Fracture of aluminum naval structures

Structural catastrophic failure of naval vessels due to extreme loads such as underwater or air explosion, high velocity impact (torpedoes), or hydrodynamic loads (high speed vessels) is primarily caused by fracture. Traditionally, naval structures have been designed to resist yielding, buckling and fatigue, but not fracture. Consequently, adequate methods and procedures to design ships against fracture have not been developed. The rapidly increasing application of lightweight materials, such as aluminum alloys, in the shipbuilding industry requires fundamental understanding of mechanisms and mechanics of fracture that govern naval stiffened panels. Therefore, a comprehensive tool consisting of application of advanced fracture models, material calibration, and validation through component testing is provided that will increase the survivability envelope and speed up the development process of new vessels. Cracking is a major cause of structural degradation, which is a primary source of costly repair work on metal structures. This thesis studies the structural response of various stiffened plates and compares them with unstiffened plates represented by compact tension (CT) specimens.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Galanis, Konstantinos, 1970-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tomasz Wierzbicki.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39900

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39900