Evaluation of Ultimate Hull Girder Strength in Longitudinal Bending: Historical Review and Smith’s Method

Ultimate hull girder strength in longitudinal bending is the most important strength of ship structure. In the present paper, firstly, historical review is made regarding the research activities regarding the ultimate hull girder strength evaluation. Then, focusing on the Smith’s method, possibility of simplified method is discussed including what are the limitations of a simple method and how it can be extended to more general situation. A simple method is introduced to derive average stress-average strain relationships of stiffener elements with attached plating. At the end, results of some example calculation are introduced to demonstrate the effectiveness of a simple method for progressive collapse analysis of a ship hull girder.