Hydroelasto-plastic Experiment and Numerical Investigation on a Three-Cabin Ship Model in Waves

Large waves used to cause a lot of ship collapse accidents, resulting in the loss of many lives and property. The response of ships to collapse, including plasticity and buckling, has aroused focused concern among researchers. This paper carries out a hydroelasto-plastic experiment and numerical investigation of a three-cabin ship model to study its structural collapsed response. Firstly, a hydroelasto-plastic model experiment is conducted in a wave tank. A three-cabin experimental model which is made of stiffened plate, has been designed and manufactured. Then the model is forced to collapse in tank waves with measuring wave elevation, wave pressures, structural stress and rotational deformation of model. Secondly, a hydroelasto-plastic numerical approach coupling of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and nonlinear FEM (Finite Element Method) is used to co-calculate the wave loads and structural collapsed response of a ship model. A hydrodynamic model is constructed and utilized to solve wave loads in the CFD platform, while a nonlinear FEM model of the three-cabin structure is also constructed and solved using a nonlinear FEM solver to obtain the structural collapse response. Finally, hydroelastoplastic experimental results and numerical results are compared and analysed, the structural collapsed characteristics of the three-cabin structure, which is very similar to a ship structure, are analysed. The numerical approach of two-way coupling of CFD and nonlinear FEM is verified for the hydroelasto-plastic problem. In this paper, the water elastic-plastic test of stiffened cabin structure under wave action is carried out, which provides a new perspective for ship structural design.