Chapter 1: Introduction to Shipbuilding

Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized

facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights
Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both commercial and military, are referred to as "naval engineering". The
construction of boats is a similar activity called boat building.
Ship construction today is a complicated compound of art and science. In the great days
of sail, vessels were designed and built on the basis of practical experience; ship construction was
predominantly a skill. With the rapid growth and development of the physical sciences, beginning in the
early 19th century, it was inevitable that hydrokinetics (the study of fluids in motion), hydrostatics (the
study of fluids at rest), and the science of materials and structures should augment the shipbuilder’s skill.
The consequence of this was a rapid increase in the size, speed, commercial value, and safety of ships.
1.1 Basic Design of the Ship
The economic factor is of prime importance in designing a merchant ship. An owner requires a ship which
will give him the best possible returns for his initial investment and running costs. This means that the
final design should be arrived at taking into account not only present economic considerations, but also
those likely to develop within the life of the ship. With the aid of computers, it is possible to make a study
of a large number of varying design parameters and to arrive at a ship design which is not only technically
feasible but, more importantly, is the most economically efficient.
1.2 Preparation of the Design
The initial design of a ship generally proceeds through three stages: concept; preliminary; and contract
design. The process of initial design is often illustrated by the design spiral (Figure 1.1) which indicates
that given the objectives of the design, the designer works towards the best solution adjusting and
balancing the interrelated parameters as he goes.

A concept design should, from the objectives, provide sufficient information for a basic techno-economic
assessment of the alternatives to be made. Economic criteria that may be derived for commercial ship
designs and used to measure their profitability are net present value, discounted cash flow or required
freight rate. Preliminary design refines and analyses the agreed concept design, fills out the arrangements
and structure and aims at optimizing service performance. At this stage the builder should have sufficient
information to tender. Contract design details the final arrangements and systems agreed with the owner
and satisfies the building contract conditions.
Total design is not complete at this stage, it has only just started, post contract design entails in particular
design for production where the structure, outfit and systems are planned in detail to achieve a cost and
time effective building cycle. Production of the ship must also be given consideration in the earlier design
stages, particularly where it places constraints on the design or can affect costs.

1.3 Information Provided by Design

When the preliminary design has been selected the following information is available:

 Dimensions
 Displacement
 Stability
 Propulsive characteristics and hull form
 Preliminary general arrangement
 Principal structural details
The dimensions are primarily influenced by the cargo carrying capacity of the vessel. In the case of the
passenger vessel, dimensions are influenced by the height and length of superstructure containing the
accommodation.
Displacement is made up of lightweight plus deadweight. The lightweight is the weight of vessel as built,
including boiler water, lubricating oil, and cooling water system. Deadweight is the difference between the
lightweight and loaded displacement, i.e., it is the weight of cargo plus weights of fuel, stores, water
ballast, fresh water, crew and passengers, and baggage.
In determining the dimensions statical stability is kept in mind in order to ensure that this is sufficient in all
possible conditions of loading. Beam and depth are the main influences. Statutory freeboard and sheer
are important together with the weight distribution in arranging the vessel’s layout.
Propulsive performance involves ensuring that the vessel attains the required speeds. The hull form is
such that it economically offers a minimum resistance to motion so that a minimum power with
economically lightest machinery is installed without losing the specified cargo capacity.
The general arrangement is prepared in co-operation with the owner, allowing for standards of
accommodation peculiar to that company, also peculiarities of cargo and stowage requirements.
Almost all vessels will be built to the requirements of a classification society such as Lloyd’s Register. The
standard of classification specified will determine the structural scantlings and these will be taken out by
the shipbuilder.
 Chapter 2: Ship Dimensions and Form
The hull form of a ship may be defined by a number of dimensions and terms which are often referred to during and
after building the vessel. An explanation of the principal terms is given below:
Length Overall (LOA): Length of vessel taken over all extremities.
After Perpendicular (AP): A perpendicular drawn to the waterline at the point where the aft side of the rudder post
meets the summer load line. Where no rudder post is fitted it is taken as the centre line of the rudder stock.
Forward Perpendicular (FP): A perpendicular drawn to the waterline at the point where the foreside of the stem
meets the summer load line.
Length Between Perpendiculars (LBP): The length between the forward and aft perpendiculars measured along the
summer load line.
Amidships: A point midway between the after and forward perpendiculars.
Moulded dimensions are often referred to; these are taken to the inside of plating on a steel ship.
Base Line: A horizontal line drawn at the top of the keel plate. All vertical moulded dimensions are measured
relative to this line.
Moulded Beam: Measured at the midship section is the maximum moulded breadth of the ship.
Moulded Draft: Measured from the base line to the summer load line at the midship section.
Moulded Depth: Measured from the base line to the heel of the upper deck beam at the ship’s side amidships.
Freeboard: The vertical distance measured at the ship’s side between the summer load line (or service draft) and the
freeboard deck. The freeboard deck is normally the uppermost complete deck exposed to weather and sea which has
permanent means of closing all openings, and below which all openings in the ship’s side have watertight closings.

