Matthew Collette, University of Michigan
Robert Sielski, Consultant
Aluminum Ship Structures
Abstract
The U.S. Navy’s use of aluminum for vessel
structures has been growing in recent years, with
several classes of ships using aluminum as a
structural material for their hulls or
superstructure. Aluminum provides a significant
weight advantage at a slightly increased cost
over a comparable steel structure, which has
advantages for high-speed craft and weight or
stability restricted vessels. However, recent
experience has underlined that aluminum is not
simply a lighter version of steel, and
constructing ships without considering
aluminum’s unique properties can lead to
extensive maintenance issues in service. This
paper reviews recent work on aluminum,
covering material issues including new alloys,
sensitization and stress corrosion cracking,
tensile and compressive limit state prediction,
response under lateral load, fatigue initiation,
crack propagation, and wider issues of design
and lifecycle analysis. Future research and
development needs are then presented based on
the state-of-the-art.
. depth understanding of the material is required.
Introduction
Aluminum has undergone a striking resurgence
in the naval structural community over the past
decade. At the present time, several classes of
aluminum or partly-aluminum combatants and
support vessels are now in service and under
construction. Aluminum’s weight advantages
over steel have opened up new possibilities for
high-speed vessels which have been exploited
by the U.S. Navy in both the Littoral Combat
Ship (LCS) and Joint High Speed Vessel
(JHSV) programs. The ability to extrude
aluminum into complex profiles at the aluminum
mill can offer significant construction
advantages over traditional plate-and-stiffener
structures. At the same time, supporting in-
service aluminum structures on the FFG-7 and
CG-49 class vessels has become increasingly
1
challenging as material difference from steel
emerge that were not fully appreciated at the
time of design.
This decade of rapid development has resulted in
a situation where pockets of different expertise
on aluminum analysis, design, fabrication, and
support exist. While focused technical papers
have appeared on specific aluminum issues,
integrating review papers have been notably
lacking since the contribution of Sielski (2007).
The objective of this paper is to review and
assemble a high-level summary of these
developments and lessons learned to help
disseminate the applied state-of-the-art on
aluminum structures for naval applications. In
this work, naval applications and a few key
references are presented in lieu of the more
bibliographic-focused literature review of the
traditional academic review paper. A key
lesson from the experiences of the last decade is
that aluminum is not lighter steel that can simply
be substituted in place of steel in the design
process — to fully take advantage of the
material and to avoid potential pitfalls a more in-
The remainder of this work will review the
material properties of aluminum, the strength
and analysis tools currently available, the current
approach for design and lifecycle analysis, and
then present topics where future research is
needed drawn from the previous areas.
Current Materials Issues with
Aluminum
Sensitization of Aluminum
The 5xxx-series alloys can be prone to reduced
corrosion resistance from a condition known as
aging or sensitization. Those alloys with
magnesium content greater than 3 percent are
particularly susceptible to sensitization. These
high-Mg alloys include 5083, 5086, 5456, and
5383 alloys, containing 4 to 5 percent Mg,
which is above the solubility limit in aluminum,
about 2 percent at room temperature. During the
process of rolling plate, the temperatures and
degree of deformation during various stages is
controlled so that the magnesium remains
dispersed throughout the alloy. However, under
some conditions, the magnesium in the form of
Mg2Al3 will precipitate at the grain boundaries.
For marine structures, high temperatures from
solar loading on decks and superstructures can
lead to this sensitization, although the initial
state of the material also appears to be a
significant factor in how fast this process occurs.
The Mg2Al3 is highly anodic to the remainder of
the alloy, and once at the grain boundary
localized corrosion can occur. This type of
corrosion is known as intergranular corrosion,
because it proceeds along the grain boundaries
of the metal.
While the U.S. Navy was aware of the need to
test as-received material for sensitization, the
commercial industry had not addressed this issue
until the last decade. Following the production
of several aluminum commercial vessels with
mill-sensitized 5083-H321 material, the industry
developed a new marine-specific specification
for high-magnesium sheet and plate material,
ASTM B928. This standard defines the -H116
and -H321 tempers as marine-specific tempers
and requires certification that the initial as-
produced microstructure is sensitization-
resistant. The acceptance criteria in ASTM
B928 are currently undergoing extended
validation testing under the auspices of ASTM.
However, this testing is not designed to follow
Navy-specific in-service thermal temperature
profiles. Additionally, high-Magnesium 5xxx-
extrusions, which are normally produced in
either the -H111 or -H112 tempers, are not
covered by ASTM B928. When specifying
high-Magnesium 5xxx aluminum for marine
applications that vary from the assumed
temperature limits of B928, or involve tempers
other than -H116 and -H321, the naval architect
must be mindful to ensure the material will not
suffer from sensitization.
