Stress Analysis of the Corner Part of Ship Structures Using the New Equivalent Curved Beam Theory

A new equivalent curved beam theory is developed for the analysis of the corner part of ship structures, in which effects of distributed loads and asymmetricity with two or three connected parts are considered. Equivalent loads are obtained from equilibrium conditions between the distributed loads and the member forces and moments at the ends of curved beam. And an equivalent curved beam for the asymmetric structure is obtained by superposing the equivalent symmetric parts which have equivalent stiffness. From the sample calculation, it is found that the results of the new equivalent curved beam theory are well agreed with those of finite element method using membrane elements with little computing time and sufficient accuracy.