Practical estimation method of the design loads for primary structural members of bulk carriers

Abstract Various design loads used in the strength evaluation of ship structures have been introduced currently by classification societies. As most of these design loads have been determined as standard loads for the sake of convenience, the relationships between the design loads and the sea states actually encountered by ships seem to be weak. Accordingly, it may be difficult to refer and utilize them as fundamental design concepts for ship designers or as operational guidelines for ship operators. In view of this background, various efforts (Trans. West-Jpn. Soc. Nav. Archi. 89 (1995) 191; 93 (1997) 121; Jap Shipbuild. Mar. Eng. 2 (1967) 13; Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering 1999; Mar. Struct. 13 (2000) 495; J. Ship. Res. 45 (2001) 228; J. Mar. Sci. Technol. 6 (2002) 122; J. Soc. Nav. Archi. Jpn. 186 (1999) 319; Technical guide regarding the strength evaluation of hull structures, 1999; Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, 1995; Mar. Struct. 10 (1997) 611; Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Practical Design of Ships and Other Floating Structures, Shanghai, Vol. 2, China, 2001, p. 1089; Mar. Struct. 12 (1999) 171; Mar. Struct. 4 (1991) 295) have been made in recent years for developing estimation methods of the design sea states in a rational manner. Furthermore, for more practical purposes, the authors have developed practical estimation methods of the design sea states, the design regular waves and the design loads having transparent and consistent backgrounds to the actual loads acting on primary structural members of tankers (Mar. Struct. 16 (2003) 275). In this paper, it is firstly confirmed that the proposed methods for tanker structures can also be applied to the primary structural members of bulk carriers. Furthermore, the necessary modifications are carried out considering the specific structural types and loading conditions of bulk carriers in order to improve the estimating accuracy of the proposed design loads. Finally, comparisons between the results obtained by the structural analysis of a hold model applying the proposed design loads and long-term values of stresses by the most advanced direct structural analyses for different loading conditions are introduced and discussed in detail.