata, K. 493 Kim, Hyoehul 133,367,799
Hirayama, T. 187 Kim, Hyoungtae 799
Hirdaris, S.E. 903 Kim, J.J. 785
Hishimoto, K. 108] Kim, Jaesung ] 13, 367
Hoekstra, M. 437 Kim, Jungjoong 799
Hoff, J.R. 6] 1 Kim, K. 799
Hong, S.Y. 205 Kim, Keunjae 1045
Hong, Sa-Young 525 Kim, Kisung 367
Hsin, C.Y. 777 Kim, Kuk Bin ] 129
Hu, C. ]253, 126] Kim, Moonehan ]045
Hu, Jia-Jun, 87] Kim,O.H. 105,229
Huang,J.Y.931 Kim,Sungpyo 1045
Huang, Zhen-Yu 429 Kim, W.S. ] 161
Hudson, D.A. 847 Kim, Wha Soo ] 129
Hung, C.F. 1]69 Kim, Won-Hyun 122]
Hwangbo, S.M. 791 Kim, YJ. 587
Hwangbo, Seung-Myun 665 Kim, Yongsoo 459
Kinoshita, T. 699
Ikebuehi, T. 485 Kitamura, O. 997, ]285
Ikeda, A. 997 Kitazawa, D. 213
Ikoma, T. 221 Ko, WJ. 1169
Ineeeik, A. 947 Kobayashi, H. 971
Irisawa, M. 97] Kong, D.S. 785
Ishida, S. 603 Konovessis, D. 269
Ishikawa, K. 187 Koushan, K. 50]
Kozlyakov, V.V. 1013
Jang, Chang-Hwan 323 Kumakura, Y. 29
Jang, Jinho ] 13 Kuratani, F. 485
Jang, T.S. 699 Kusunoki, Y. 485
Janssen, G.T.M. 1]45 Kwon, Jeong-II 1315
I3
Kwon, Jong Oh 367 Lundback, O. 533

Kwon, S.H. 587 Liitzen, M. 349, 1277
Larsen, MJ. 1331 Ma, N. 187

Lauridsen, P.H. 261 Maeda, H. 221
Le Sourne, H. 1309 Mandarino, M. 127
Lee, C.M. 451 Mano, M. 1345
Lee, c.-S. 685 Mansour, A.E. 955
Lee, Chun-Ju 151 Marquis, G.B. 1113
Lee, H.S. 587 Masaoka, K. 197
Lee, H.Y. 229 Matsuoka, K. 389
Lee, J.K. 301 Matter, G.B. 167
Lee, Jae Kyu 367 Matusiak, J. 413
Lee, Jae Wook 83,367 Mavrakakis, Y. 1177
Lee, Kyu-Yeul 315 McGeorge, D. 1331
Lee, S.J. 451 McGovney, J.E. 955
Lee, S.S. 301 Miao, Guo-Ping 1237
Lee, Sang Gab 1161, 1315 Mikkola, TP J. 1113
Lee, Sanghong 367 Min, K-S. 105
Lee, Sang-Uk 315 Miwa, I. 493
Lee, Seung Hee 113,367 Miyagi, C.H. 493
Lee, Seunghee 799 Miyazaki, H. 671
Lee, S-H. 83 Moan, T. 879,939, 1053
Lee, Soo-Mok 1221 Murawski, L. 1205
Lee, TH. 445 Myrhaug, D. 925
Lee, Tae-Il 665
Lee, Yoon Ki 1161 Nakatake, K. 645
Lee, Young Gill 83,367 Nimura, T 671
Leer-Andersen, M. 541 Nishimoto, K. 493
Lehmann, E. 1293 Nonaka, K. 671
Lepeix, R. 767 Noury, P. 1331
Levi, C. 421
Lew, J.M. 785 Ogawa, Y. 603
Lew, Jae Moon 367 Ohtsubo, H. 997, 1301
Li,D.-Q. 541 Okada, H. 197
Li, Jun-Hua 309 Osawa, N. 389
Li, Jun-Ming 37 0stvold, T.K. 1021
Li, Ke-Jun 1 Ottosson, P. 541
Li, Ting-Qiu 413
Lim, Choon-Gyu 229
Lin, J. 871 Paetzold, H. 1137
Lin, Shao-Fen 245 Park, J.S. 587
Liu, D. 13 Park, J.W. 785
Liu, Hao, 197 Park, Jae-Hyung 323
Liu, P. 741 Park, Jinsoo 1129
Liu, Ying-Zhong 1237 Park, Kihyun 799
Liu, Yujun 397 Pasqualino, J.P. 1037
Lohner, R. 43 Pedersen, PT 1277
Lotsberg, J. 159 Peng, Y.T 1169
Lu, Bei 373 Petinov, S.V. 1153
Lu, c.Y. 857 Postnov, V. 911
Lu, Jun 309 Pradillon, J.Y. 1029
Lua, YJ. 237 Price, W.G. 847,903
Ludolphy, J.W.L. 1145 Pu, Y. 947
14
Qian, G.L. 555 Sun, Li-Ping 1097