Given the unique nature of Navy deployments
and the potential for in-service sensitization
from elevated service temperatures, significant
work on thermal profiles and resulting changes
2
in material properties has been undertaken by
the U.S. Navy engineering community. Data
collected under sponsorship of the U.S. Office of
Naval Research (ONR) on the thermal profile on
the deck of the X-craft Sea Fighter by Catherine
Wong of Naval Sea Warfare Center, Carderock
Division (NSWCCD) and reported by Sielski et
al. (2012) was used to analyze two common
5xxx-series aluminum alloys for a tendency to
sensitization. The result was that the estimated
service life for alloy 5083 is 2 to 7 years and for
alloy 5456 is 5 years. This evaluation of the
tendency to sensitization is in line with a similar
previous study that used temperature profiles of
aluminum structure (Vassilaros and Czyryca,
1979) and concluded that, “…the use of AI-Mg
alloys containing high magnesium content (i.e.,
greater than 3-percent Mg) for deck plate should
be considered on the basis of the corrosion
resistance of the sensitized mill product. Even
the present specifications (QQ-A-50/19 and QQ-
A-250/20), which limit 5086 and 5456 alloys to
service temperatures below 150°F (65.6°C), may
not be able to prevent the development of the
sensitized microstructure condition due to aging
which can be achieved via solar radiation
alone.”
Despite several decades of previous satisfactory
service of high-magnesium alloys in ship
structures exposed to solar heating, sensitization
problems are occurring as documented through
many reports, including (Schwarting et al.,
2011) indicating that there is a definite problem
on many ships with 5456-H116 alloy. It is
possible that changes in fleet operations have led
to more severe deck temperatures or that subtle
changes in the processing of aluminum plate at
the mills have brought about this increased
sensitization in service. Whatever the cause, it
is a problem that must be addressed. For now,
designers specifying 5xxx-series aluminum for
exposed deck locations should select the lower
magnesium content 5454 alloy and its associated
design allowables, which has greater resistance
to sensitization.
Although some have suggested that the current
sensitization problems being seen in the CG-47
Class are due to longer service life of these
ships, fleet experience does not support this
assertion. The CG 69 was commissioned in
1992, and sensitization of the 5456-H116 plate
was first observed in 2004, a period of only 12
years. The CG 16 class averaged 30 years of
service and the CG 26 Class averaged 28 years
of service, but no sensitization of the 5456-H116
plate on their deckhouses was reported.
Although those and most other U.S. Navy ships
designed prior to the 1970s had expansion joints
in their aluminum deckhouses, that does not
explain the sensitization of the CG 47 Class
ships, as sensitization has been observed in
rather short sections of the higher levels of the
deckhouse that experience little stress from hull
girder bending.
Other Corrosion of Aluminum
Sensitization is not the only corrosion
mechanism that can affect aluminum. Early
experience in the late 19th century and early to
mid-20th century showed that many aluminum
alloys, particularly those with higher copper
content, were unsuitable for marine use. This
led to the standardization of the 5xxx-series
strain-hardened weldable alloys and the 6xxx-
series heat-treated weldable alloys for marine
use. However, these alloys are not completely
immune to corrosion problems.
The 6xxx-series alloys do have a relatively high
copper content, and are particularly susceptible
to corrosion by pitting. Therefore they are
presently excluded by most classification
societies and naval authorities for use in direct
contact with seawater. The more modern 6082
alloy has a lower allowable copper content than
the more widely known 6061, and in principle
should have superior corrosion performance
though long-term marine exposure data is
currently lacking. Even with this limitation,
corrosion of 6xxx-series aluminum is still seen
in service. In one instance reported by Brady
(2012) servicing of the strainers on some pumps
caused seawater to flow on the structure and
allowed to evaporate, eventually leaving behind
several inches of salt residue, with severe pitting
occurring beneath the salt. This may be an
extreme case, but it matches anecdotal
experience from commercial high-speed
aluminum vessels that report pitting damage in
areas exposed to spray-and-evaporate cycles in
3
superstructures. The presence of such locally
aggressive environments demonstrates that
aluminum does not have total resistance to
corrosion, and preventive measures must be
taken to avoid problems in service.
The 5xxx-series alloys are not immune to
corrosion, especially galvanic corrosion when
immersed with metals having more positive
electrical potential, particularly steel, copper,
brass, or bronze. Generally, when such
bimetallic conditions cannot be avoided, as with
propulsion systems and rudders, a cathodic
protection system is installed, either active or
passive. In a recent instance, the tunnels for the
water jets of a high-speed ship experienced
galvanic corrosion because they did not have a
cathodic protection system in place (Bloomberg,
2011). Even so, a breakdown of a cathodic
protection system, particularly the malfunction
of an impressed current active protection system
can lead to rapid corrosion of the hull of an
aluminum vessel. Another source of rapid
corrosion can come if proper grounding is not
used with a shore-based welding system used for
repairs of an aluminum vessel when afloat.
