Combined backbone application on numerical simulations and a model experiment of a 20,000 TEU container ship

Abstract

For the large-scale development and large opening characteristics of container ships, the characteristics of springing in waves has become more complex. It is thus urgent to find reasonable equivalent principles to solve the dilemma of simultaneously simulating vertical, horizontal and torsional vibrations in model tests. Meanwhile, to avoid the complexity and time-consuming nature of full three-dimensional modelling, a large-scale combined beam model is adopted to simulate three-dimensional coupled vibrations and the positions of the neutral axis and torsion centre. Combined with the finite element method, a 3D equivalent modelling method of the combined model is analysed in detail, and the stiffness influence of transverse bulkheads on the coupled vibrations mode is revealed. Furthermore, the elastic modal responses, vibration principles and waves load in the fluid-structure interaction vibrations are assessed and investigated by the three-dimensional linear hydroelastic mechanics method in the frequency- and time-domains. Then, the scheme and load measurement method in the model test in the wave basin are put forward, and the experimental data and numerical calculation results are compared and found to be consistent. The proposed the equivalent combined beam model is of great significance for model tests and numerical analyses of very large container ships.