Quesnel, T. 1029 Sun, Wei 97
Sun, Yu-Wu 1097
Rajagopalan, K. 965 Suzuki, K. 1301
Rhee, K.P. 679
Rheem, C.K. 221 Tabeta, S. 213
Rhim,loong-Hyun 315 Taguchi, H. 603
Rigo, Ph. 51,987,1029 Tahara, Y. 719
Riola,l.M. 831 Takeda, Y. 1197
Rosen, A. 629 Tam, V.H.Y. 1269
Ryrfeldt, A. 253 Tan, K.G. 285
Tan, Ting-Shou 713
Sajit, K.S. 1301 Tarman, D.O. 955
Sakuragi, T. 341 Temarel, P. 571,847,903
Sales, Jr., 1.S. 167 Thill, C.H. 75
Salvatore, F. 705 Toderan, C. 987,1029
Sames, P.c. 637 Tomita, Y. 389,1081
Sampaio, C.M.P. 493 Toxopeus, S.L. 75
Sasajima, H. 29 Tragardh, P. 541
Sasaki, Y. 971 Tsubogo, T. ]97
Sawamura,l. 389 Tveitan, B.W. 1053
Scharrer, M. 1293
Schellin, T.E. 637
Sebastiani, L. 547 Veno, M. 671
Seki, T. 341
Sekiguchi, T. 645
Sen, P. 285 Va1khof, H.H. 437
Seo, Heung-Won 665 Valle, 1. 831
Shama, M.A. 381 Valsgard, S. 1021
Shen, Hong-Cui 807,823 van Heerd, 1. 757
Shen,l.W. 887 van Terwisga, P.F. 75
Shenoi, R.A. 1339 Vannahme, M. 1227
Shi, Li-luan, 979 Vardal, aT. 939
Shibazaki, K. 1089 Vassalos, D. 269
Shimizu, T. 331 Vergine, A. ]243
Shin, Chin, 741
Shin, H. 229
Shin, H.1. 791 Wanderley,l.B.V. 421
Shin, Yung, 175 Wang, Cheng-Fang 37
Shinkai, N. 389 Wang, Dong 397
Sima, C. 895 Wang, G. 919
Simonsen, B.C. 1323 Wang, G.-Q. 733
Snell, R.O. 1269 Wang, Li-Zheng 9]
Son, DJ. 679 Wang, W. 1339
Song, Museok 113 Wang, Y.Y. 59
Soto, O. 43 Wang, Z. 839
Spencer,l.S. 955 Watanabe, I. 603
Sphaier, S.H. 167 Wei,lia-Fu 21
Stansberg, C.T. 593,611 Wei, Na Xin 555
Steen, E. 1021 Wernicke, R. 1061
Stephenson, G.H. 293 Wilckens, H. 359
Suh,l.-C. 799 Wirsching, P.H. 955
Suh, lung Chun 1]3,367 Wist, H.T. 925
Sumi, Y. 341,1105 WuNie 1097
Sun,H.H. ]005 Wu,Fan ]213
15
Wu, Hua-Tung 857 Yoon, Hyun Se 525

