Basics of Ship Hull Design

Article by Raunekk (28,803 pts )

Edited & published by Ricky (24,460 pts ) on Apr 16, 2009
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Hull is known as the foundation of the ship. It withstands extremely harsh climatic
and weather conditions. Hull should be designed in such a way that it is not
affected by the different forces that acts on it while the ship is sailing. In this
article we will have a look at different hull designs.

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Introduction
The hull is one part of the ship that requires extra concern during design and
construction. In the history of naval architecture, hull designs has evolved over a
period of time, from cylindrical wooden shanks to steel columns. Engineers have
been continuously innovating hull designs to provide greater structural strength.
As hull is continuously in contact with water, it is under the effect of different
types of forces acting at the same time. Not only that, a hull requires high
durability and resistance to prevent structural damage in case of collision or
grounding.

Naval architects use different methods for hull construction keeping in mind the
purpose and type of ship. In this article we will have a look at the basic ship hull
designs which are commonly used.

Terms in ship hull design

For understanding a hull structure, it is important to know the basic terms. We will
quickly go through the basic terms that are required to understand a design.

Frame- It is a steel plate that runs longitudinally or transversely throughout the

hull structure. Frames are welded to the sides of the hull as shown in the figure.
They form the basis of any design and all hull designs consist of frames.

Plate Floor or Floor plate - A steel plate which is welded to the floor of the hull.
Plate floors run longitudinally throughout the hull floor as shown in the figure.

Flanged Bracket -Triangular shaped Iron brackets that are welded where the
two frames meet. They are attached to the margin plates to resist excessive

bending stress.

Side Girders - Inter coastal plates that are used to join two floor plates.

Keel plate - They are used to join floor plates to the keel of the ship.

The two main methods that are used for hull construction are :

• Transverse framing
• Longitudinal framing.

Transversally Stiffened

Though this hull design is outdated, it is still used for

smaller ships of length less than 120 meters. In this design there is a plate floor
every 3.05 meters and a frame every 1 meter. The frames run tranversally to the
hull structure. The frames are joined together with the help of floor angle iron
transverse. In this design every floor plate will have 3 frames. The frames are
attached to the margin plates with the help of flanged bracket as shown in the
figure.

Iron transverse is attached between two floor plates to provide additional support
and increase structural strength. Refer the diagram for a better understanding of
the design.

Longitudinally framed hull- For Tankers

In longitudinal framing the frames are attached

longitudinally to the floor plates instead of transverse. This helps to resist the
bucking force in a much effective way. Frames( Vertical and horizontal frames)
are joined at the intersection of two sides is the same way as in transverse
design but with the help of web as shown in figure. Sealing plates are used
wherever the floors are to be made water tight(Generally in tankers). They are
welded to the longitudinal frames as shown in the figure.
Longitudinally framed hull-For Dry cargo
In Longitudinal framed hull for dry cargo, brackets are used to provide strength to
the frame. The size of the brackets keeps on increasing as the height of the deck
increases. Brackets are used to provide additional structural strength to the
bulkhead as there are high number of inter-decks in ships used for dry cargo.

References

Read more:
http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/marine/articles/32007.aspx#ixzz19REIJJD
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