Sea Pressure Loads Calculation based on DNV
Rules
by Team TheNavalArch | Dec 14, 2021 | Hydrodynamics and Resistance, Marine
Transportation, Maritime Industry, Ship Design and Construction | 2 comments
Introduction
Sea pressure loads are an important factor in the structural design of a vessel. What is sea
pressure load? As the term suggests, it is the external pressure on the vessel due to the
surrounding sea. What kind of pressure it is, and how to calculate it?
If we imagine a body floating in calm water, the water exerts pressure on it, and the water
pressure increases with the body going deeper in water. This pressure is called hydrostatic
pressure, and its distribution is something like shown in the figure below:
Besides the hydrostatic pressure, there are hydrodynamic pressure on the vessel. This arises due
to the ship reacting to loads from waves, wind and current. These dynamic forces lead to dynamic
pressure loads on the vessel. The structural members of the vessel should be able to withstand
the total sea pressure loads among other loads. Also, the cyclical nature of wave loads can
potentially lead to fatigue damage to the hull in the long run.
Thus, the structural elements of the vessel need to be assessed for these structural and fatigue
loads due to the dynamic forces. In this article, we will examine the derivation of dynamic sea
loads based on DNV Rules for Classification of Ships, Part 3 Hull, Ch 4 Loads, Section 5.1.
Load Scenarios
Two major types of assessments are covered in DNV Rules – first is the Strength Assessment of the
vessel, and the second is Fatigue assessment. For each of them, the design load scenarios are
different.
Load Scenarios of Strength Assessment
During its lifetime, the vessel may experience different kinds of load scenarios. It experiences
different loads when it is in a harbor or at a sheltered location than when it is out in the open sea.
Similarly, circumstances like ballast water exchange or tank testing/overfilling of tanks impose
different kinds of loads on the tanks. DNV Rules capture these design load scenarios by laying out
what kind of loads are applicable to each of these scenarios. Again, two types of loads are listed:
Hull Girder Loads – Shear, Bending and Torsion
Local loads – end bulkheads, side shells, internal tank structure, etc.
A snapshot of the DNV load scenarios for the Strength assessment is shown below:
Load Scenarios for Fatigue
Fatigue takes into account, similarly, both static and dynamic loads. Loads are divided into Hull
Girder Loads and Local Loads, and static and dynamic loads are added to get the final load for the
load case as applicable. The below snapshot shows the load scenarios for fatigue:
Dynamic Load Cases
Dynamic load cases are used for determining the dynamic loads required by dynamic load
scenarios described in the previous section. These load cases are used for the following:
Structural assessments:
Strength assessments of plating, stiffeners, and primary supporting members
Hull girder strength assessment
FE assessments for structural members
Fatigue assessments:
for structural details covered by simplified stress analysis
for structural details covered by FE stress analysis
Equivalent Design Wave (EDW)
The sea is comprised of a spectrum of waves. The analysis using full-blown spectra is complicated
and time-consuming. The equivalent design wave concept replaces the spectra by a single wave of
such height/wavelength which will lead to the same long-term results. EDWs are used to generate
dynamic load cases for structural and fatigue assessments. DNV provides the details of the EDWs
needed as per the table below:
The methodology
DNV Rules define the empirical formula for calculating the total pressure at any point of the vessel
for either only static load scenario or static + dynamic load scenario. The total pressure is defined
as a sum of hydrostatic pressure PS and wave pressure PW. Hydrostatic pressure can be simply
calculated as ρg*(vertical distance of the point, z, from the waterline, TLC). However dynamic
pressure is calculated differently for each dynamic load case as discussed earlier. Several
coefficients are included in the calculations to capture effects like non-linearity, wavelength,
amplitude, phase, girth distribution, etc. Similar approaches are used both for strength
assessment and fatigue assessment.
The scenario-based calculations provided by these rules present a consistent way of calculating
loads on a vessel that cover the appropriate mode of operation of the vessel. The dynamic load
cases are based on an Equivalent Design Wave (EDW) concept that defines the loads equivalent for
a long-term response. Thus, the rule-based calculations increase the durability of the hull
structure, reduce the risks of major structural failure and ensure the safety of life, environment,
and property.
References
1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
267606741_Comparison_of_Different_Equivalent_Design_Waves_With_Spectral_Analysis#:~
:text=In%20a%20broad%20sense%2C%20an,generally%20the%20spectral%20extreme
%20response).&text=Those%20waves%20include%20more%20physics,Factor%20above
%201%20for%20instance).
2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17445302.2015.1045268
3. DNV Rules for Classification of Ships, Part 3 Hull, Ch 4 Loads