Wu, Xiu-Heng 651 Yoon, Jaedoon 459
Wu, You-Hua 693 Yoon, Myung-Cheol 229
Wu, You-Sheng 871,895 Yu, Lei 1121
Yu, Zhi-Xing 1237
Xi, Long-Fei 91 Vue, Ya-Lin 871
Xia, J. 839
Xie, N. 555 Zhang, Jin-Fei 979
XLI,Fa-Yan 865 Zhang, L. 1293
XLI,L. 59 Zhang, Sheng-Kun 373
XLI,Li 865 Zhang, W. 1185
Zhang, Wei 37
Yamada, Y. 1285 Zhang, Wei-Xing 865
Yamamoto, N. 997 Zhang, X.D. 651
Yamano, T. 485 Zhang, Xiao-Ci 895
Yang, C. 43 Zhao, C.B. 865
Yang,C.-J.733 Zhao,C.T.175
Yang, J.M. 931 Zhao, R. 475,725
Yang, Jiman 799 Zhou, Lian-Di 429
Yang, Qinzheng 475 Zhou, Q. 1185
Yao, Hui-Zhi 807 Zhou, Wei-Xin 693
Yao, T. 987,997 Zhll, YX 1213
Ye, Naiquan 1053 Zhu, Ying-Fu 309
Ying, Wen-Ye 309 Zotti, I. 143
Yoneda, M. 997
Yoneya, T. 971
17
KEYWORD INDEX
V olumes I and II
A moving mesh, 413 Brittle and ductile fracture, Computational methods,

Accurate manufacturing, 1013 799,1105
359 Broaching-to, 533 Condition, 1323
Acoustics, 1185 B-spline, 713,865 Conical shell, 1285
Added mass, 1185,1197 Bubbly layer, 1213 Construction cost, 51
Added mass effect, 205 Buckling, 965, 1021, 1029 Container, 467
Added resistance, 671 Buckling strength, 971 Container ship, 105, 293
Adjustable mould, 367 Buffer bow, 1285 Continuous wavelet
Advanced second moment Bulk carriers, 13,903 transform, 587
method, 931 Bulk cavitation, 1315 Conventional rudder, 665
Aged platform structures, Bulkhead structure, 331 Correlation coefficient,
1097 1089
Aged Ship, 997 Corrosion, 29,341
Air gap, 621 CAD, 301 Corrosion and fatigue, 1005
Air injection, 1213 CAE, 301 Corrosion fatigue diagram,
Air lubrication, 113 Calm water resistance, 493 1045
Air-liquid two phase mixed Cantilever-beam type, 1097 Coupling effects, 887
boundary layer, 1213 Capsize, 831 Coupling mode between
Aluminium, 1053 Cargo shifting, 253 panel and stiffener, 1197
Analysis, 525,831 Cargo ship, 91 Crack, 341
Antifouling, 517 Casualties, 13 Crack analysis, 1105
Artificial neural networks, Catamaran, 83 Crack growth, 1129
501 Cavitation, 733,749 Crack growth analysis,
Attained Index A, 261 Cavitation inception, 693 1081
Axial compression, 1029 Cavitation tests, 815 Crack initiation, 1129
CBR, 309 Critical buckling strength,
Back-propagation, 791 CFD, 459,467 979
Backward vector auto- CFD tools, 43 Critical fill levels, 637
regressive model, 1169 Circular cylinder, 587 Critical leakage zone, 45]
Bank effects, 541 Classification rules, 1331 Critical locations, 1153
Basin, 831 Coastal ecosystem model, Cross fairing, 315
Bayesian network, 349 213 Cruciform joint, 1061
BEM, 705, 1185 Coatings, 517 Cruise vessel, 767
Benchmark test, 413 Coherence analysis, 587 Crush test, 1285
Bernoulli wave, 541 Collapse, 1037 Curved, ]323
Body force, 785 Col1apse analysis, 1029 Curved composite laminate,
Bottom step, 113 Collapse mechanism, 1285 1339
Boundary, 1323 Collision analysis, 130I Cyclic bit pressure, 1097
Boundary conditions, 1205 Collision resistance, 1293
Boundary element method, Collisions, 323, 831, 1285, DAA boundary segments,
895,919 1277,1309 1315
Boundary elements, 547 Combination of load, 1089 Damage, 831
Boundary layers, 705 Combined loads, 1021 Damages of ship structures,
Bow height, 603 Compartment fire, 1261 341
Bow slamming, 593 Composite grid, 777 Damping, 831, 1185
Box-stiffener, 1053 Computational Fluid Data fitting, 349
Breaking waves, 587 Dynamics (CFD), 429, Data model, 341
Breath mode, 1197 437,1261 Database, 501,685
18
Database technology, 245 Environmental impacts, Finite-analytic method, 651

