Have you ever wondered how it is possible for the ship to carry so much weight, be so heavy, and not collapse?
Well, ships have large and very well-formulated structures, it is not just welded plates, they are large beams and bars that are precisely calculated by engineers. It acts as a reinforcer throughout the ship’s hull, supporting weights and efforts coming from the sea and cargo.
I present here a quick summary of the main elements of the structure of a ship.
✔ Bulkhead—These are the vertical separations that subdivide the internal space of the hull into compartments. It maintains its shape and increases its resistance. Cross and longitudinal.
✔ Longitudinal Frames (Girders)—Beams positioned longitudinally for resistance to longitudinal efforts.
✔ Transverse bars—These transverse structures help form the hull and hold up the outer plating.
✔ Longitudinal bars — Beams placed longitudinally on the ship, to support the plating.
✔ Transverse Frames — Beams placed transversely on the ship, for vertical resistance of vertical efforts. Larger than the transverse bars.
For studies and illustration purposes, I built an application to evaluate the ship’s structure, considering sea behavior, cargo, and dimensions. (only Portuguese)
The application built in MS Excel is the initial calculation of the box shape of the ship’s structure. The User interface permits selecting some ship’s dimensions, cargo type and distribution, wave type, and weight distribution of the hull.
The charts illustrate the results and the strength of the plates, indicating if the structure is about to collapse or not.