STRESS ANALYSIS OF BULK CARRIER HATCH CORNERS

Owing to the hull structure complexity and severe load conditions, bulk carrier ships are the subject of an intense research activity by Classification Societies and research centres. Many problems affecting this kind of vessel derive from loading and unloading operations, corrosion and fatigue phenomena and, sometimes, the age of the ship. For what the structural strength is concerned, one of the typical failure causes for bulk carriers is represented by high stress concentrations occurring in deck plating close to hatch corners in way of coaming stay. The aim of this work, performed in cooperation by the Registro Italiano Navaie (RINA) and the Department of Naval Architecture and Ship Construction of the University of Genova, is to investigate the stress distribution close to hatch corners in a systematic way, in order to determine and quantify the influence of the selected parameters on this phenomenon.