Deck wetness, 229,603 381 Finite difference, 42]
Deckhouse height, 459 Eppler section design, 693 Finite difference method,
Deckhouse vibration, 1221 Equivalent body force, 777 919
Deflection, 187 Essentially Non-Oscillatory Finite element analysis,
Deflection limits, ]269 (ENO) schemes, 429 159, ]071, 1129
Delamination, 1339 Eulerian-Lagrangian, 445 Finite element model, 122]
Depressor wings, 1227 Exciter test, 1221 Finite elements, 1309
Design, 29, ]27,269,293, Experimental evaluation, Finite volume method, 637
359 493 Finite water depth, 475
Design criteria, 275 Experimental stress Finite-Volume-Method,
Design decomposition, 285 analysis, 1071 467
Design for environment, Experimental test, 1037 Fire, 1243
38] Experimenta] validation, Fire field model, ]261
Design methodology, 51 ]227 Fire safety design, 1253,
Design methods, 629 Explosions, 1269 126]
Design ofFPSOs, 947 External mechanics, 1301 Fire simulation, 1243
Design operational Extreme response, ] 75 Fire spread phenomena,
condition, 887 Extreme wave loads, 87] 1253
Design standards, I First excursion, 237
Design wave condition, First order reliability
1089 Fabrication cost, 29 method, 237
Developable surface, 367 Fabrication effect, ]061, First-principles, 269
DICAS, ]67 ] 137 Flexible model, 871
Differential numerical Failure strain, ]293 Flexural buckling, 979
approach, 59 Far field method, 221 Floating objects, 1277
Discounted cash flow, 293 Fast Fourier transform Floating production, 6] I
Double hull, 237 (FFT), 1121 Flooding, 831
Draft effect, 221 Fast marine vehicles, 547 Flow, 467
Drag reduction, I] 3 Fatigue, ]59, 175,323, Flow-induced flutter, 895
Ductedpropeller, 725 939,1053, ]061, ]069, Flow passing a tandem
DYNA3D, 237 1145 fence, 45]
Dynamic loading approach, Fatigue analysis, 1]2] Fluid-solid coupling, 919,
887 Fatigue design, 107] 1237
Dynamic loads, 903 Fatigue design of hull Fluid-structure interaction,
Dynamic meshing, 403 details, ] 153 911, 1185
Fatigue failure, 1045 Flux splitting, 429
Economic and Trade Fatigue life, 1097 Folding, 1285,1293
development, 2] Fatigue properties, 1153 Following sea, 533
Effect of mooring rigidity, Fatigue strength design, Form optimisation, 275
]97 108] Formal safety assessment,
Effect of shear rigidity, 197 Fatigue strength, 97], ]071, ]243
Effective speed, 509 1]29, Forward-oriented wave
Effective velocity, 785 Fatigue testing, 159,] 071 breaking, 485
Effective wake, 777 FE idealisation, 903 Forward speed, 847
Effective width, 965 FEA, 97] Foul release, 517
E]astic response, 22] FEA simulation, 1285 FPI, 175
Empirical method, 50] FEM, 997, ]045, 1]69, FPSO, ]59,167,175,593,
Energy, 38] 1]85 6]1,]071
Energy operator, 1177 Fender systems, 1277 Fracture, 159
Entire-ship structural Fiber reinforced plastic, Fracture mechanics, 1061
analysis, 971 367 Free running, 533
Entrainment failure, 45] Fibre reinforced polymers, Free surface, 865
Environmental impact ]331 Free-surface effect, 451
assessment, 2] 3 FINFLO RANS solver, 413 Frequency domain, 229
19
Friction, 517 Hull form, 91 International friendship,

