Application of Equivalent Single Layer Approach for Ultimate Strength Analyses of Ship Hull Girder

The objective of this paper is to present the application of equivalent single layer (ESL) approach for the ultimate strength assessment of ship hull girder in the context of numerical finite element (FE) simulations. In the ESL approach, the stiffened panel is replaced with a single plate, which has the equivalent stiffness of the original panel. Removal of tertiary stiffening elements from the numerical model facilitates time-savings in pre-processing and FE analysis stage. The applicability of ESL approach is demonstrated with two case studies, one compartment model and full-sized double hull tanker model in intact and damaged conditions. The damage extents are determined based on the international association of classification societies from common structural rules (IACS-CSR) for oil tanker. Ship hull girder is exposed to distributed pressure with the sinusoidal shape that bends the hull girder. This pressure load is applied separately to bottom and side structures to obtain the vertical and horizontal bending moments of the hull girder, respectively. Ultimate strength predictions obtained from ESL approach are compared to full three-dimensional finite element method (3D FEM) and IACS incremental-iterative method. The comparison between different methods is provided in terms of longitudinal bending moment and cross sectional stress distribution. Overall, ESL approach yields good agreement compared to the 3D FEM results in predicting the ultimate strength of ship hull girder while providing up to 3 times computational efficiency and ease of modeling.