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This report represents work supported under provisions of Contract DTCG23-93-C-EO1037 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Coast Guard, acting for the Ship Structure Committee. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States government and the Ship Structure Committee assume no liability for the contents or use thereof.
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COMMITTEE ON MARINE STRUCTURES
The Committee on Marine Structures (CMS) provides technical projections, reviews, and advice to the interagency Ship Structure Committee (SSC) on a research program that addresses materials, design, fabrication, and inspection related to marine structures. The appendices address the relationship of the CMS, the SSC, the Ship Structure Subcommittee (SSSC), and liaison members.
PETER M. PALERMO, Chair, Consultant—
Naval Engineering, Alexandria, Virginia
SUBRATA K. CHAKRABARTI,
Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, Plainfield, Illinois
BRUCE. G. COLLIPP, NAE, Consultant—
Marine Engineering, Houston, Texas
DALE G. KARR,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
ROGER G. KLINE, Consultant— Naval Architect,
Winona, Minnesota
JOHN LANDES,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
ROBERT G. LOEWY,
NAE, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
DESIGN WORK GROUP
SUBRATA K. CHAKRABARTI, Chair,
Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, Plainfield, Illinois
BILAL AYYUB,
University of Maryland, College Park
HOWARD M. BUNCH,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
OVIDE J. DAVIS,
Pascagoula, Mississippi
PETER A. GALE,
John J. McMullen Associates, Arlington, Virginia
JOHN NIEDZWECKI,
Texas A&M University, College Station
MARIA CELIA C. XIMENES,
Chevron Shipping Company, San Francisco, California
MATERIALS WORK GROUP
JOHN LANDES, Chair,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
DAVID P. EDMONDS,
Edison Welding Institute, Columbus, Ohio
JOHN F. MCINTYRE,
Advanced Polymer Sciences, Avon, Ohio
HAROLD S. REEMSNYDER,
Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
BARBARA A. SHAW,
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
JAMES M. SAWHILL, Jr.,
Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia
BRUCE R. SOMERS,
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
JERRY G. WILLIAMS,
Conoco, Inc., Ponca City, Oklahoma
STAFF
ROBERT A. SIELSKI, Senior Staff Officer
CARLA D. MOORE, Administrative Assistant
MARINE BOARD
RICHARD J. SEYMOUR, Chair,
Offshore Technology Research Center, Texas A&M University, College Station
JERRY A. ASPLAND,
Arco Marine, Inc., Long Beach, California
ANNE AYLWARD,
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts Virginia
ROBERT G. BEA,
NAE, University of California, Berkeley
MARK Y. BERMAN,
Amoco Production Co., Houston, Texas
BROCK B. BERNSTEIN,
EcoAnalysis, Ojai, California
JOHN W. BOYLSTON,
Argent Marine Operations, Inc., Solomons, Maryland
SARAH CHASIS,
Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., New York, New York
CHRYSSOSTOMOS CHRYSSOSTOMIDIS,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
JAMES M. COLEMAN,
NAE, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
EDWARD D. GOLDBERG,
NAS, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California
MARTHA GRABOWSKI,
LeMoyne College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cazenovia, New York
ASHISH J. MEHTA,
University of Florida, Gainesville
M. ELISABETH PATÉ-CORNELL,
Stanford University, Stanford, California
DONALD W. PRITCHARD,
NAE, State University of New York at Stony Brook
STEPHANIE R. THORNTON,
Coastal Resources Center, San Francisco, California
ROD VULOVIC,
Sea-Land Service, Inc., Elizabeth, New Jersey
ALAN G. YOUNG,
Fugro-McClelland BV, Houston, Texas
STAFF
CHARLES A. BOOKMAN, Director
DONALD W. PERKINS, Associate Director
DORIS C. HOLMES, Staff Associate
ABSTRACT
This biennial report of the Marine Board's Committee on Marine Structures proposes updates to the 5-year research program of the Ship Structure Committee (SSC). The SSC is an interagency body through which the U.S. Coast Guard, Naval Sea Systems Command, Maritime Administration, Military Sealift Command, American Bureau of Shipping, Transport Canada, and Canadian Department of Defence coordinate their research on structural integrity of marine structures. The SSC's research program is intended to accommodate advanced concepts and long-range planning, as well as research in technology areas of materials criteria, loads and response, design methods, fabrication and maintenance, and reliability.
The updated research program covers the fiscal years (FYs) 1995–2000. The report includes: (1) a comprehensive review of the entire research program, including work performed in FY 1994 and the rationale for new projects proposed for FY 1996, FY 1997, and outlying years; (2) detailed project descriptions for the 20 new projects proposed for the FYs 1996 and 1997; and (3) brief summaries of recently completed projects and all active or pending projects in the program. Three appendices provide detailed descriptions for projects proposed for outlying years, background on the SSC and the Committee on Marine Structures, and the approved SSC Strategic Plan.
The committee's report uses four thrust areas to relate its proposed new projects to the Strategic Plan's goals and implementation strategies. The thrust areas are producibility/competitiveness, reliability, inspection/maintenance, and composites.
FOREWORD
The purpose of the Ship Structure Committee (SSC) is to promote safety, economy, education, and marine environmental protection in the U.S. and Canadian maritime industry through the advancement of marine structures technology. The role of the Committee on Marine Structures (CMS) is to advise the SSC on its program of research in materials, loading, response, design, fabrication, maintenance, inspection, and repair of marine structures.
On June 8, 1992, the SSC promulgated the SSC Strategic Plan, addressing national goals and SSC strategies in support of those goals. The plan provided the focus for the research projects and programs addressed herein. On May 10, 1994, the Plan was slightly modified to reflect the inclusion of two Canadian organizations as members of the SSC, Defence Research Establishment Atlantic (DREA) and Transport Canada. Each of the projects supports at least one of the SSC national goals as well as at least one of the strategies of that plan.
To support these goals and associated strategies, the CMS proposes a program consisting of four specific thrust areas that will help the SSC contribute to providing a means to greatly enhance the design of ships and shipbuilding capability in North America, the inspectability and maintenance of aging ships, and the safety of ships at sea. A large number of SSC projects are related to reliability of marine structures. The failures of bulk carriers and weld cracking of structural members of Trans-Alaska Pipeline Service trade tankers are cause for concern. Under the leadership of John Landes, Chair, Materials Work Group, the CMS held a short, hands-on workshop addressing fracture assessments and the application of reliability methods to real design problems. Challenges abound in this area, and the CMS plans to address them. The results of the workshop will be incorporated in future editions of Marine Structures Research Recommendations, and may lead to a new CMS thrust area. Recognizing the strong interrelationship between materials and design, the two working groups of the CMS, the Design Working Group and the Materials Working Group, met concurrently in June 1994. This fostered enhanced communications between the two groups, which is reflected in the proposed projects for fiscal years 1996 and 1997 and later years. In addition, the committee is implementing a more systematic and documented review of finished projects. This will ensure that any necessary technology extensions are adequately identified and fully considered when future fiscal year recommendations are submitted.
In November 1993, the SSC approved publishing the Marine Structures Research Recommendations on a biennial basis as a means for providing more cost-effective advice. Efforts are underway to define CMS operating procedures necessary to support biennial recommendations, while retaining the same quality of product and timeliness of research that had been achieved with annual reports. Discussions of research projects for later years that are contained in this report provide a bridge for the preparation of future biennial reports.
One new member has been appointed to the CMS, Dale G. Karr, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Peter M. Palermo
Chair,
Committee on Marine Structures