Frictional resistance, 113 Hull form CAD system, 1345
FRP ships, 1339 315 International shipping, 21
Full scale, 533 Hull form design, 43,67, International symposium,
Full-scale fatigue test, 1129 83 1345
Full scale test, 37 Hull form optimisation, 43, Inverse heat conducting
Full-scale trials, 555, 629 75 analysis, 389
Fully nonlinear, 445 Hull girder, 237,987, 1029 Inverted angle stiffener,
Fundamental mode, 1197 Hull lines, 767 1129
Funnel height, 459 Hull resistance, 59 Inviscid flows, 705
Funnel position, 459 Hull sections, 665 Irregular frequency, 847
Fuzzy arithmetic, 93 I Human element, 13 Irregular waves, 229
Fuzzy reliability, 931 Hybrid approach, 237 ISO, 525
Fuzzy set theory, 245 Hybrid hydrofoil, 119 Isolated Rankine, sources,
Hydrodynamic effects, 445
Geometric optimisation, 67 ]309 ITTC high-speed modeL
Geometrical non-linearity, Hydrodynamic forces, 645 493
]33] Hydrodynamic loads, 911
Geometrically similar Hydrodynamic pressure, Jack-up platform, 1097
models, 113 857 Journal bearing, 1205
Global loads, 127 Hydrodynamics, 75, 767,
Graphic user interface, 685 1345
Green functions, 547 Hydro-elastic effect, 919 Lagrangian particle-tracking
Green sea, 593,611 Hydroelasticity, 187,221, method, 451
Green's function, 847 871,895,903,911 Lap joint, 1053
Ground effect, 97 Hydroelastic interaction, Large deflections, 1331
Guide vane, 807 1197 Large eddy simulation,
Hydroelastic responses, 126]
Heat, 467 205, 229 Large scale fatigue test,
Heattransfer, 389 Hydrofoil, 119,705,895 1137
High lift rudder, 665 Hydro-ski, 97 Large-scale welding
High performance, 91 HYKAT, 479 applications, 403
High speed, 83 Large-size foil catamaran,
High speed craft, 1331 Ice-propeller interaction, 105
High speed video recording, 741 Laser welding product data
815 Impact, 97 technology, 359
High strength steel, 1113 Impact load, 97 LDV, 785
Higher order harmonic Impact pressure, 637 LDV technique, ]213
component, 887 Impact pressure distribution, L.I.F., 389
Higher tensile strength steel, 629 Life cycle analysis, 381
29 Improved welds, 1113 Life cycle cost, 29
Highly skewed fixed pitch Impulsive loads, 919 Lifting-surface method,
propeller, 1045 Increase, 525 693
High-speed medium size Infinite dimensional Lifting surface theory, 733
container ship, 30 I optimization method, 699 Limit states, 51, 1269
Hopper knuckle, 323 Information systems, 341 Line heat forming, 397
Horizontally elastic Initia] imperfections, 1013 Line heating, 389
response, 197 Integral numerical Linear FE model, 1293
Horn rudder, 679 approach, 59 Load lines, 603
Hot spot stress, ]59, 1129, Integrated fleet, 37 Load transfer, 971
1137 Intelligent, 309 Load-carrying box filler
Hotspot stress analysis, 971 Interaction, 785 weldment, 1161
HSC, 135,579,629 Interface design, 685 Loading/unloading, 301
HSC comparison, ]43 Intermediate bearing, 1205 Local strain approach, 1153
Hull fabrication, 397 Internal mechanics, 1301 Local stress, 1061
no
Longitudinal stiffened sub- Modified lifting line theory, Numerical welding

panel, 979 679 simulation, 403
Longitudinal strength, 323, Momentum theory, 22]
925 Monte Carlo simulation, Oblique waves, 857
Longitudinally stiffened 237 Offloading, 167
panel, ]029 Moving grid, 421 Offshore, 1269
Long term, 879 Multi-criteria analysis, Offshore platforms, 939
Long-term distribution, 1029 Oil fence, 451
1089 Multi-hulled vessels, 571 Oil leakage, 45]
Long-term prediction, 603, Multi-hulls, ]27 Oil spill, 1285
947 Multi-linked compartments, One week design, 67
Low Mach number ]253 Operability, 563
approximation, 1261 Multiobjective optimisation, Optimal hull forms, 699
LS-DYNA3D/USA code, 285 Optimal marine propellers,
]3 ] 5 Multi tiers, ] 197 699
LU decomposition, 429 Optimisation, 269
Optimization, 51,331,
Narrow tank, ] 197 ]323
Main engine unbalance Natural frequency, ] 197 Optimization procedure, 59
moment, 122] Naval, 127 Optimum design, 397
Main particulars, 349 Naval ship compartment, Optimum location, ]51
Main-hull, 127 309 Orbital oscillations, 1227
Maintenance cost, 29 Near field method, 221 Oseenlet, 895
Maneuverability, 665 Near field theory, 187 Outriggers, ]27
Maneuvring, ]67 Neural network, 349, 791 Overpressures, 1269
Manoeuvrability, 671 New blade section, 693
Manoeuvre, 657 Newmark ~ method, 229 Painting, 29
Manoeuvring, 75,533 NOz iso-surface, 459 Panel, 1323
Manoeuvring motion, 651 Noise, 749,807, 1185 Panel methods, 733, 741
Marine propellers, 705 Nominal stress, 1053 Parametric design, 275
Marine propulsion, 74] Nominal wake, 777 Parametric modelling
Maritime safety culture, I Non-linear, 57] approach, 67
Mean stress, I] 13 Nonlinear, 879 Parametric study, 459
Mean ultimate stress, 1293 Nonlinear cable forces, Partial load and resistance
Measurement, 533,555, 1227 factors, 1269
823 Nonlinear dynamics, 1227 Partially supported
Medium frequency, ] 177 Nonlinear programming, hydrofoil, ]] 9
Mega-float model, 2]3 719 Partial structural analysis,
Membership function, 93] Nonlinear wave-induced 97]
Memory effect function, bending moments, 887 Particle track, 459
229 Non-manifold data Passenger ferry, 135
Miner's rule, 1089 structure, 3] 5 Phase vector analysis, ]221
Minor impacts, 1277 Non-modal method, 1] 77 prv method, 451
Misalignment, 106] Non-uniform flow, 671 Planing, 579
Mission based design, 75 Norminal wake, 79] Planing boat, 367
Mobile agent, 373 Notch stress, 1053 Platform, 61]
Model-based simulation, Numerical analysis, 725, Plat-ski, 97
30] 1037 Podded drives, 749
Model experiment, 113 Numerical calculation, 651 Pods, 767
Model test in tank, 9] Numerical methods, 1]85, Pollution, 381
Model tests, 37,83,205, 1309 Pontoon-type very large
555,593,629,725,87] Numerical optimization, floating structure, 205
Model test techniques, 749 493 Portable (wearable)
Model-ship correlation, ]35 Numerical simulation, 83, computer, 34]
Mode superposition, 187 187,213,1227 Postbuckling, 1021
III
Post-collapse, 1037 Redundancy, 1021 Scale law, 113

