Ultimate strength of ship structures

This paper aims at reviewing some of the work that has been performed by the authors along the last years on the ultimate strength of structural elements and of the hull girder of ships. Particular emphasis is given to the effect of several parameters on the strength of unstiffened plates and stiffened panels under longitudinal and transverse compression. Simplified methods to predict the load shortening curves of panels have been proposed and used for the evaluation of the hull girder strength under hogging and sagging bending moments. Experimental work on panels under compression and on box girders under pure bending, involving different materials and configurations is also described.