Basic Ship Theory

Module 1

Geometry of Ships – Correct definition of geometry is the starting point in the

design of any engineering product.

It is important, therefore, that hull shape be defined accurately.

“The shape of a ship's hull, whether it is slim and graceful or full and bulky, is the
very essence of its character.

This form determines:-

o the power required to drive it
o It reflects directly the ship's speed
o It determines the quantity of cargo and the comfort and habitability
within the ship;
o Establishes the limits of safety and stability as well as the motion of
the ship among waves.

A ship is a 3D form and in order for a naval architect to produce drawings

of the ship a conversion to 2D medium is required. – Lines Plan

Earlier these drawings were made by hand but today computers can
perform this function much more efficiently and accurately.
The hull is considered as a hollow body curved in all directions surmounted by a
watertight deck.
Curved shape of hull is conveyed by its sections cut by orthogonal sections.

 Middle line– Plane of symmetry, reference plane

 Water plane – Plane right angle to middle line plane, parallel to design
water line
 Transverse plane – Planes perpendicular to both middle line plane and
water planes

Main Particulars of a ship

LBP, LOA, Depth, Draft/ Draught, Beam/ Breadth,

Moulded Dimensions – The inside surface of the skin or plating of a ship. Moulded
surface has no thickness and is fair and smooth.

Midship Section - The location and shape of the midship cross section, generally
designated by the symbol.

Sections
Water lines
Buttock lines
Body plan
Shear plan/ profile
Half breadth plan

Forward Perpendicular - A vertical line in the sheer plan is drawn at the intersection of
the DWL, which is often the estimated summer load line and the forward side of the
stem. This is known as the forward perpendicular, abbreviated as FP.
Aft Perpendicular (AP) – Vertical line at the after side of the rudder post/ centerline of
the rudder stock, which is the customary location for merchant ships without a well
defined sternpost or rudder post.

In the case of naval ships, it is customary to define the AP at the after end of the vessel
on the DWL.

LBP or Lpp - fore-and-aft distance between the FP and AP

Body Plan Stations: In order to simplify the calculation of underwater form

characteristics, it is customary to divide the LBP into 10 or 20, or 40 intervals by the
body plan planes.

The locations of these planes are known as body plan stations, or simply stations, and
are indicated by straight lines drawn in the profile and half-breadth plans at right angles
to the vessel's baseline and centerline, respectively. The intersections of these planes
with the molded form appear in their true shape in the body plan.
Lines Plan
 The hull form is portrayed graphically by the lines plan.
 This shows the various curves of intersection between the hull and the three sets
of orthogonal planes.
 Because the ship is symmetrical, by convention only one half is shown.
 The curves showing the intersections of the vertical fore and aft planes are
grouped in the sheer profile
 the waterlines are grouped in the half breadth plan
 and the sections by transverse planes in the body plan.
 In merchant ships the transverse sections are numbered from aft to forward.
 In warships they are numbered from forward to aft although the forward half of
the ship is still, by tradition, shown on the right hand side of the body plan.
 The distances of the various intersection points from the middle line plane are
called offsets.

Fairing

 The three sets of curves making up the lines plan are interrelated as they
represent the same three dimensional body. This interdependency is used in
manual fairing of the hull form, each set being faired in turn and the changes in
the other two noted. At the end of the iteration the three sets will be mutually
compatible.

 Fairing is usually now carried out by computer. Indeed the form itself is often
generated directly using softwares.

 To aid production the lines used to be laid off and re-faired, full scale on the floor
of a building known as the mould loft. Many shipyards now use a reduced scale,
say one-tenth, for use in the building process. For computer designed ships, the
computer may produce the set of offsets for setting out in the shipyard or, more
likely, it will provide computer tapes to be used in computer aided manufacturing
processes.

In some ships, particularly in bulk cargoes, the transverse cross section is constant for
some fore and aft distance near amidships. This portion is known as the parallel middle
body.

Where there are excrescences from the main hull, such as shaft bossings or a sonar
dome, these are treated as appendages and faired.
While shaping the hull, particular attention to be given to

- shape of sectional area curve

- midship section area coeff and midship section form
- bow forms, forward section form, and forward waterlines
- special bow forms viz. bulbous bow, parabolic bow
- Stern forms and aft sections.
LCG and LCB

- to be finalized giving importance to speed and trim

Decisive influence on the following

- resistance increase in a sea way

- maneuverability
- course-keeping stability
- roll-damping
- sea-keeping ability: motion characteristics in waves, slamming effects
- size of under deck volume

Offset Table – Example

Main Particulars – Platform supply vessel

Length = 62.4m
Breadth = 14.9 m
Depth = 6.3m
Draft = 5.1 m
CB = 0.71
V = 14.5 knots
Dwt = 2100 t
Range = 300 nm
Body Plan
Fairing
The curves appearing in the lines drawing must fulfill two kinds of conditions:
they must be coordinated and they must be “smooth,” except where functionality requires for
abrupt changes.
Lines that fulfil these conditions are said to be fair.

We are going to be more specific. So far we have used three projections to define the ship hull.
From descriptive geometry we may know that two projections are sufficient to define a point in three-
dimensional space. It follows that the three projections in the lines drawing must be coordinated,
otherwise one of them may be false.

“A curve should not be more complex than it needs to be to serve its function. It should be free of unnecessary
inflection points (reversals of curvature), rapid turns (local high curvature), flat spots (local low curvature), or
abrupt changes of curvature…”