On the Characteristics and Long-term Prediction Procedure of Wave-induced Pressure Flutuation on a VLCC Hull

Abstract

There has been much discussion on the characteristics of wave-induced pressure fluctuation on the side shells of VLCCs since a considerable number of fatigue cracks have been found on side- longitudinals of second generation VLCCs. The main theme of the discussion is whether the characteristics of pressure fluctuation are predictable even for small values of wave-length to ship-length ratio such as 0.1-0.3 and how peak-to-trough value can be obtained for wave-induced pressure fluctuation on the side shell close to the load- water-line. Tank experiments on a scale model ship were carried out to answer these questions, and it was shown that the measured results agree with the results calculated by the strip method after a simple correction on non-linearity effect caused by the crossing of the free-surface. Results of long-term prediction with the same correction also show good agreement with the results of the full-scale measurements.