Powering performance, Reefer, 467 SCF, 1053
151, 807 Regression analysis, 679 Sea loads, 865
Practical design, 1345 Regressive analysis, 59 Sea trials, 563
Pre-fabricated details, 1153 Reliability, 939,965 Seakeeping, 75, 143,547,
Preliminary design, 51 Reliability analysis, 947 555,563,571,579,847
Preliminary ship design, Reliability based code Seakeeping criteria, 563
349 formulation, 955 Sectioning method, 1161
Pre-load, 1161 Reliability-based design, Self-propulsion simulator,
Pressure distribution, 713 947 719
Pressure measurement, 579 Reliability design, 925 Self-propulsion test, 777
Pressure pulse Remained following waves, Semi-displacement hull,
measurements, 815 485 493
Pressure pulses, 749 Renovation of existing Semi planing, 533
Probabilistic analysis, 947 integrated barge, 37 Sensitivity analysis, 979,
Probabilistic damage Requalification, 939 987
stability, 261 Residual resistance, 50 I Sensor carrier, 1227
Probabilities offailure, Resistance, 143, 151,485, Series 60, 847
1269 517, 525 Service damages, 1013
Probability density function, Resistance and propulsion Shaft line alignment, 1205
603 prediction, 509 Shaken-down residual
Production simulation, 359 Resistance reduction, 1213 stress, 1161
Program, 525 Resistance test, 135 Shallow draft assumption,
Progressive collapse Response surface, 285 221
analysis, 987,997 Response surface method, Shallow water, 83,509
Propeller, 437,733, 785, 1005 Sheet cavitation, 705
807 Response surface Ship and Offshore
Propeller analysis, 685 methodology, 331 installation, I
Propeller design, 685,693, Reuse of design data, 285 Shipbuilding, 373,381,
713 Reynolds Average Navier- 397
Propeller-hull interaction, Stokes equations, 59 Ship design, 59,261,1071,
777,799 Reynolds number, 437 1345
Propeller loading, 541 Rigid body motions, 571 Ship motion, 555
Propeller plane, 791 Rigid body response, 621 Ship motion prediction, 563
Propulsion, 725,767,807 Ringing, 587 Ship motions, 253
Propulsion plant, 657 Risk analysis, 253,381, Ship performance, 509
Pusher-barge-line, 37 925,965, 1243 Ship production, 359
Risk assessment, 245 Ship resistance, 50 I
Quantitative risk Risk-based safety standards, Ship responses, 839
assessment, 269 13 Ship structural design, 955
River-sea-going ore barge, Ship structures, 919,965,
Random field generation, 37 971,1071,1105,1169
1121 Roll, 831,839 Shipping system, 37
Random process, 237 Root crack, ] 137 Shipping water load, 603
Random waves, 593 Ro-Ro, 83] Ships, 785, 879, 1145
RANS, 785 Rotating ships, 421 Ships with a transom, 413
RANS calculation, 777 Roughness function, 5] 7 Shock response, 1315
RANS equations, 719 Roughness, 517 Side longitudinal, 1129
Rational constraints, 51 Run-up, 611 Side-hull, 151
Real time simulation, 213 Similar response function
Rectangular tank, 1197 Safety, 1243 method, ]081
Re-distribution of residual Safety index, 965 Simplified, 879
stress, 1161 Sailing model, 1081 Simplified method, 1301
Reduced model, 1177 Sandwich, 1323 Simplified prediction
Reduction, 1323 Scale effect, 485 method, 1081
112
Simulation, 293, 50 I, 657 Structural design, 33 I, Three dimensional methods,

