Structural Analysis for a Panamax Bulk Carrier Available to Purchase

This paper is devoted to the development of a structural analysis for a bulk carrier vessel. According to the CSR requirements for bulk carriers, an assessment of the hull structure using FEA (Finite Element Analysis) on a model extended over 3 cargo holds is presented. This method is used in order to assess the structural integrity of the cargo holds under the considered loads. The selected vessel is a PANAMAX bulk carrier with double hull and longitudinal uniform structure. There are three main priorities for the FE-analysis: one is to perform a fine mesh necessary to capture the stressed induced by the considered loads. The second priority is to apply the right boundary conditions in order to approach the hull girder bending and stress distribution on the cargo holds. The stress distribution is induced by the cargo weight, the hydrostatic pressure and the external water considered as dynamic pressure. The dynamic pressure was computed using an in-house code, neglecting the inertia forces induced by the ship motions and the horizontal accelerations. Also shear forces and bending moments were obtained for head angles of 0, 45 and 180 degrees.