Sheer: Curvature of decks in the longitudinal direction. Measured as the height of deck at side at any point above the
height of deck at side amidships
Camber (or Round of Beam): Curvature of decks in the transverse direction. Measured as the height of deck at centre
above the height of deck at side.
Rise of Floor (or Deadrise): The rise of the bottom shell plating line above the base line. This rise is measured at the
line of moulded beam.
Half Siding of Keel: The horizontal flat portion of the bottom shell measured to port or starboard of the ship’s
longitudinal centre line. This is a useful dimension to know when dry-docking.
Tumblehome: The inward curvature of the side shell above the summer load line.
Flare: The outward curvature of the side shell above the waterline. It promotes dryness and is therefore associated
with the fore end of ship.
Stem Rake: Inclination of the stem line from the vertical.
Keel Rake: Inclination of the keel line from the horizontal.
Tween Deck Height: Vertical distance between adjacent decks measured from the tops of deck beams at ship side.
 Chapter 3: Materials and Strength of Ships
3.1 Shipbuilding Steels
Steel for hull construction purposes is usually mild steel containing 0.15 per cent to 0.23 per cent carbon, and a
reasonably high manganese content. Both sulphur and phosphorus in the mild steel are kept to a minimum (less than
0.05 per cent). Higher contents of both are detrimental to the welding properties of the steel, and cracks can develop
during the rolling process if the sulphur content is high.
Steel for a ship classed with Lloyd’s Register is produced by an approved manufacturer, and inspection and
prescribed tests are carried out at the steel mill before dispatch. All certified materials are marked with the
Society’s brand and other particulars as required by the rules.
Ship classification societies originally had varying specifications for steel; but in 1959, the major societies agreed to
standardize their requirements in order to reduce the required grades of steel to a minimum. There are now five
different qualities of steel employed in merchant ship construction. These are graded A, B, C, D and E, Grade A
being an ordinary mild steel to Lloyd’s Register requirements and generally used in shipbuilding. Grade B is a better-
quality mild steel than Grade A and specified where thicker plates are required in the more critical regions. Grades C,
D and E possess increasing notch-touch characteristics
3.1.1 Steel Sections
A range of steel sections are rolled hot from the ingots. The more common types associated with shipbuilding are
shown in below Figure. It is preferable to limit the sections required for shipbuilding to those readily available, that
is the standard types; otherwise, the steel mill is required to set up rolls for a small amount of material which is not
very economic.
3.1.2 High Tensile Steels
Steels having a higher strength than that of mild steel are employed in the more highly stressed regions of large
tankers, container ships and bulk carriers. Use of higher strength steels allows reductions in thickness of
deck, bottom shell, and framing where fitted in the midships portion of larger vessels; it does, however, lead to larger
deflections.
The higher strength steels are available in three strength levels, 32, 36, and 40 (kg/mm2) when supplied in the as
rolled or normalized condition. Provision is also made for material with six higher strength levels, 42, 46, 50, 55, 62
and 69 (kg/mm2) when supplied in the quenched and tempered condition. Each strength level is subdivided into four
grades, AH, DH, EH and FH depending on the required level of notch-toughness.
3.1.3 Steel Castings
Molten steel produced by the open hearth, electric furnace, or oxygen process is poured into a carefully constructed
mould and allowed to solidify to the shape required. After removal from the mould a heat treatment is required, for
example annealing, or normalizing and tempering, to reduce brittleness. Stern frames, rudder frames, spectacle
frames for bossings, and other structural components may be produced as castings.
3.1.4 Steel Forgings
Forging is simply a method of shaping a metal by heating it to a temperature where it becomes more or less plastic
and then hammering or squeezing it to the required form. Forgings are manufactured from killed steel made by the
open hearth, electric furnace, or oxygen process, the steel being in the form of ingots cast in chill moulds. Adequate
top and bottom discards are made to ensure no harmful segregations in the finished forgings and the sound ingot is
gradually and uniformly hot worked. Where possible the working of the metal is such that metal flow is in the most
favourable direction with regard to the mode of stressing in service. Subsequent heat treatment is required, preferably
annealing or normalizing and tempering, to remove effects of working and non-uniform cooling
3.2 Shipbuilding Aluminium Alloy
There are three advantages which aluminium alloys have over mild steel in the construction of ships. Firstly,
aluminium is lighter than mild steel (approximate weights being aluminium 2.723 tonnes/m3, mild steel 7.84
tonnes/m3), and with an aluminium structure it has been suggested that up to 60 per cent of the weight of a steel
structure may be saved. This is in fact the principal advantage as far as merchant ships are concerned, the other two
advantages of aluminium being a high resistance to corrosion and its non-magnetic properties. The non-magnetic
properties can have advantages in warships and locally in way of the magnetic compass, but they are generally of
little importance in merchant vessels. Good corrosion properties can be utilized, but correct maintenance procedures
and careful insulation from the adjoining steel structure are necessary. A major disadvantage of the use of aluminium
alloys is their high initial cost (this has been estimated at 8 to 10 times the price of steel on a tonnage basis). This
high initial cost must be offset by an increased earning capacity of the vessel, resulting from a reduced lightship
weight or increased passenger accommodation on the same draft.
Pure aluminium has a low tensile strength and is of little use for structural purposes; therefore, the pure metal is
alloyed with small percentages of other materials to give greater tensile strengths. There are a number of aluminium
alloys in use, but these may be separated into two distinct groups, non-heat-treated alloys and heat-treated alloys.
The latter as implied are subjected to a carefully controlled heating and cooling cycle in order to improve the tensile
strength.
Cold working of the non-heat-treated plate has the effect of strengthening the material and this can be employed to
advantage. However, at the same time the plate becomes less ductile, and if cold working is considerable the material
may crack; this places a limit on the amount of cold forming possible in ship building. Cold worked alloys may be
subsequently subjected to a slow heating and cooling annealing or stabilizing process to improve their ductility.
With aluminium alloys a suitable heat treatment is necessary to obtain a high tensile strength. A heat-treated
aluminium alloy which is suitable for shipbuilding purposes is one having as its main alloying constituents
magnesium and silicon. These form a compound Mg2Si and the resulting alloy has very good resistance to corrosion
and a higher ultimate tensile strength than that of the non-heat-treated alloys. Since the material is
heat treated to achieve this increased strength subsequent heating, for example welding or hot forming, may destroy
the improved properties locally.
3.3 Testing of Materials
Metals are tested to ensure that their strength, ductility, and toughness and suitable for the function they are required
to perform.
In comparing the strengths of various metals stresses and strains are often referred to and require to be defined.
Stress is a measure of the ability of a material to transmit a load, and the intensity of stress in the material, which is
the load per unit area, is often stated. The load per unit area is simply obtained by dividing the applied load by the
cross-sectional area of the material.
Total strain is defined as the total deformation which a body undergoes when subjected to an applied load. The strain
is the deformation per unit length or unit volume.
It can be shown that the load on the rod may be increased uniformly and the resulting extension will also increase
uniformly until a certain load is reached. This indicates that the load is proportional to extension
and hence stress and strain are proportional since the cross-sectional area and original length of the rod remain
constant. For most metals this direct proportionality holds until what is known as the ‘elastic limit’ is
reached. The metal behaves elastically to this point, the rod for example returning to its original length if the load is
removed before the ‘elastic limit’ is reached.
If a mild steel bar is placed in a testing machine and the extensions are recorded for uniformly increasing loads, a
graph of load against extension, or stress against strain may be plotted as in Figure 7.1. This shows the
straight line relationship (i.e., direct proportionality) between stress and strain up to the elastic limit.
Since stress is directly proportional to strain, the stress is equal to a constant which is in fact the slope of the straight-
line part of the graph, and is given by:

