Ultimate strength envelope of a 10,000TEU large container ship subjected to combined loads: From compartment model to global hull girder

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to figure out the relationship of the ultimate strength characteristics between the compartment hull girder and the global hull girder, especially focusing on the ultimate strength envelope of the global hull girder of a 10,000TEU ultra large container ship subjected to combined loads, which is one of the most important indexes to quantify the safety margin of the container ship. To achieve these aims, both the compartment hull girder and the global hull girder are modeled based on true ship hull girder's configurations. A series of full-scale nonlinear finite element analyses are performed. In addition, to examine the reliability of the elastic-perfectly plastic material models employed in FEA, similar scale model collapse experiments of a compartment hull girder subjected to pure hogging and pure torsion are also presented. Finally, the ultimate strength envelope of the global hull girder of the 10,000TEU ultra large container ship subjected to combined vertical bending and torsion is quantitatively obtained, which can characterize the container ship hull girder's ultimate strength interactions between vertical bending and torsion and quantify the safety margin of the global hull girder of the container ship subjected to combined vertical bending and torsion.