The Ship Structure Committee announces the publication of a new report, SSC-475, titled “Guidelines for Evaluation of Marine Finite Element Analyses,” by Dr. Duncan Wang, Mr. Jason Bone, Dr. Ming Ma, and Mr. Aaron Dinovitzer. The abstract for this report is below and the entire report is available for free at the SSC website, through the National Technical Information Service. All SSC reports are available free of charge at the SSC website.
ABSTRACT: Commercial and open source finite element analysis (FEA) programs can easily be used to model structures and generate impressive looking results even when fundamental mistakes are introduced by engineers with little previous design experience or with improper modeling techniques. This can result in inadequate structures from the point of view of strength, fatigue, vibration, and other design or analysis criteria. Some structural failures have demonstrated that, if not appropriately used, FEA may mislead the designer with erroneous results. The original SSC-387 Guideline for Evaluation of Finite Elements and Results published in 1996 addressed this concern. The use of finite element analysis (FEA) techniques in ship design and analysis has grown since the original SSC-387 Guideline for Evaluation of Finite Elements and Results was published in 1996. This guide is an update to SSC-387 and includes current best practices for FEA application to ship structures and advanced analysis topic discussion and sample applications for the following: Impact and Plasticity, Fracture and Fatigue, Whole Ship Analysis, and Frequency Response Vibration Analysis. This document structure follows the original document structure. This document provides, in checklists and discussions, support for the review of FEA models and output to ensure that the analysis is prepared appropriately for the intended situation. The document is no substitute for a solid education, enhanced by the experience of the impact of modeling choices on results. The document is to be construed as a guideline to assist the analyst and reviewer in determining deficiencies or identifying good practice in an FEA; it is not a substitute for technical qualifications.
The Ship Structure Committee greatly appreciates the contributions of the individuals who volunteered their time to participate on the Project Technical Committee, listed below. They were the subject matter expert representatives of the Ship Structure Committee to the contractor, performing technical oversight during contracting, advising the contractor in cognizant matters pertaining to the contract of which the agencies were aware, and performing technical peer review of the work in progress and upon completion. The individuals are:
Dr. Paul Miller, US Coast Guard Academy
Dr. Roger Basu, Roger Basu & Associates Inc.
Mr. Jason Cordell, US Coast Guard
Mr. Paul Lara, US Navy
Dr. Miguel Núñez-Sánchez, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Mr. Earl Powers, US Coast Guard
Mr. Charles Rawson, US Coast Guard
Dr. Mahmud Sazidy, Defence Research and Development Canada
Dr. Pradeep Sensharma, US Naval Sea Systems Command
Dr. Robert Sielski
LT Braden Rostad, US Coast Guard
For any questions about this report or the Ship Structure Committee in general, please contact the Ship Structure Committee Executive Director, LT Braden Rostad, at (202) 372-1398.
This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.
