ABSTRACT
Ship design, especially design of warships, requires precise predictions of sea loads in extreme wave conditions. In recent years, with the enlargement tendency of ships, the stiffness of ship hull has become weaker, resulting in more significant non-linear springing and whipping loads, which should be paid more attention to. This paper presents a numerical study of non-linear sea loads of a modern Canadian frigate in regular head seas based on a time-domain non-linear hydro-elastic prediction program. Non-linear Froude-Krylov forces, slamming forces and restoring forces are taken into consideration. Transfer matrix method is used to solve natural vibration of dry mode as an input of the hydro-elastic program. The numerical results are provided for comparison with model tests conducted by McTaggart et al. This numerical study will also be a part of the benchmark study of MARSTRUCT, which will provide a reference for an appropriate uncertainty analysis procedure in the future.
