Chapter 5

Shell Structure

In Chaps. 1–4, the structural design of a ship hull as a whole body is presented.
Now let’s explain the design for each part of the hull structure. The aim of the
shell structure is to prevent water coming inside a hull, keeping the hull form. The
shell structure supports generally a lateral pressure to the shell, and in some places it
supports in-plane forces such as tension and compression due to hull girder bending.
The thickness of the shell plate is very thin considering the huge structure of
a ship. It can be said that the shell plate is not a plate but a membrane. The side
shell plate of a VLCC of 300 m length is about 25 mm. This corresponds to 0.4 mm
shell plate of a car of 5 m length, and 0.06 mm plate of a can of 10 cm diameter.
Considering the scale effect the ship’s shell plate is very thin compared with other
structures.
In the 1960’s when ship size was increased, the shell plate thickness was not
so increased. Hull structure designers were afraid of the shell plate thickness, and
established a reasonable design method for the shell plate.
In this chapter a reasonable design method for the shell plate and examples of
shell damage are explained.

5.1 Thickness of Shell Plates

The side shell plate endures lateral outer forces caused by the water pressure, as
well as in-plane loads caused by hull girder bending. Since the stiffening system
of the shell plate is usually longitudinal, except for small-size cargo ships; the in-
plane load due to local bending of the side longitudinals is added in shell plate. The
stresses acting in the shell plate are categorized as follows (See Fig. 5.1.1):
(1) longitudinal stress due to the hull girder bending: σ1
(2) shearing stress due to the hull girder bending: τ
(3) longitudinal stress due to the bending of the longitudinal frame: σ2
(4) stress due to the lateral water pressure: σ3 , σ4
Considering a rectangular plate supported by longitudinal stiffeners longitudi-
nally and the transverse webs transversely, σ1 and σ2 act longitudinally and σ3

M. Mano et al., Design of Ship Hull Structures, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-88445-3 23, 423

c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009
424 5 Shell Structure

Fig. 5.1.1 Kind of stress component in shell plate

transversely in the mid-part along the longitudinal stiffeners, while σ4 acts in the
mid-part along the transverse webs. Of these stresses, σ3 is generally the greatest
because a > b. Hence, the stress in the mid-part along the longitudinal stiffeners
should be considered.
The shearing stress τ mentioned above is negligible in the bottom shell plate,
while τ in the side shell plate is calculated from the hull girder shearing force allow-
ing for the share taken by the longitudinal bulkheads and the side shells. In this case,
the combined stress at the mid-point along the longitudinal stiffeners is calculated
for the plane stress condition, using the Von Mises theory as follows:

σe = (σ1 + σ2 )2 − (σ1 + σ2 )σ3 + σ32 + 3τ 2 (5.1.1)

σe : equivalent stress
The design criterion is that this equivalent stress is less than the yield stress of
the material.
σe ≤ σy (5.1.2)
σy : yield stress
(1) Fully loaded condition: In the fully loaded condition, the large water pressure
in the empty tanks acts on the shell structure. Since the side longitudinals are bent
inwards, σ2 is a compressive stress. Hence σ2 and the compressive hull girder bend-
ing stress σ1 are combined in the bottom shell plate in the hogging wave condition,
and in the upper side shell plate in the sagging condition.
σ2 or σ3 are combined at the section where the hull girder bending moment or
the shearing force becomes a maximum. It is noted that the shearing stress becomes
zero where the bending moment becomes maximum, while the bending moment is
not zero where the shearing force becomes maximum.
(2) Ballast condition: In the ballast condition, a large water pressure in the ballast
tanks acts on the shell structure from inside. Since the shell longitudinal is bent
outwards, σ2 is a tensile stress. Hence σ2 and the tensile hull girder bending stress
σ1 are superposed in the bottom shell plate in the sagging condition and in the upper
side shell plate in the hogging condition.
The thickness of the shell plate in the above mentioned calculations is applied
usually in the 0.4L (L: ship scantling length) midship region. However, it should be
5.2 Shell at Bottom Forward 425

Fig. 5.1.2 Shearing stress of side shell plate around collision bulkhead

considered that a large shearing stress due to hull girder bending may occur at the
front part of the engine room and at the aft part of the fore peak tank. Examples of
the shearing stresses calculated in the side shell of oil tankers at the aft part of the
fore peak tank are shown in Fig. 5.1.2.

5.2 Shell at Bottom Forward

Due to the large increase in size of ships, dents of the shell plate in the bottom for-
ward have arisen, because the distance from the pitching center to the forward shell
is greater, and also the shape of the bottom forward region becomes flat. Figure 5.2.1
shows an example of the damage.
Where the draft is insufficient in rough seas, reinforcements are carried out in
accordance with the classification rules. Since no reinforcement is usually carried
out where there is sufficient draft, the ship operator should know this condition and
operate carefully in rough seas.