A constant = stress ÷ strain

This constant is referred to as Young’s Modulus for the metal and is denoted E (for mild steel its value is
approximately 21 100 kg/mm2 or 21.1 tonnes/mm2).
The yield stress for a metal corresponds to the stress at the ‘yield point’, that is the point at which the metal no longer
behaves elastically. Ultimate tensile stress is the maximum load to which the metal is subjected, divided by the
original cross-sectional area. Beyond the yield point the metal behaves plastically which means that the metal
deforms at a greater, unproportional, rate when the yield stress is exceeded, and will not return to its
original dimensions on removal of the load. It becomes deformed or is often said to be permanently ‘set’.
Many metals do not have a clearly defined yield point; for example, aluminium having a stress/strain curve over its
lower range which is a straight line becoming gradually curved without any sharp transformation
on yielding as shown by mild steel (see Figure 7.1). A ‘proof stress’ is quoted for the material and this may be
obtained by setting off on the base some percentage of the strain, say 0.2 per cent, and drawing a line parallel to the
straight portion of curve. The inter-section of this line with the actual stress/strain curve marks the proof stress.
It is worth noting at this stage that the ship’s structure is designed for working stresses which are within the elastic
range and much lower than the ultimate tensile strength of the material to allow a reasonable factor
of safety.
3.3.1 Classification Society Tests for Hull Materials
Both mild steel and higher tensile steel plates and sections built into a ship are to be produced at works approved by
the appropriate classification society. During production an analysis of the material is required and so are prescribed
tests of the rolled metal. Similar analyses and tests are required by the classification societies for steel forgings and
steel castings, in order to maintain an approved quality.
Destructive tests are made on specimens obtained from the same product as the finished material in accordance with
the societies’ requirements. These tests usually take the form of a tensile test, and impact test.