On the Effectiveness of the Deck Plate between Hatch Openings

Abstract

There have been presented many investigations on the stress distribution at the hatch corner, but there are few researches on the stress distribution in the deck plate between hatch openings. The effectiveness of the plate on the longitudinal strength of ship is not understood quantitatively. Therefore, to find the effective breadth of the deck plate in the vicinity of the hatch opening, neglecting the stress concentration at the hatch corner and taking account of the shear lag effect, the authors presented a tension theory of the deck plate by the help of the Reissner's energy method. The stress distribution calculated by the theory was in good agreement with the results obtained by the tension tests of large scale deck models. The relations between the effective breadth of the deck plate and the size of the hatch opening are shown by the curves in the paper.