In the 1970s the 5456-H321 alloy then used for
U.S. Navy aluminum on ships and craft began to
experience a type of corrosion know as
exfoliation, in which the exposed edges of the
plate corrode in flaky layers. To overcome this
problem, the alloy 5456-H117 alloy was
developed (later replaced with the similar H116
alloy), with Navy acceptance criteria requiring
the ASTM G 67 (NAMLT) test to determine an
alloy's susceptibility to intergranular corrosion
and the ASTM G66 (ASSET) test to determine
susceptibility to exfoliation corrosion. This
testing was also required for other higher-
magnesium 5xxx-series alloys, including 5083.
As discussed previously, both of these tests have
now been incorporated into the commercial
standard for high-magnesium marine sheet and
plate, ASTM B928.
The combination of a tendency for exfoliation in
the alloys then in use as well as a breakdown of
electrical insulation in the gap between the steel
coaming welded to the deck and the edge of an
aluminum deckhouse led to corrosion in these
joints between steel and aluminum structure. To
improve the situation, a bimetallic strip of steel
either explosively or roll-bonded to aluminum
was developed in the 1970s, and has seen
generally good service when properly applied.
However, the bimetallic joint succeeds only
because it provides a smooth surface that can be
easily coated to resist corrosion, but immersion
in seawater, even intermittently, can lead to
corrosion.
Welded Material Properties
The marine 5xxx-series and 6xxx-series alloys
are considered to be weldable. However, unlike
most steel alloys, there is a reduction in strength
by 60 to 70 percent in the weld metal and in the
associated heat-affected zone (HAZ) in
aluminum welding (Sielski, 2007). This
reduction in strength is allowed for in most
design codes by basing the design strength on
the lowest yield strength in the base metal, HAZ,
or weld metal. This approach was shown to be
overly conservative for aluminum structure in
tension by Collette (2005) and for aluminum
structure in compression by Paik et al. (2008).
Collette indicates that for a typical panel of
5083-H116 aluminum where the yield strength
of the HAZ is about 66 percent of that of the
base metal, the combined yield strength of base
metal and HAZ might be 85 percent of that of
the base metal. Paik found that a weighted
average between the material properties of base
metal and HAZ based on the relative volumes of
the materials gave good correlation with
experimental results for welded aluminum
panels in compression. However, beyond
strength reductions, there is a corresponding
reduction in the structure’s ability to achieve
large plastic deformations that must also be
considered. This is addressed in some detail in
the section below on tensile strength. If
additional analysis of and experimentation with
welded aluminum structure can validate the use
of a higher design stress than the strength of the
HAZ and weld metal, there could be a 25
percent increase in allowable design stress, with
a possible 25 percent decrease in the weight of
the structure, depending on other considerations,
including compressive and fatigue strength.
4
Historically, the approach to the reduced welded
yield strength of aluminum has been to base
tensile strength and yield strength on the testing
of welded specimens with a 250-mm (10-inch)
gauge length. Because the width of the weld
and HAZ in these samples is about 20 mm wide,
the majority of the specimen is base metal, and
an averaging process occurs between the
strength of the constituent materials. Recently,
there has been a shift to the use of 50-mm gauge
length welded tensile specimens, which are
almost all weld metal and HAZ, with a welded
yield strength about 25 percent less than from
the 250-mm specimen. This change in
specimens has caused confusion in some design
codes, where the introduction of new alloys with
properties based on the 50-mm gauge length
testing has been hampered by a significantly
lower design strength compared to other alloys.
Additionally, misunderstanding in test
requirements can lead to requirements for welds
when tested with a 50-mm specimen to have the
strength of the 250-mm specimen. This
confusion in welded material properties for
aluminum requires resolution and
standardization as well as revision of design
codes. For now, the designer should be aware of
the differences and be certain what length
specimen the properties being used are from and
the basis for the design code being used.
Fire Protection
One disadvantage of aluminum is its low
melting point, particularly when compared to
steel. Aluminum will begin to soften and lose
strength at temperatures as low as 100 OC (212
O
F) and will melt at about 600 OC (1,100 OF)
(Sielski, 2007). For this reason, special fire
protection insulation is required for critical
structure and to create fire zone boundaries.
Requirements for fire protection are made by
organizations such as the U.S. Coast Guard,
International Maritime Organization,
classification societies, and naval authorities.
Generally, fire protection insulation is designed
to prevent the average temperature on the
unexposed side of a deck or bulkhead from
rising by a specified amount in a period from 0
to 60 minutes, depending on the criticality of the
fire zone boundary. The requirements for fire
protection insulation have a cost impact on
aluminum ships as well as a weight impact that
partially offsets the weight reduction gained
from the use of aluminum. In one example,
Sielski showed that for a 43-meter 32-knot crew
boat, the weight for structure for an aluminum
variant would be about 56 percent of the weight
of an equivalent steel hull, but when fire
protection insulation was added, the aluminum
variant weighed 62 percent of the equivalent
steel hull.

