INTERACTION-EQUATION FOR THE COLLAPSE OF TANKERS AND CONTAINERSHIPS UNDER COMBINED BENDING MOMENTS

The ultimate collapse of the midship section of tankers and container ships under combined vertical and horizontal bending moments is determ ined by an approximate method. That accounts for the load shortening c ontribution of each plate and stiffener assembly, thus being able to c onstruct the moment-curvature relation for the hull girder. The method is applied to study five tankers and six container ships and the resu lts are used to define an interaction formula proposed to account for the combination of the load effects for design purposes.