PREDICTION OF SLAMMING CHARACTERISTICS AND HULL RESPONSES FOR SHIP DESIGN

Abstract

The paper presents a method to predict the necessary information on slamming characteristics and hull responses of a ship at an early design stage using only the ship lines. The prediction includes (a) frequency of occurrence of slam impacts; (b) time interval between successive impacts: (c) elapsed time before the next severe impact will occur; (d) magnitude of impact pressure; (e) the largest (extreme value) impact pressure most likely to occur; (f) the extreme pressure for design consideration; (g) ship speed at which bottom plate damage is most likely to occur; (h) ship speed free from slam damage; (i) limiting speed for which slam impact is tolerable for the crew; (j) spatial distribution of impact pressure and resulting force; and (k) main hull girder responses, such as whipping stress and acceleration, to slam impact. Principles and detailed procedure of the prediction for each subject are discussed, and application of the method to practical ship design is given using numerical examples made on the Mariner, assuming that she is operated as a cargo liner following two different routes in the North Atlantic Ocean and a winter route in the North Pacific Ocean.