Strength Prediction of Aluminum

Structures
Ultimate Compressive Strength of Plates,
Panels, and Grillages
Although there have been a number of highly
successful ultimate strength methods proposed
for stiffened steel structures, new methods have
had to be developed for aluminum for several
reasons. One of these reasons is the behavior of
the material under load, particularly the shape of
the stress-strain curve. Unlike most steel, alloys,
aluminum does not have a pronounced yield
point. Instead, there is a more gradual softening
at higher stress levels as illustrated in Figure 1.
For material characterization and design
purposes, a yield stress, or proof stress is taken
from the intersection of the stress-strain curve
with a line parallel to the initial stress-strain
curve but offset from it at 0.2 percent strain, as
Figure 1 illustrates. The difference in stress-
strain behavior makes the behavior of aluminum
under stress, particularly in compression,
significantly different from that of steel.
Another significant reason is the weakening
effect of fusion welding on marine aluminum
alloys. As reviewed above, in the heat-affected
zone (HAZ) near a weld bead the aluminum
material is weakened compared to surrounding
material, with reductions in material proof stress
typically between 30 and 50 percent. This
material inhomogeneity significantly
complicates the structural response. Another
important difference between aluminum and
steel is that aluminum is easy to extrude,
especially in the 6xxx-series. This opens up
many different geometric alternatives for
stiffened panels beyond rolled profiles welded to
Figure 1: Stress-strain curve for aluminum
and steel.
flat plates, such as hat-shape stiffeners or
double-sided extrusions, examples of which are
shown in Figure 2. The ability to employ
custom extrusions means that the naval architect
must now check local buckling modes of the
stiffening shape — a check traditionally
performed by the material producer when rolling
compact steel profiles for ships.
Figure 2: Extruded alternatives to
conventional stiffened panel arrangements in
aluminum.
Most of the methods for evaluating the strength
of welded aluminum structure have come from
methods developed for steel with modifications
to account for these features. Such analyses
often include a defined yield or proof stress, and
are often semi-empirical formulations, derived
from testing of steel structure. Figure 3
illustrates the differences, showing the collapse
strength of steel columns compared by the plate
slenderness ratio, β, and the column slenderness
ratio,

5
 σ0
β= = 0
where b = stiffener spacing, t = plate thickness,
a = stiffener length, σ0 = material proof stress,
and E = material elastic modulus. Using β and λ
normalizes the effect of the elastic modulus so
that the behavior of different materials under
load can be compared. In general the strength of
the steel columns is greater than that of
similarly-proportioned aluminum columns, as
shown in Figure 3 (Benson et al., 2011).
Figure 3. Comparison of aluminum and steel
column collapse (Benson et al., 2011).
There has been recent progress in developing
improved methods for estimating the ultimate
strength of welded aluminum structures in
compression, including work sponsored by ONR
by Paik et al. (2007) and Benson et al. (2011).
The strength of aluminum structure considering
the effects of welding, stress-strain behavior,
residual stress, and initial imperfections can be
determined using detailed nonlinear finite
element analysis, which can be time consuming
and costly because of the detail required of the
models, which must have small element sizes to
model the weld zones in a structure. A
simplified methodology that uses orthotropic
plate theory for stiffened panels is under
development, and shows good correlation with
the detailed finite element analysis, as shown in
Figure 4 (Benson et al., 2011).
These methods have successfully addressed the
issue of aluminum’s unique stress-strain curve
6
and the impact of HAZ near welds. However,
much more research is needed, especially in the
consideration of the effects of supporting
Figure 4. Collapse strength of stiffened
panels computed with semi-analytical
method using orthotropic plate theory
(Benson et al., 2011).
transverse structure in large grillages and in the
effects of bi-axial loading, particularly for multi-
hulled ships. Further experimental validation of
these approaches on representative structures
would also be beneficial. Additionally, the
above-mentioned methods have been designed
for conventional plate and stiffener structures,
and entirely new forms are required for extruded
panels such as those shown in Figure 2. An
initial method for considering extrusions in
compression was presented by Collette (2011);
while the method showed promise it was clear
that additional work is required before the
method can be used in design.
Ultimate Tensile Strength of Aluminum
Structures
Unlike steel structures, welded marine
aluminum structures cannot normally be
idealized as having homogenous material
properties. Fusion welds in marine alloys, such
as the 5xxx or 6xxx series alloys, lead to a
region of reduced strength near the weld, which
is often referred to as the heat-affected zone
(HAZ). For common marine alloys, the
reduction in proof strength in this region is often
on the order of 30 – 50 percent, and the HAZ
normally extends between 10mm and 30mm
from the centerline of the weld. Thus, fusion
welds are marked by pronounced material
inhomogeneity in material strength, and this
inhomogeneity occurs at a much smaller length
scale than what characterizes the other
dimensions of the structure. Careful use of
extrusions and friction-stir welding can
significantly reduce the number of fusion welds
in an aluminum vessel; however, at the present
time it is not practical to remove all fusion welds
from the structure. Furthermore, allowances
must be made for in-service repair, where it may
not be possible to use friction stir-welding on the
final completed vessel.