Simulation method, 397 133],1339 547
Single-skin panels, 1331 Structural reliability, 237 Three-dimensional source
Sinkage, 475 Structural response, 629, technique, 857
Ski, 97 857 Through life costs, 293
Slamming, 229, 579, 6 I I, Structural safety, 13 Through-thickness stress,
767,911 Structural stress, 1053 1339
Slender ship approximation, Structural vibration, 1177 Thrust, 725
43 Structures, 127,1323, Time domain, 229,839
Sloshing, 637 1345 Time-domain simulation,
Slot type, 1097 Submarines, 807, 1309 579
Smith's method, 997 Submersible structure, Time stepping, 445
Smoke behavior, 459 ]037 Time-variation reliability
S-N curve, 1089 Suezmax, 665 assessment, 1005
S-N data, 159 Supercavitating propeller, Tokyo Bay, 213
Society of naval architects, 733 Torque, 725
1345 Super-high-speed ships, Total system, 97]
Soft bow, 1285 105 Towed underwater vehicle,
Sound, 1185 Supply chain management, 1227
Spectral analysis, 587 373 Towing test, 823
Spectrum fatigue, ]] 13 Surface model, 3 I5 Transient, 83]
Speed, 525 Surface panel method, 645, Trial, 525
Speed loss, 887 693,713 Triangular pulse loading,
Spread-mooring, ]67 Surface parameterization, 1269
SR-22I ship models, 645 43 Trim, 475
Stability, 167, 83] Surface ship, 1315 Trimaran, 43, ]27, 135,
Stability assessment, 30 I Surrounding, ]323 15I
Statistical analysis, 79] Survivability, 269, 83 I Trimaran model tests, 143
Statistical prediction, 971 Sway force, 541 T-type stiffener, 1]29
Steady drift force, 187 System identification, I] 69 Turbulent diffusion of heat
Steel structure, 29 and composed gas, ]253
Steering gear torque, 679 Tankers, ]3,637, ] 129 Turbulent viscosity, 895
Stepped hull, ] 19 Tanker stern form Turning motion, 645, 67]
Stern profile, 665 optimization, 7]9 Turret, ]67
Stern tube bearing, 1205 Target level, 939 Twenty-first Century, 2 I
Stern waves, 485 Technical conference, ]345 Two-bladed vertical pre-
Stern wedges, 493 Temperature, 467 swirl stator vane, 799
Stiffened panels, 987,1021 Templates, 403
Stiffened plates, 965 Tensile mean stress, ]] 6 I
Stiffened structure,S] Test, 83] Ultimate bending moment,
Stiffener tripping, 965,979 Testing technique, 8 I5 987, ]029
Stiffness, 1323 Theoretical hydrodynamics, Ultimate bending strength,
Stiffness characteristics, 705 237
]205 The pseudo-field Ultimate hull girder
Stochastic finite element mathematical model, strength, ]013
method, 237 1253 Ultimate longitudinal
Storm model, ]08 I Thermal stress, ] 197 strength, 997
Strain and stress curve, 987 Thermo-elasto-plastic Ultimate strength, 987,
Strength, 175, ]021, 133] analysis, 1]61 1005,102],1029
Stress concentration, ]]53 The thickness of heat Uncertainty, 979
Stress response function, insulation, 1253 Uncertainty analysis, 823
]081 The Yellow Sea, 83 Underwater explosion,
Strip theory, 839 Thickness diminution, 997 13I5
Structural constraints, 5 I Thin ship theory, 475 Unsteady loading, 74]
Il3
Unsteady wave pattern, 857 Wash wave, 541 Wide beam, 665
Upgrading, 293 Water impact, 911 Wide web frame space, 323
Watertight subdivision, 261 WIG, 97
Waterways with shallow Wigley hull, 475
Variable amplitude loading, and strong current, 91 Wind, 525
1145 Wave cancellation multihull Windows, 685
Ventilation, 467 ship, 43 Wing flow, 1237
Vertical bending moment, Wave drift forces, 671
879 Wave excitation, 571 Yaw moment, 541
Very large floating Wave impact, 593,611 Yoke house, 1097
structure, 187,221,229 Wave-induced dynamic
Vibration, 1169 response, 903 a-cut, 931
Vibration reduction, 1213 Wave-induced load, 1089
Virtual reality, 341 Wave-induced loading, 947
Viscous flow, 421,437, Wave interference, 151 3D-layout, 309
651 Wave loads, 925,971,839 3D Rankine Panel method,
Viscous free-surface flow, Wave pressure, 1081 865
413 Wave resistance, 43,475
Viscous/inviscid coupling, Waves, 525, 533 4,800 TEU container
705 Weight, 1323 carrier, 1221
VLCC, 799 Weight function, 1105
VLFS, 197,213,221,229 Weld endings, 1153 4th Order balancer, 1221
Vortex-induced vibration, Welded details, 1145
1237 Welded joint, 1061
Vortex ring, 785 Welded structures, 1113,
Vortex shedding, 1237 1137
Wetdeck slamming, 621
Wake, 785 Wetted surface, 501
Wake distributions, 437 Whipping response, 887
Wash, 475 Whirling vibrations, 1205

