An Improved Spectral Analysis Method for Fatigue Damage Assessment of Details in Liquid Cargo Tanks

Errors will be caused in calculating the fatigue damages of details in liquid cargo tanks by using the traditional spectral analysis method which is based on linear system, for the nonlinear relationship between the dynamic stress and the ship acceleration. An improved spectral analysis method for the assessment of the fatigue damage in detail of a liquid cargo tank is proposed in this paper. Based on assumptions that the wave process can be simulated by summing the sinusoidal waves in different frequencies and the stress process can be simulated by summing the stress processes induced by these sinusoidal waves, the stress power spectral density(PSD) is calculated by expanding the stress processes induced by the sinusoidal waves into Fourier series and adding the amplitudes of each harmonic component with the same frequency. This analysis method can take the nonlinear relationship into consideration and the fatigue damage is then calculated based on the PSD of stress. Take an independent tank in an LNG carrier for example, the accuracy of the improved spectral analysis method is proved much better than that of the traditional spectral analysis method by comparing the calculated damage results with the results calculated by the time domain method. The proposed spectral analysis method is more accurate in calculating the fatigue damages in detail of ship liquid cargo tanks.

Review on the Progress and Issues in Liquid Tank Sloshing of Ships

With the development of large liquid cargo ships,liquid tank sloshing has gradually become a hot research topic in the area of shipping and ocean Engineering.Liquid tank sloshing,characterized by strong nonlinearity and randomness,not only affects the stability of the ship but also generates a huge impact force on the wall of the tank.To further investigate liquid tank sloshing,a comprehensive review is given on the research process of the most focused subjects of liquid sloshing.Summarizing the existing research will help to identify issues in the current field and provide useful references.The methods for investigating sloshing,the research progress and the situations worldwide are discussed.The advantages and defects of experiments and numerical simulations are also explored.The problems which need to be explored in the future are subsequently proposed.

Nonlinear roll damping of a barge with and without liquid cargo in spherical tanks

Damping plays a significant role on the maximum amplitude of a vessel’s roll motion,in particular near the resonant frequency.It is a common practice to predict roll damping using a linear radiation-diffraction code and add that to a linearized viscous damping component,which can be obtained through empirical,semi-empirical equations or free decay tests in calm water.However,it is evident that the viscous roll damping is nonlinear with roll velocity and amplitude.Nonlinear liquid cargo motions inside cargo tanks also contribute to roll damping,which when ignored impedes the accurate prediction of maximum roll motions.In this study,a series of free decay model tests is conducted on a barge-like vessel with two spherical tanks,which allows a better understanding of the nonlinear roll damping components considering the effects of the liquid cargo motion.To examine the effects of the cargo motion on the damping levels,a nonlinear model is adopted to calculate the damping coefficients.The liquid cargo motion is observed to affect both the linear and the quadratic components of the roll damping.The flow memory effect on the roll damping is also studied.The nonlinear damping coefficients of the vessel with liquid cargo motions in spherical tanks are obtained,which are expected to contribute in configurations involving spherical tanks.