Ultimate strength of typical stiffened panels in container ships with comparison of hull girder bending analysis

Large container ship's structural strengths are the major concerns of owners and designers, and local stiffened panels within the mid-ship scope are similar due to the typical arrangements adopted in these ships. In this paper, investigations on longitudinal ultimate strength are made for these typical stiffened panels where considerations of modelling extent, boundary conditions and initial deflections are included. Additionally, the resulting force-load curves and collapse modes are compared with hull girder bending analysis (both hogging and sagging), thus validation are made in the more practical background. The study in this paper can be of reference values to similar container ships.