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Practical Design of Ships and

Other Floating Structures

Elsevier Titles of Related Interest

BAI OHTSUBO & SUMI

Applied Ocean Research Engineering Structures

To Contact the Publisher

© 200 I Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electronic Storage or Usage

First edition 200 I

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

ISBN: 0-08-043950-0 (2 Volume set)

CAE Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering Division

These organizations are represented in the Local Organizing Committee.

HONORARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

PRADS STANDING COMMITTEE

PRADS LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Prof. You-Sheng Wu (Chairman), China Ship Scientific Research Center

Prof. Ying-Qiu Chen, China Classification Society

Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering Division

STAFF MEMBERS OF THE SECRETARIAT

Prof. Guo-Jun Zhou, China Ship Scientific Research Center

Structural Safety of Ships 13

Shipping Industry in the 21 st Century 21

1. DESIGN SYNTHESIS FOR SHIPS AND FLOATING SYSTEMS

LIFE CYCLE COST AND SHIPPING SYSTEM

A Consideration of Life Cycle Cost of a Ship 29

Optimization of a Wave Cancellation Multihull Ship Using CFD Tools 43

A Module-Oriented Optimization Tool 51

HULL FORM DESIGN

Mission Based Hydrodynamic Design of a Hydrographic Survey Vessel 75

NOVEL SHIP CONCEPTS - HIGH SPEED VESSELS

The Impact Load of Wing-in-Ground-Effect Craft in Waves and Application of Hydro-Ski 97

Conceptual Design of Very Large-Size Super-High-Speed Foil Catamaran Containership 105

A Practical Application of Air Lubrication on a Small High Speed Boat 113

The Hybrid Hydrofoil Stepped Hull 119

NOVEL SHIP CONCEPTS - TRIMARAN

FLOATING PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

Design Recommendations from the FPSO - Fatigue Capacity JIP 159

Design of FPSOs Based on Maneuvering Stability 167

Extreme Response and Fatigue Damage of Ship-Shaped FPSO 175

VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURES (I)

VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURES (II)

DESIGN PRINCIPLE AND CRITERIA

Integration of First-Princip]e Approaches to Design for Damage Survivability 269

The Application of a Decomposition and Reuse Approach in Marine Design 285

Model-Based Simulation for Container Loading / Unloading 30]

Research on 3D-Layout Design of Ship Compartment Based on CBR 309

MARINE STRUCTURAL DESIGN

A Design Modification of VLCC with Wide Web Frame Space 323

APPLICATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

A Study on an Information System of Damages of Ship Structures 341

Bayesian and Neural Networks for Preliminary Ship Design 349

Innovation in Ship Production: What Can We Expect? 359

Mobile Agent Based Supply Chain Management in Shipbuilding Industry 373

Energy and Environment Dimension in Ship Manufacturing Processes 381

Numerical Simulation of Welding Distortions in Large Steel Structures 403

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS - FLOW SIMULATION

Viscous Flow Around Rotating Ships 421

Viscous Flow Calculations Used for Dredger Design 437