One feature of the response of a structure with
under-matched welds is that the plastic flow of
the structure in the post-elastic regime is
concentrated in the under-matched region. This
region tends to be small; often 1–3 times the
thickness of the plate in the structure in size, and
the dynamics of this region can be complex. A
sample load-extension curve for a 5083 butt
weld between two flat plates is shown in Figure
5, showing that the response of the joint falls
between the all-weld and all-base response, and
that the local geometry of the HAZ significantly
affects the load-extension property of the joint.
For loads that are applied quasi-statically, there
is an apparent increase in strength above that of
the HAZ and weld metal alone. However, for
high strain-rate dynamic loads, such as from
weapons effects, less energy can be absorbed in
the narrow HAZ and weld zone, reducing the
resistance to these loads.
Recently, more advanced finite element models
have been proposed including explicit material
failure models (Wang et. al 2007). A key
challenge in modeling the tensile behavior of
aluminum structures is how to effectively model
the HAZ in grillage and vessel-size models
where it is simply not feasible to mesh the entire
structure with a mesh fine enough to capture all
the details of the HAZ. Various approaches
have been discussed, including cohesive zone
modeling or abstracting the weld behavior into
large elements, but there is not a publically-
available standardized or experimentally-
validated method at the current time for large
7
Figure 5. Numerically-simulated stress-strain
curves for 5083 butt welds with differing HAZ
widths, HAZ (Collette, 2011a).
structures. Additionally, at this time the number
of experimental programs that can be used to
validate these approaches is very limited. More
analyses and testing under quasi-static and
dynamic loading are required to establish
validated design criteria that reflect all of the
material properties.
Deformation and Limit States under Lateral
Loads for Aluminum Structures
Similar to the tensile response of aluminum
structures, the response of aluminum structures
under lateral loads is also strongly impacted by
the presence of undermatched HAZ by welds.
However, the ability to extrude aluminum does
give the freedom to locate many of these welds
in low-stress areas, or to increase the local
thickness of the material by the weld to
compensate for the reduced post-weld strength.
Many of the same modeling issues exist under
lateral load as they do for tensile response.
Similarly, the existing experimental collapse
tests for lateral load are very limited at the
moment and very few are marine specific.
Abildgaard, Hansen, and Simonsen (2001)
studied a series of 150mm square and 150-mm x
300-mm rectangular plates with and without
HAZ at the plate boundaries. The presence of
HAZ at the boundary of the plate reduced the
allowable load for a given amount of permanent
set by 10 – 25 percent, depending on the size of
plate and load level. These plates were not tested
all the way to rupture, however, Dobmeier et al.
(2001) and Siwowski (2009) studied 6063-T6
and 6005A-T6 extruded bridge decks until
failure and noted that the HAZ often played a
central role in the final failure of the structure.
Moen, Hopperstad, and Langseth (1999)
investigated the rotational capacity of welded
and unwelded 6082-T6 beams, noting that the
failure mode of the welded beams was rupture in
the tensile HAZ near the weld. Similar to the
tensile response discussion previously, a central
concern in laterally-loaded welded aluminum
structures is ensuring that they can develop
sufficient plastic response to be compatible with
the assumptions of steel-based Navy design
methods for laterally-loaded structures.
Fatigue Cracking
Compared to steel, aluminum has significantly
reduced resistance to fatigue crack initiation, as
indicated by Figure 6 (Sielski, 2007). In the
figure, the number of cycles (N) required for
fatigue crack initiation are shown as a function
of alternating stress range, which has been
normalized for the yield strength of the material.
The figure shows that a typical aluminum
structural detail characterized by Eurocode 9 as
23,3.4, has a fatigue strength about 20 percent
less than a typical steel structural detail
characterized by British Standard 5400 as Class
F.
Stress Range / Yield Strength
10.0
1.0
1.E+04 1.E+05
0.1
Cycles (N)
Figure 6. Comparison of 5086-H116
aluminum and ordinary strength steel fatigue
strength normalized by yield strength
(Sielski, 2007).
Furthermore, when a crack initiates in an
aluminum ship structure, it will grow at a far
greater rate than an equivalent crack in a steel
hull. This is illustrated in Figure 7 for a typical
43.9-m 32-kt service craft, where a 24-mm crack
will grow after 24 months of service by about
5mm in a steel hull, but by about 26mm in an
equivalent aluminum hull, an increase in crack
growth that is about 4 times greater (Sielski,
2007).
60
55
50
Crack Length (mm)
45
40
35
30
25
20
0 6 12 18 24
Months Service
5083 Aluminum H 36 Steel
Figure 7. Predicted crack growth for a 43.9-m
32-knot craft (Sielski, 2007).
Because of the weakness of aluminum to fatigue
cracking, continuous repair of cracks in
aluminum structure have been part of the history
of aluminum when used in larger ships,
particularly naval vessels (Sielski, 1987). This
problem has particularly plagued ships with
aluminum deckhouses that were designed in the
1970s before the development of today’s fatigue
analysis procedures and before finite element
analysis was available for routine use in ship
design. These fatigue issues as well as the
sensitization of exposed aluminum are both
problems for the U.S. Navy’s CG 47 class,
which has experienced both types of problems,
BS 5400 Class F
EuroCode 9 - 23, 3.4
resulting in continuous monitoring and repair of
the aluminum structure and in many cases
1.E+06 1.E+07
replacement of large areas of structure
(Schwarting et al., 2011).
