INTRODUCTION TO
NAVAL ARCHITECTURE
(PRE-FINALS AND FINAL EXAMINATIONS COVERAGE)
SHIP CONSTRUCTION
What are ships made of?
Plate
A rectangular shape steel with certain thickness. The most common place you can see
the plate in ship construction is the bottom, main deck and side of the ship.
Bar
The steel bar has lesser cross sectional width than the steel plate and is generally
termed as flat bar.
Beam
A beam is a structural element that increases load bearing capability and avoid bending
of the structure. Beams can be categorized by many types but from point of ship
construction, we need to categorize it through cross sectional shape.
These are L-Shaped beams, C-shaped beams, I-shaped beams and SI-shaped beams.
SI shaped beams are I-shaped beams with slight curved cross section.
1. Keel
First thing first. When we say KEEL OF THE SHIP we are referring to a steel plate.
Though it can also be in the form of steel bar but it is very rare these days.
Keel of the ship is the bottom most plate of the ship laid along the entire length of the
ship.
During construction of the ship this is the first thing that is placed on the blocks. Because
of this, laying the keep is considered to be the time when construction of the ship
begins.
Keel laying also has the importance with respect to many IMO conventions as this is the
date construction of the ship starts.
Keel is the steel plate with slightly more thickness than the other adjoining plates on
its sides. This area need more strengthening because the ship sits on this area on the
blocks, during construction as well as during dry docks.
We can consider the keel of the ship as the backbone or spine of the ship.
Years back keel laying involved actually laying the keel of the ship on the blocks. See
below the keel of the Titanic being laid.
Nowadays keel laying is considered to be the time when first piece of the ship structure is
placed on the the wooden blocks. Like see below the keel laying of cruise ship “Anthem of the
seas“.
2. Shell plating
Shell plating is the steel plate used on the shell of the ship. The dictionary meaning of the shell
is “hard outer covering”. So shell plating is whatever we see on outer side of the ship.
One of the main purpose of shell plating is to provide watertight skin of the ship. Apart from
that it also adds to the longitudinal strength of the ship.
Shell plating is a huge area can be divided into two broad parts, which are
•Bottom shell plating
•Side shell plating
a) Bottom shell plating is the shell plating on the bottom part of the ship. It is the shell
plating that forms the watertight skin of the bottom of the ship and is generally as far
as practicable laid in the horizontal direction.
b) Side shell plating is the shell plating on the sides of the ship that forms the
watertight skin along the ship side. It is the plate laid in the vertical direction.
3) Deck plating is steel plate that forms the main deck of the ship.
As per the location, we can give a more specific name to the deck plating. For
example accommodation deck plating or main deck plating.
Strake
To understand what strake is, we need to again understand the construction of shell
plating.
I am dead sure you know that ship’s side plate (Shell plating) is not made of single
metal sheet. It is made of smaller sections of steel plates. These smaller sections of
the plate are welded together.
In old days these were riveted instead of welding.
Irrespective of with what method these plates are joined together, these are placed
in a certain pattern.
Let us understand this with an example of box shaped ship. The smaller plates that
we are talking about would look something like this for the box shaped ship.
In naval architecture and ship construction each of these plate has an
identification. These are numbered in certain pattern. For example the plates on
the side shell plating are numbered like this.
•The plates are identified by a letter and a number
•Each plate is given a letter in the vertical direction starting with A from the
bottom.
•Each plate is given a number in the horizontal direction starting from aft.
Now based on these numbering system the identification of plates for the box
shaped ship would look something like this.
Each section of the plate placed in fore and aft direction is called a “strake”.
So in the above example, we have A-Strake, B-Strake and so on.
If we want to be more specific, We can say that we have starboard A-Strake ,
starboard B-strake and so on. Similar naming will be on the port side.
For the bottom shell plating, similar numbering is done for the plates forming it. For
the bottom shell plating
•Plates are given a letter starting with “A” to the plate adjacent to the keel plate.
•Plates and given a number starting from the aft
So the plate adjacent to the keel plate will have a identification of A1, A2 and so on
starting with A1 from the after most plate.
Now there are three type of strakes that you would hear in ship construction as follows:
Shear strake – It is the top most strake of the Side shell plating. So if side shell plating
has strakes from A to K, then K-strake is the shear strake. This is the strake that
connects with the deck plating.
