E6002 – Ship Structures I L5 - 1

© C.G.Daley

Lecture 5:
Longitudinal Strength of Ships
Wave Bending Moments
Introduction
In this lecture we will
• Discuss the shape of ocean design waves
• The moments caused by waves
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Design Waves

Design wave forces are considered to be quasi-static. As a wave passes by a

vessel, the worst hogging moment will occur when the midbody is on the
crest of a wave and the bow and stern are in the troughs. The worst
sagging moment will happen when the bow and stern are on two crests,
with the midbody in the trough between.
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© C.G.Daley

Whether for sagging or hogging, the worst condition will occur when the
wavelength is close to the vessel length. If the waves are much shorter,

or much longer than the vessel, the bending moments will be less than if
the wavelength equals the ship length.

Consequently, the design wave for any vessel will have a wavelength equal
to the vessel length. The wave height is also constrained. Waves will have
a limited height to length ratio, or they will break. This results in a
standard design wave of L/20. In other words the wave height (peak to
trough) is 1/20th of the wave length.

Trochoidal Wave Profile

Note that the waves sketched above did not look like sinusoids. Waves at
sea tend to be trochoidal shaped, rather than simple sine waves. This has
the feature that the crests are steeper and the troughs are more rounded.

A trochoidal wave is constructed using a rolling wheel.

In the case of the design wave;

LW = LBP
HW = LBP/20 } for now we assume that this length
and height or wave is possible
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© C.G.Daley

We can see that;

LW = 2 π R
HW = 2 r

Which gives;

L BP L
R= , r = BP
2π 40

r π
=
R 20

To construct a plot of the wave, we start with a coordinate system at the

crest of the wave.

x = Rθ − r sin θ
z = r (1 − cos θ )
} θ = rolling angle

This is a parametric equation ( θ is a parameter). We can write;

L L
x = θ− sin θ
2π 40
L
z = (1 − cos θ )
40
To plot the wave, it is a simple matter to calculate x and z as a function of
θ and then plot z vs x. This is done in the spreadsheet below.

L 100
H 5

θ x z
0 0 0
2
10 2.343657 -0.03798
0
20 4.700505 -0.15077
-2
z

30 7.083333 -0.33494
-4
40 9.504142 -0.58489
-6
50 11.97378 -0.89303
60 14.5016 -1.25 0 50 100 150 200
x
70 17.09521 -1.64495
80 19.7602 -2.06588
90 22.5 -2.5
100 25.31576 -2.93412
110 28.20632 -3.35505
120 31.16827 -3.75
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© C.G.Daley

1.1 L Wave

L/20 waves have been found to be too conservative for large vessels, esp.
for vessels >500 ft. A more modern version of the 1.1 L wave. In this
case;

as before, LW = LBP

H w = 1.1 L BP (in feet)

or
H w = 0.607 L BP (in meters)

For trochoidal waves this gives;

L BP
R= , r = .55 L BP (feet) or r = .303 L BP (meters)
2π

Calculating Wave Bending Moments

We can now calculate the wave bending moments by placing the ship on
the design wave. We can use the bonjean curves to determine the
buoyancy forces due to the quasi-static effects of the wave;

The steps to determine the wave bending moment are;

1. Obtain bonjeans
2. at each station determine the still water buoyancy forces, using the
design draft. Fisw = Aisw li ρg
3. at each station determine the total buoyancy forces, using the local
draft in that portion of the wave. Fiwt = Aiwt li ρg
4. The net wave buoyancy forces are the difference between wave and
still water. Fiwave=Fiwt-Fisw
E6002 – Ship Structures I L5 - 5
© C.G.Daley

This gives us a set of station buoyancy forces due to the wave (net of still
water). These forces should be in equilibrium (no net vertical force). We
can calculate the moment at midships from either the net effect of all
forces forward, or all forces aft (the two moments will balance).

There are other ways to do this kind of calculation. 3D cad programs such
as Rhino can be used to find the still water and wave bending moments.
Assuming that we have a hull modeled in Rhino, we can find the still
water buoyancy forces for the fore and aft halves of the vessel by finding
the volume and location of the centroids of the two submerged volumes.
The procedure would be as follows;

1. Produce solid model of hull

2. Cut the model at both the centerline and waterlines.
3. Find the volumes and centroids of the two halves.
4. Calculate the buoyant moments about midships.

A similar procedure would determine the wave values. The only difference
would be the need to draw the trochoidal wave as a surface.

The example below shows use of Rhino to calculate the Bouyant BM for a
large vessel. The centroids of the two half volumes are shown.

BMB = 109,000 x 1.025 x 53.97 (m3 x t/m3 x m = t-m)

= 6,029,798 t-m
or
BMB = 123,000 x 1.025 x 58.58 (m3 x t/m3 x m = t-m)
= 7,385,473 t-m

average: BMB = 6,707,376 t-m (sag)

The difference between this and the weight moment (hog) will give the
SWBM.
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© C.G.Daley

Rhino model, showing slices and centroids

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© C.G.Daley

Lecture 5 – Problems.

1. Using a spreadsheet, plot the design trochoidal wave for a 250m vessel,
for the L/20 wave.
2. Using a spreadsheet, plot the design trochoidal wave for a 250m vessel,
for the 1.1 L.5 wave.
3. Self Study – examine the SW/Wave spreadsheet (circulated).