Largely because of the maintenance problems
with aluminum structure, the U.S. Navy stopped
using aluminum for deckhouse structure of
combatant ships in the 1980s, although
continued to use it for smaller craft. The high-
speed larger vessels such as the LCS-1 Class
with its aluminum deckhouse and the all-
aluminum LCS-2 Class and the JHSV are just
beginning to see service. These ships have been
designed using advanced fatigue analysis
methods so that there should be less chance of
fatigue cracking. They have been fabricated
with either 6xxx-series aluminum or the lower-
8
magnesium 5454 alloy for exposed topside
structure, and therefore should not experience
sensitization problems. However, given the
number of structural connections on a large ship,
and the novelty of these structures, some amount
of fatigue cracking in service is possible. Of
great concern is the possibility of rapid crack
propagation should one occur in an all-
aluminum hull, as there is no inherent method
within the structure to stop the growth of a
fatigue crack, which could lead to catastrophic
loss of a ship. Service experience will show if
there have been errors in the fatigue analyses
used in design that have permitted poor
structural details to be used in critical locations,
but research is needed to develop means of
arresting a rapidly growing fatigue crack in
service to avoid the loss of an aluminum-hulled
ship.
The propensity of aluminum for fatigue crack
initiation and propagation is an important factor
in design. Fatigue analysis methods have been
under development for several decades, and
although still requiring further development,
particularly for the structural details typical of
ship structures, existing guidance, including
Sielski (2007) should provide the basis for a
more robust ship design. The impact of
consideration of fatigue in design will include an
increase in the weight of structure. Sielski
showed that for a 43-meter, 32-knot crew boat, a
quite significant increase of about 12 percent in
the weight of structure occurred. This illustrates
that fatigue analysis is an essential part of the
design process, and must be undertaken at the
earliest stages of design in order that the impact
can be factored into the total design. Waiting
until the later stages of design can result in ship
performance requirements not being met
because of unplanned structural weight
increases, or could otherwise result in a reduced
safe operating envelope where higher sea states
and speeds must be avoided to prevent
premature fatigue failures.
Current Maintenance Issues with
Aluminum
Fatigue cracking of aluminum remains the
greatest maintenance issue, particularly for ships
9
that were not designed using proper fatigue
analyses. Fatigue cracks are often difficult to
detect, and may possibly grow to dangerous
lengths before they are detected. This can
especially be an issue where the aluminum
structure is covered with insulation or other
systems that make routine visual inspection
impossible for large sections of the structure.
One way of addressing this problem that is being
pursued is through damage detection
technology, by which various sensors are
installed on the ship structure and by detecting
an anomaly in signatures can infer the existence
of damage, prompting further visual inspection
(Sielski et al., 2012).
Repair of fatigue cracks in aluminum can be
difficult, as grinding out a crack and rewelding it
introduces residual tensile stresses that will
accelerate recracking. Replacing the cracked
structure can provide longer life, but the best
solution is to redesign the structural detail using
fatigue analysis to significantly reduce the
chance of further fatigue crack initiation. An
alternative method that is being pursued in
current research programs, including work
sponsored by ONR, is reinforcing a crack with a
bonded patch of either aluminum or composites.
This has been done successfully by the Royal
Australian Navy for their FFG-7 Class frigates
with aluminum superstructures (Grabovac,
2003). The recently completed Co-Patch project
in Europe (Co-Patch, 2012) has investigated
composite patches for steel structures, and
research in bonded structures has been reported
by Det norske Veritas (Weitzenböck, 2012).
Repair of sensitized aluminum plate is far more
difficult as unlike fatigue cracking, which
originates in localized structural details, entire
areas of plate are subjected to sensitization. If
repairs are made to a cracked or otherwise
damaged area of sensitized plate, recracking will
quickly occur, sometimes from the residual
stress of the weld repairs. Repair requires
cutting out and replacing large areas of plate,
which can become very expensive, particularly
when ship systems have to be removed and
replaced as part of the repair effort. To provide
a temporary solution, experimental work is
underway under sponsorship of ONR to overlay
areas of sensitized plate with glass-reinforced
plastic that is laminated in place. These overlays
provide watertight integrity and sufficient
strength so that walking on decks with sensitized
plate can be safely done. Some prototype
overlays have been made on ships in service,
and await the results of service experience to
determine how effective they have been.
Lifecycle management of aluminum ship
structures can be enhanced in the future through
the development of effective structural health
monitoring (SHM) systems (Sielski et al., 2012).
