Condition assessment of raking damaged bulk carriers under vertical bending moment

Abstract

This paper concerns about the raking damages on the ultimate residual hull girder strength of bulk carriers by applying the modified R-D diagram (advanced method). The limited raking damage scenarios, based on the IMO's probability density function of grounding accidents, were carried out by using sampling technique. Recently, innovative method for the evaluation of the structural condition assessment, which covers the residual strength and damage index diagram (R-D diagram), was proposed by Paik et al. (2012). This concept is applied in the present study and modified R-D diagram, which can be considered vessel size effect, is then proposed. Four different types of bulk carrier structures, i.e., Handysize (37K), Supramax (57K), Kamsarmax (82K) and Capesize (181K) by Common Structural Rule (CSR), were applied to draw the general tendency. The ALPS/HULL, intelligent supersize finite element method, was employed for the ultimate longitudinal strength analysis. The obtained empirical formulas will be useful for the condition assessment of bulk carrier structures. It can also cover different sizes of the bulk carriers in terms of ultimate longitudinal strength. Important insights and findings with useful guidelines developed in this study are summarized.