SHIP MATERIAL AND STRUCTURE

There is a wide range of materials used in shipbuilding comprising ferrous metals, non- ferrous
metals, plastics, GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastics/ fibre glass) and wood. The most widely used
material in ship building remains steel especially plan carbon or mild steel approximately 90%.

Properties of Steel use

 Good metallurgical properties – to overcome Brittle fracture and fatigue

 Reasonable good mechanical properties low carbon steel (mild steel) have tensile strength
of 400 to 490 MN/m2 and Yield strength of 235 MN/m2, and elongation of 15 to 20 %
 Susceptibility ease to join process by welding with good control over weld defects
 Good metallurgical properties – to overcome Brittle fracture and fatigue
 Reasonable good mechanical properties
 Low carbon steel (mild steel) have tensile strength of 400 to 490 MN/m2 and Yield strength
of 235 MN/m2, and elongation of 15 to 20 %

Grade of steel

 Grade A mild steel used in the majority of the ship structures of less than 20 mm thickness
such as bulkheads, tank top, non-strength decks and superstructures.
 Grade B mild steel used for strength members of 20 to 25 mm thickness.
 Grade D ‘Notch-tough’ steel which resists the spread of cracks and has higher strength. It is
used for structure greater than 25 mm thick
 Grade E ‘Extra Notch tough’ steel because this is a heat treated Grade D steel used for very
thick plating in excess of 50mm thick. It is used for sheer strakes, bilge strakes, keels I.e. all
high stress regions of the ship
 Artic D ‘Extra Notch tough’ steel because this is a heat treated Grade D steel used for very
thick plating in excess of 50mm thick. It is used for sheer strakes, bilge strakes, keels I.e. all
high stress regions of the ship
Ship stability

1. Archimedes Principle

When we put a small metal ball in water it will be sink directly but how does a ship that is
built from metal or steel can float steadily on the water? The answer for that question lies in
the Archimedes principle which said that a body wholly or partially immersed in a liquid is
subject to an upthrust equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by the body.

Firstly we must understand two keywords in the Archimedes principle which are upthrust
and liquid displaced.

Upthrust can be understand when you try to force a ball down into the water. You will feel a
force stopping you from doing that. This is the upthrust we are talking about in Archimedes
principle. This force is also called “Force of Buoyancy” or simply buoyancy.This upthrust
will be there on any object you place in water.

This force is also called “Force of Buoyancy” or simply buoyancy.This upthrust will be there
on any object you place in water.Liquid displaced occur when we place any object into the
water, that object would displace some water.
2. How do ships float?

From the Archimedes principle, if we have to make something float, all we have to do is to
make sure that it displaces more water than its own weight .for example a ship’s light weight
is 10000 Ton. And we have a solid cube of 10000 Ton weight made of same material.If both
are put in water, while the ball will sink, the ship would float. Why?

The weight is same, the material is same and both are placed in the same water.As the weight
of both is same, the downward gravitational force acting on both is same. But the upthrust
acting on the ship will be more than that acting on the ball.

The upthrust acting on the steel cube will be 1025 T. As the weight of the cube (downward
force) is 8000 T, the cube will continue to move downwards and will sink.

Now let us see the forces on a ship with lightweight of 8000 T.

A ship of this light weight is generally of the approximate size of
 Length: 150 meters
 Breadth: 30 Meters
 Height from keel to the main deck: 20 meters
If it is submerged to its full height, it would displace 63000 m3 (150m x 30m x 20m x 0.7) of
water. This is considering the block coefficient of the ship is 0.7.
This means that the upthrust acting on the ship would be 64575 T.

The downward force is same as was for the steel cube.So why did the ship float while the
steel cube sank? That is because the upthrust (Buoyancy) for the ship is much more than that
of the cube of the same weight.
 3. Buoyancy

We saw that the ship in the example was able to generate 64575 Ton of buoyancy when
immersed up to the deck line.As the weight of the ship was 8000 T, this means that the ship
will have a net upward force of 56575 T.

This upward force will keep on raising the ship until the upthrust is equal to the weight of the
ship. So at the equilibrium, the upthrust (buoyancy) will be equal to the weight of the ship
which is 8000 T.

The remaining buoyancy of 56757 T will act as reserve buoyancy.So when a ship is at
rest, the upthrust (buoyancy) acting on the ship will be equal to the gravitational force acting
on the ship.

When we add a weight on the ship, this equilibrium is offset as the gravitational force
increases. This will cause the ship to sink, till the time buoyancy becomes equal to the
downward gravitational force.

In short, if a ship will float or sink, how much will it sink and how will it float is the function
of these two forces acting in opposite direction

 Upward-acting force of buoyancy

 Downward acting gravitational force