FINITE ELEMENT APPROACH TO ANALYZE STRUCTURAL DISCONTINUITIES ASSOCIATED WITH SHIP HULL

Abstract

The finite element method (FEM) is at present firmly established as a powerful and popular numerical analysis technique for finding approximate solutions to a wide range of problems in structural mechanics. Configuring the plate type structures especially with discontinuities is one of the most important topics in the construction of not only ships but also for aircrafts and many other structures. Whenever the cross section of a structural member changes suddenly, a structural discontinuity arises because of material imperfections or areas of high stress. This paper focuses mainly with the fundamentals of FEM for solving two-dimensional plane stress problems to analyze stresses like normal stress, shear stress and von-mises stress at the four integration points (gauss points) for different sections of ship structures (especially at the most vulnerable regions). A finite element program for four node quadrilateral elements is developed by using object-oriented programming technique to analyze the structural discontinuity problems for various ship structures. The analysis results of gauss point stresses for different ship sections obtained from the developed program are validated with the help of commercial finite element analysis software.

Keywords: Plane stress, Structural discontinuities, Finite element analysis, Von-mises stress, Shear stress, Object oriented programming