Fig. 5.2.1 Example of slamming damage

426 5 Shell Structure

5.3 Shell at Bow Flare

Since most ships now have large bulbous bows, the bow flare in the vicinity of the
bell mouth is made larger in order to avoid contact of the anchor with the shell. High
speed ships also have a large bow flare for good seaworthiness. However when the
bow flare is large, the pressure due to wave impact becomes large, and cracking and
buckling will easily happen.
Figure 5.3.1 shows an example of a crack on the shell plate at the bow flare in
a high-speed container ship. The crack started at Fr.151a and extended about 6.6 m
horizontally and 3.5 m vertically. The ship had navigated in rough seas for 6 days
before the accident; the scale of the wind force was over 10 for 11 h, and over 8 for
82 hours; 69% of 6 days. It was reported that the ship had sailed at 9–12 knots in
the center of a low atmospheric pressure region of 980 hPa with a 10–12 scale wind
force for 7 hours continuously.
The impact pressure due to the waves on the shell plate of the starboard side was
calculated, based on ship motion s in regular waves. The length of the waves was
assumed to be 0.8 × ship length with an encounter angle of 45◦ against the center
line. The maximum value is shown in Fig. 5.3.2, which includes two wave heights
of 12 and 20 m. This shows that the pressure is proportional to the ship speed and
that reducing speed is important to avoid damage due to wave impact.
Figure 5.3.3 shows also an example of bow damage. In this case, the water pres-
sure seems to be equivalent to 100 m static head.

Fig. 5.3.1 Example of crack in bow flare

5.3 Shell at Bow Flare 427

Fig. 5.3.2 Wave impact

pressure of bow flare against
ship speed

Fig. 5.3.3 Example of bow dent

428 5 Shell Structure

5.4 Bilge Shell

It is preferable to have a large radius of bilge and a large rise-of-floor from the
propulsion/resistance point of view, while smaller dimensions of both are desirable
from the construction point of view. In calculating the hold capacity using Simpson’s
law, the breadth of the start point should be the smallest value. Hence, the half
breadth of the keel plate was originally adopted as the breadth, and the rise-of-floor
was taken as 10 mm for the large ships. By bending the steel plate of 2,600 mm
breadth, 1,600 mm can be adopted as the bilge radius.
It was thought that reinforcement seemed to be unnecessary for a part of a cylin-
der having a small radius like this, and therefore bilge-longitudinal-less structures
(without the longitudinal framing) appeared after structural analysis using FEM. At
first it was of concern, but now thus structure has been adopted in many ships, and
no damage in this structure seems to have occurred.
Though such a cylindrical surface is only seen on the bilge part and the rounded
gunnel in the midship area, there are many cylindrical shell areas in the fore and aft
structures. Since such a cylindrical shell is stronger than a flat plate under lateral
force, in some areas the plate thickness can be reduced or the stiffener space can
be wider, in accordance with each curvature. Further studies of the strength and
vibration for such curved surfaces are now necessary for the hull designer in order
to rationalize the hull structure design.

5.5 Shell near Stern Frame

For the shell in the vicinity of the stern frame, thicker plates are used in comparison
with other shell plates. The stern frame with a G type rudder is an important structure
in supporting the propeller, propulsive shaft, and rudder. The lower part comes in
contact with a keel block first during docking and transmits the force from the block
to the hull.
Recent ship structures with a bulbous stern or open bulbous stern, associated with
energy-saving, do not support the hull weight at docking, do not support the rudder
as shown in Fig. 5.5.1, and only support the propeller shaft.
In the case of a structure with an open bulbous stern, increasing the thickness of
the side shell in the vicinity of the casting is not desirable from the strength/vibration
point of view, because it increases the weight at the end of a cantilever beam. If it is
necessary to increase the rigidity, increasing the plate thickness around Part B not
Part A in Fig. 5.5.1 is effective. However, the ship breadth at B with a bulbous stern
is already wide, hence the transverse rigidity seems to be strong enough.
5.6 Shell Damage 429

Fig. 5.5.1 Stern frame structure

5.6 Shell Damage

Since the shell structure protects a ship from exterior forces, it suffers easily from
damage by waves, and also collides with floating objects. From the viewpoint of pre-
venting the flooding by seawater as a purpose of the shell, the damage is classified
into 2 cases; with cracks and without cracks. When there are no cracks even if dam-
age occurs on the shell, the shell structure will be allowable and safe actually. The
outflow of oil from a large tanker becomes a social problem from the environmental
protection point of view, hence cracks in the shell cannot be allowed.
An example in Fig. 3.1(a) shows that the shell plate was dented in more than 3 m
inside the hold by the buckling of a cross tie. But cracking of the shell plate did
not occur in this case fortunately. In the damage example shown in Fig. 3.1(b), the
shell plate was bent severely together with damage of the transverse webs. In this
case the shell plate deformed 300 mm outside convexly, and then a flying bird type
crack occurred in the shell plate. This was to the propagation of the crack which was
generated in the web plate of the transverse web.
Figure 5.6.1 shows an example of damage to the bottom shell plate of a VLCC,
which occurred by contact with the seabed when she navigated through the Malacca
Straight in the fully loaded condition. Cracking did not occur. Such damages at
grounding are shown in the reference [19]
It is said that a crack will not occur in the case of a local dent in the shell
plate, even though damage was suffered from wave impact as shown in Figs. 5.2.1
and 5.3.3. On the other hand, cracking of the shell will occur when hoop stress acts
on the shell plate over a wide area caused by wave pressure, as shown in Fig. 5.3.1,
and this cracking will start at a point having a welding defect.
Figure 5.6.2 shows damage with cracking which occurred due to lateral shearing
forces by contact with a floating object. In addition, damage to the shell occurs often
when the pushing force of a tug boat is excessive, or when the ship hits a pier at high
speed.
430 5 Shell Structure

Fig. 5.6.1 Dent of bottom shell by grounding

Fig. 5.6.2 Cracks of shell plate by floating object