Ultimate Limit State Analysis of Ship Structures

Subjective and objective uncertainties are imposed on ship structures due to the random nature of the loading environment, inadequate knowledge of physical phenomena associated with loads or deviations in material properties which make reliable predictions of structural response a difficult task. Strength criteria for ships can be established by ultimate strength studies of progressive collapse analysis of finite element models under different boundary conditions with combined geometric and material nonlinearities. Load-Displacement and/or Moment-Curvature curves can be generated and the ultimate load causing failure identified as a multiple of the design load. Ultimate limit state analysis can be carried out for various combinations of parameters to identify the ultimate load factor in each case.