Current research by ONR is attempting to
identify and model operational and
environmental actions that challenge the
integrity of a ship structure throughout its life, to
identify and model the failure mechanisms and
failure modes that result from these actions, and
to quantify the performance of the ship structural
system given these actions using reliability-
based performance measures. The operational
and environmental actions that are considered
include wave loads and structural and material
degradation due to the marine environment.
Thus, SHM is an umbrella effort over all efforts
to predict and maintain structural integrity. The
systems engineering approach taken in this
program brings together experts in
hydrodynamic loading, structural strength,
fatigue, fracture, structural health monitoring,
inspection, repair, production, and structural
materials. Each of these elements affects the
structural system performance and must be
included to support rational decision-making
with regard to the structural system from cradle
to grave.
Design, Optimization, and Lifecycle
Prediction Issues with Aluminum
For design optimization, the current central
challenge is to provide computationally-efficient
objective functions for the unique structural
response of aluminum vessels. To take full
advantage of concepts such as extruded profiles
or specific weld locations requires strength
methods that can predict the strength as these
design aspects vary. As reviewed above, there
are currently holes in our toolset to fully predict
the tensile, compressive, and lateral response of
10
such structures which limits the ability to apply
rigorous optimization. A further challenge is
estimating the construction and maintenance
cost of aluminum structures, where differences
from steel such as the production and use of
extrusions, friction-stir welding, and extensive
fire-protection requirements must all be
included. This is especially true if a comparative
optimization to a steel structure is to be made.
As extrusions give more topological freedom to
design with aluminum compared to steel, the
resulting optimization problems are likely to be
larger in terms of independent variables than
many steel structural optimization problems.
A major complication with lifecycle analysis of
aluminum structures, especially when the
structure is being compared to a steel structure,
is that the lighter all-up weight of the aluminum
structure results in a significantly different
overall design for the platform. Even after
including the additional weight of the increased
fire insulation, the overall weight savings is
often enough to reduce platform dimensions,
engine size, or fuel capacity. Thus, it is often
difficult to make valid lifecycle comparisons
with truncated analysis. Lamb and Beavers
(2010) estimated that for a 91-m frigate, the total
displacement would be reduced from 2,627 tons
to 2,122 tons, a reduction of 19 percent. This
weight reduction would lead to a savings in fuel
alone of 2,840 ton per year, which at 2010 prices
of $450 per ton, would equate to an annual
savings of $1.3M, or $32M over a 25-year
lifetime. The estimated acquisition cost (without
the cost of the combat system) would increase
from $356M to $383M, or $27M, which is offset
by the decreased fuel costs alone, even greater if
today’s prices continue to grow.
Future Needs in Aluminum
New Aluminum Alloys
In recent years, newer aluminum alloys have
been developed, particularly in the 5xxx-series.
The 5059 and similar 5383 alloys were
developed to have a higher welded yield strength
than the 5083 alloy, but at a lower cost than the
5456 alloy. These alloys have seen increased
use, although the confusion as to welded yield
strength from 50-mm and 250-mm specimen
testing has been somewhat of an obstacle,
because if strength of the new alloys determined
from the smaller specimen is compared to an
older alloy, such as 5083 with the strength
determined from the larger specimens, the newer
alloys will be judged to be weaker.
Adjudication and standardization of welded
strength through a systematic testing program to
establish rational design and failure strength of
welded structure in tension is needed to resolve
this issue.
For whatever reason, whether it be higher
temperatures in service or changes in mill
processing procedures that have led to less stable
magnesium, an improved alloy with the strength
characteristics of 5456-H116 but greater
resistance to sensitization is needed. In addition,
new standardized testing procedures are needed
to ensure that these new alloys will be resistant
to sensitization (Bovard, 2004).
Needed Improvements in Design and Analysis
of Aluminum Structures
Validated method for determining the strength of
welded aluminum structure in tension. A large
weight penalty is imposed by designing
aluminum structure for the strength of the weld
metal or HAZ when evidence such as that cited
above indicates that the actual strength of the
fabricated structure is somewhere between that
of the base metal and weld. An experimental
program is needed to fabricate sample structures
of different aluminum alloys and test them in
tension to determine the actual strength. Such a
test program would be accompanied by finite
element analyses of sufficient detail to model the
HAZ and weld metal, with the analyses
validated by the experiments. In this way more
rational criteria for design would be developed,
and the properties from 50-mm tensile tests
made more applicable to design.
Validated means of estimating the collapse
strength of large grillages including the effects
of biaxial and lateral loading. Work is
continuing in developing simplified means for
the design of large grillages, particularly the
effect of the stiffness of transverse members on
collapse strength. An experimental testing
11
program is needed to validate this analytic work
and develop appropriate design criteria.
Improved database of fatigue strength of typical
aluminum ship structure details. A test program
at NSWCCD sponsored by ONR is developing
data on fatigue strength of a typical structural
detail that combines an extruded 6xxx-series
extrusion with 5xxx-series plate. However,
more structural details that are also typical of
aluminum ship structure require testing. This is
particularly important because in many cases the
fatigue strength of structural details determines
important scantling criteria, including hull girder
section modulus, and therefore significantly
affects the weight of structure.
