Hello and greetings from TheNavalArch!
In this week’s Tuesday article update, we’re publishing an article on assessing the Ultimate Longitudinal Strength (ULS) of a ship’s hull. The article also presents a simple method for assessing the ULS for a damaged hull. It is a useful resource for Captains/Mariners involved in Salvage operations who need to quickly assess the residual strength of a damaged vessel. An abstract follows:
Abstract
The hull girder strength against longitudinal bending or shearing loads is defined as longitudinal strength. It can be considered as the most important strength of a ship structure.
In fact, the occurrence of the buckling at the deck and/or bottom structure could yield the collapse of the ship’s hull girder if the applied longitudinal bending moment exceeds the capacity of the cross-section.
Several methods exist to determine this ultimate capacity, defined as Ultimate Longitudinal Strength (ULS). For instance, the Smith method (iterative method) is well-known and produces fast and reliable results.
During the life of the vessel, the ULS can be reduced due to corrosion or due to damages. The Residual Damage Diagram developed by Paik (2012) could be a valid and fast alternative in emergency circumstances (such as salvage operation) for a fast estimation of the residual ULS.
To read more, click on the link below: