Strength Calculation of Foam Core Sandwich Composite Ship by FEM

Abstract

The foam core sandwich composite ship is a new kind ship using special materials. The advantages include easy molding, short construction period and so on. However, due to the specialty of the material property as well as the complexity of structures, there are element applicability and calculation efficiency problems when conducting FEA (Finite Element Analysis) calculations of the whole ship. Based on experiment and simulation result, a sandwich shell element is found which is equivalent to the solid element of beam and plate. An efficient and practical way is developed using this equivalent shell element to calculate a catamaran including the analysis of the structure responses in different working conditions. This methodology has a great reference value when conducting computer simulation calculation of foam core sandwich composite ships and marine structures.