Abstract
Scaled models are designed as alternatives to true ship structures in ultimate strength experiments. In this paper, a series of true ship hull girders of a 10,000TEU container ship under different scale combinations of geometric length and plate thickness are modeled. At the same time, the scale ratio of bottom water pressure is designed based on the scale ratio of geometric length. The relevant scaling characteristics of hull girders’ ultimate strength and collapse behaviors are investigated based on the nonlinear finite element analysis. Most of all, the effect of bottom water pressure on the ultimate bending moment is explored in detail. Aiming at presenting the mechanism of the bottom water pressure on the scale models. Results show that the bottom water pressure has a significant effect on the ultimate bending moment when the scaling factor of geometric length is close to one. By contrast, the effect of bottom water pressure on the ultimate bending moment is weak when the scaling factor of geometric length is relatively small. The effect of the bottom lateral pressure is to reduce the ultimate bending moment carrying capacity by changing the bending rigidity of the hull girder. The presence of lateral pressure makes the hull girder be more prone to buckle.
