TRANSVERSE PLATE FLOORS DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS IN FATIGUE SCENARIO FOR ALTERNATIVE CONFIGURATIONS IN PANAMAX CONTAINER SHIPS

Abstract

The objective of the survey is to evaluate within the field of structural fatigue behavior, various alternative configurations of transverse plate floors in Panamax container ships. Analysis purpose could be within the current regulatory framework, a possible contribution of recommendations in the development standards for the design of this type of structures in one of the vessels with the greatest presence in the international market. The recommendations and possible alternative designs are analyzed through numerical simulations with “Ansys” software and real scale tests. The aim is to understand the fatigue behavior of these alternative designs in the face of axial stress and bending scenarios. The development has been structured mainly in two stages. First stage: once the permissible limits have been established by the regulatory framework, we establish a set of alternative designs for the enveloping structure of the transverse plate floors which is made up of the longitudinal, bottom, double bottom and side girders. Second stage: to establish a set of alternative transverse plate floors corresponding to each of the enveloping structures generated in the previous stage, and proceed with the study of all these alternative designs. All the proposed alternatives, a large amount of data and alternative sections has been obtained through numerical simulations with “Ansys” software. In principle some of them show according with simulations interesting structural properties and better behavior in fatigue scenarios with respect to the initial typical distribution