Description
A ship’s floor is normally referred to as the deck and the interior walls of a ship are called bulkheads. The ship’s bulkhead typically consists of an upright wall within the hull of a ship. The bulkhead separates the hull into different compartments. Bulkheads increase the structural rigidity of the ship. Bulkheads can now be made using swage-panels, which are the fundamental components that resist shear and compressive loads. This replaces traditionally stiffened plates. Swaging is a manufacturing process for shaping. Swaging results in taking an object, and giving it a ridge, groove or some shape of mold. Swage panels used in the presented analysis are fabricated using thin steel plates. These plates are roll-pressed onto a series of half-circular, solid cylinders at very high temperature. The swaging fabrication process forms bumps in the cross-section along the full length of the plate, which increases stiffness and strength. The highlight of the process is that swaging substitutes the need for welded-on stiffeners at certain constant spacing. Swage panels have shown many advantages over traditionally welded-on stiffeners panels. The key advantages include reduced material usage, reduced labor costs, reduced turnaround time otherwise consumed by welding, and significantly reduced maintenance. In the thesis, “finite element analysis” (FEA) was used to model swage panels using ABAQUS/CAE software. Nonlinear homogeneous shell elements and displacement- controlled loading conditions similar to laboratory setup were applied for FEA analysis. Software analysis and actual lab setup results were compared and outlined. Most of the analysis results closely matched the lab results. These types of analysis and physical testing of swage panels have resulted in new national and international design codes for commercial ships. The thesis further recommends consideration of residual stress effects for improved post-peak behavior for compression analysis.
