A. Engle et al., APPLICATION OF 3-D NONLINEAR WAVE-LOAD AND STRUCTURAL-RESPONSE SIMULATIONS IN NAVAL SHIP DESIGN, Naval engineers journal, 109(3), 1997, pp. 253-266
Despite the limits inherent within linearized frequency-domain ship mo
tion and wave load computer codes, strip theory has been found to prov
ide the design community with a fairly robust, practical design tool w
ith reasonable accuracy for most conventional displacement monohulls.
However, the advent of new design concepts including multi-hulls and a
pplication of new materials as well as the push to incorporate reliabi
lity methods within surface ship structural design criteria has highli
ghted the need for more rigorous methods of developing a lifetime load
spectrum. In this paper, a multilevel computation system for predicti
ng ship motions and wave loads, up through and including extreme sea c
onditions, is presented. This system includes a traditional strip theo
ry approach and newly developed linear and nonlinear three-dimensional
time-domain methods. The new nonlinear methods are currently in the p
rocess of being validated by the U.S. Navy. The status of the current
development is presented. Sample numerical results from the new nonlin
ear methods are compared with both linear frequency domain predictions
and model tests.