Evaluation of hull girder ultimate strength for dry cargo inland vessels

Abstract

Ultimate strength of sea-going ships is investigated in literature and addressed in the rules and regulations of classification societies, where detailed contemporary methods are defined. However, no systematic assessments or developed regulations for evaluating the ultimate strength of inland vessels have been introduced. This is concerning, considering that around 15,000 inland vessels navigate in Europe alone. These vessels are generally prone to longitudinal strength issues as they face specific design, operational and regulatory challenges, such as a large length-to-height ratio, shallow draught navigation, frequent grounding and overloading accidents, an older fleet and fewer regulatory requirements compared to sea-going ships. Therefore, this study presents a pioneering evaluation: it assesses ultimate strength of ten inland vessels, addressing this significant gap in literature. Five methods are employed for the calculation of ultimate strength: IACS defined progressive collapse analysis (PCA), three modified PCA methods according to different formulations for buckling of stiffeners, and a nonlinear finite element method. Moreover, maximum total bending moments are calculated in order to examine the margin between ultimate and service loads. Selected inland vessels are found to be particularly vulnerable to hull girder collapse, with some of them having extremely low or no margin with respect to hull girder collapse, largely due to the buckling of structural elements acting as a consequence of the selection of unique, dispersed and specific structural features. The research specifically emphasizes that vessels with longitudinal framing achieve higher ultimate strengths, offering greater structural safety against hull girder collapse.