Keel Strake
I earlier said that keel is a plate that is back bone of the ship. But keel plate is also made up
of smaller sections of the steel plates. These strake of plates that form the keel of the ship
is called Keel Strake. The plates in the keel strake are number from aft to forward starting
from the aft one which has the number “1”. Unlike other strakes, keel strakes do not have
letter associated with its naming.
Garboard Strake
Garboard strake is the first strake on each side of the keel strake. first strake from the keel
is named A-strake. So we can also say that Bottom A-strake is called Garboard strake. Now
for the box shape ship, the naming of strakes might look simple but for actual ship with
curved sides and flared bottom, it might not be that simple. The naming and construction of
side and bottom shell plating is provided in the “Shell expansion plan”. So below picture
shows how shell plating and Strakes are connected with each other.
Stiffeners or frames
A steel plate of 2mm thickness can be easily bent. If you lift this plate with the crane from
its ends, it will most likely bend at the center. Now what can you do to avoid it from
bending ? One easy solution is to increase the thickness of the plate by welding two or
more plates together. But in ship construction this is not a good idea. One among many
reasons for this is that we do not want to increase the light weight of the ship. The better
option is to weld two of more flat bars either in fore and aft direction or athwartship
direction. In this case these flat bars will be called stiffeners. Anything that is used solely
to provide strength to a ship structure can be called a stiffener. A stiffener welded in
longitudinal direction is called “Longitudinal stiffener” or longitudinal frame. Same way
a stiffeners welded in transverse direction is simply called “transverse stiffener” or
transverse frame. Longitudinal stiffeners and transverse stiffeners can further will named
according to various factors including the amount of strength these provide to the
structure.
Girder
Girders are one form of longitudinal stiffeners. These are
•Big size steel plate (or sometimes beams) connected to bottom of the ship
•Runs in fore and aft direction
•strengthen the ship against bending moment
Girders are also named according to its location. The girder at the center of the ship is called
center girder.
In double bottom tanks, the thick solid metal plate that divides the ballast tanks into port and
starboard tank is the center girder.
Apart from the center girder, there can be few girders on each side of the ship or double
bottom.
Depending upon the breadth of the ship, there can be more than one side girder on each side.
While center girder runs in full depth of the double bottom tank, side girders may or may not
run in full depth.
Though below photo is not that of a ship, it is good representation of a ship’s strengthening
components. If you see in this case girder is further strengthened with something we may call
“Vertical stiffeners” as there is no other specific name for it.
Longitudinals
Longitudinal is short name for longitudinal stiffeners.
In most cases the longitudinals are beams (mostly L-beams) and runs along the length
of the ship. Double bottom space is the most common space where we can easily
identify longitudinals. Longitudinals are further named depending upon what section
these longitudinals are strengthening.
In double bottom ballast tank, longitudinals strengthening the bottom are called
“bottom longitudinals”, longitudinals strenghtening the top of the ballast tank are called
“top longitudinals” or inner bottom longitudinals. If you have been to a double bottom
tank, these longitudinals are difficult to miss. The bottom longitudinals are the one we
sometime step on to avoid stepping in the left over water (or mud) of the ballast tank.
Floors
Frames act as major transverse stiffeners. Floors are
•Big size steel plate connected to bottom of the ship
•Runs in athwartship direction
•strengthen the ship against buckling and bending.
We can consider the floors to be similar to the girders but with only one difference.
Frames runs in transverse (Athwartship) direction.
If keel is the backbone of the ship, the floors are considered to be the rib cage. Floors
are numbered starting from aft perpendiculars.
Stringers
In the above photo, notice how the girder is stiffened. The stiffener is welded in
vertical direction. If same stiffener is required to be welded in horizontal direction, it
will be called stringer.
One of the location where stringer is mostly used is the forward part of the ship.
Bow of the ship has to bear lots of stress and so requires extra strengthening.
BILGE KEEL
TRANSVERSELY FRAMED DOUBLE BOTTOM
TYPICAL ERECTION SEQUENCES FOR BULK CARRIER
PARTS OF
SHIPS
COMMON
MARITIME
TERMS
PIPE DESIGN
&
PRODUCTION
FUEL OIL SYSTEM
AIR STARTING SYSTEM
