Full Scale Measurements and Fatigue Damage Assessment on a Large Container Ship

The continuous increase in cargo carrying capability in the container ship sector has led to a rapid growth in container ship sizes. This new generation of large container ships is more sensitive to whipping and springing responses due to the increased flexibility of the hull girder and the prediction of these vibratory responses has become an important element in the design of these ships in term of hull strength and fatigue performance of structural details. This paper describes Lloyd’s Register’s full scale measurement campaign on board an 8,100 TEU container ship to study the hull girder responses of this ship type in a seaway. The stress measurement indicates that the hull girder vibratory springing and whipping responses are an important factor to be considered in the structural design of the new generation of container ships. The result also highlighted that torsion induced warping stress has a significant contribution to the fatigue damage for the section forward of the engine room. The measurement data has been used for the validation and improvement of Lloyd’s Register hull strength and fatigue design procedures.