The Effect on Large Container Ships’ Fatigue due to Springing Loads Coupling Horizontal and Torsional Vibrations

The issue of hydroelasticity caused by hull vibration has become an unavoidable problem in the design and verification of large ships. Driven by environmental protection and economical efficiency, the size of ships are increasingly larger, and the resulting springing and whipping response and their effects on fatigue damage has been paid more and more attention especially for ultra large container ships (ULCS). Many classification societies typically check fatigue damage caused by vertical bending when considering springing, while it needs to be emphasized that large container ships can suffer severe torsional loads compared to other large ships due to wide breath and big hatch openings. In the existing stress calculation method, the finite element analysis method obviously has a high calculation accuracy. However, there are so much work to do with FEM model established, and partially refined, operated at all sea states etc., which not only requires much time, but also higher computing equipment. Therefore, in this paper, a simplified calculation method of fatigue damage considering the effect of bending and torsion is proposed, and a 21000TEU will be calculated by this method. The wave loads on the hull structure will be estimated based on the 3D linear hydroelastic theory coupling horizontal and torsional vibration, and the stress caused by bending and torsion will be obtained respectively. Finally, the fatigue damage is calculated by spectral analysis method considering high frequency springing loads. Then the effect on large container ships’ fatigue due to bending and torsional vibration is discussed.