Use of 3D compartment model for simplified full ship FE model. Part I: construction of FE model

Classification societies cannot cover the torsional strength assessment with simple empirical formula as the size of a containership increases drastically over 10 000 TEU in recent years. Torsional strength of a container ship is very difficult to estimate with an analytical method due to its alternatively varying cross sections, i. e. an open and a closed section. This article proposes an approach to construct a simplified FE model using a 3D compartment model available from the beginning of ship design process. The model is cut to pieces of lots of small pieces of lines by a set of transverse, longitudinal and horizontal planes. Two algorithms are developed for mesh generation of internal structures; one for assembling the broken lines into closed loops and the other for automatically generating mesh from the loops. Another algorithm is proposed to generate mesh for outer hull using outermost nodes of the FE model built for internal members. The validity of the simplified model is discussed along with a beam theory based approach in J Mar Sci Technol (2008)