Validated methods for predicting fatigue crack
growth of aluminum ship structures under
random loading. Because of crack closure
effects as well as the effect of residual and
complex three dimensional stress fields, it is
difficult to estimate fatigue crack growth rates in
aluminum structure, which could vary by a
factor of eight, depending on assumptions made.
An experimental test program of realistic, large-
scale aluminum structures is needed to validate
the assumptions made in analysis. This is
important because overestimating the
significance of a crack can lead to over-
conservative design and possible unnecessary
repairs, but underestimating the significance can
lead to structural failures that could be
catastrophic, especially for an all-aluminum hull.
Methods for arresting fatigue crack growth in
aluminum ship structure. Unlike steel hulls,
where tougher strakes of plating can be placed in
critical locations such as the gunwale and bilge,
there are no particularly tougher aluminum
alloys to serve the same purpose of arresting a
growing crack in an aluminum hull. The
practice of seams fastened by mechanical means
such as rivets of similar fasteners could be used,
but at a high fabrication expense and increase in
maintenance costs. Alternative means, such as
inserting thicker sections in the way of possible
cracking need to be pursued. Most importantly,
analyses should be made to determine how
critical this problem is before a major
catastrophe occurs.

Validated long-term sensitization data (5xxx
alloys high in Mg). Long-term testing to
validate concerns for sensitization of high-
magnesium content alloys is needed. Although
alloys such as 5083 and 5086 may be subject to
sensitization because of their magnesium
content, verification of their risk of (or lack of)
susceptibility to sensitization needs to be made
before major failures occur that would require
replacement of large portions of the structure of
ships.
Corrosion data for 6xxx-series alloys for design.
These easily-extruded alloys are being used
increasingly in aluminum ship structure,
particularly for integrally stiffened extrusions
and sandwich panels. Their use is limited
because of concerns for pitting corrosion due to
the higher copper content of some alloys. A
long-term corrosion study that includes exposure
to seawater and salt spray is needed to determine
if the lower copper content alloys can perform as
well in a marine environment as do 5xxx-series
alloys. If such a determination can be made,
more extensive use of the lower weight panels
can be made.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The application of aluminum for weight and
stability critical vessels has been growing
significantly. With aluminum applications in
CG-47, FFG-7, LCS-1, LCS-2, and JHSV
classes, the U.S. Navy will be heavily involved
in the analysis and support of aluminum
structures for the foreseeable future. Previous
experience has indicated that aluminum cannot
be treated simply as a lighter version of steel if
the best lifecycle performance is to be achieved.
Unique considerations, including sensitization
and resulting inter-granular corrosion, rounded
stress-strain curves, reduced strength by fusion
welds, the ability to extrude aluminum into
complex topologies among others all demand
the attention of the naval architect. Recent work
by the marine structures community has made
significant progress in developing engineering
methods and standards addressing these issues.
However, a number of challenges still remain.
These challenges have been presented as a series
12
of future improvement needs, covering material,
analysis and design topics. Resolving these
challenges will likely lead to further lifecycle
performance gains for aluminum structures and
the aluminum vessels in the Navy’s fleet.
References
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Simonsen, “Ultimate Strength of Welded
Aluminium Structures,” in Proceedings of the
Conference on High Performance Vehicles,
Hamburg, Germany, 2001, pp. 4-18.
Benson, S., Downes, J. and Dow, R.S.,
“Structural Performance of Aluminium Naval
Vessels,” Final Report to the Office of Naval
Research, Newcastle University Document ID:
ONR‐UNEW‐20‐1, June 27, 2011.
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aggressive-corrosion-on-austal-s-combat-ship-1-
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Bovard, Francine S., “Sensitization and
Environmental Cracking of 5xxx Aluminum
Marine Sheet and Plate Alloys,”
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2004-14, pp. 230–243.
Brady, Thomas, private communication with the
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Collette, Matthew C. Final Report for N00014-
10-1-0193 Aluminum Structures Research
Program, University of Michigan Marine
Structures Design Laboratory, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 2011a.
Collette, Matthew C. “Hull Structures as a
System: Supporting Lifecycle Analysis”, Naval
Engineers Journal, Vol. 123, No. 3, pp 45–55,
2011.
Collette, Matthew C. “Rapid Analysis
Techniques for Ultimate Strength Predictions of
Aluminum Structures”. In Advances in Marine
Structures. MARSTRUCT 2011. Hamburg,
Germany: CRC Press, pp. 109–117, 2011.
Collette, Matthew C. Strength and Reliability of
Aluminium Stiffened Panels, PhD Dissertation,
University of Newcastle, 2005.
Co-Patch News 2012: Issue 2, www.co-
patch.com
Dobmeier, J. M., F. W. Barton, J. P. Gomez, P.
J. Massarelli, and W. T. McKeel Jr., “Failure
Study of an Aluminum Bridge Deck Panel,”
Journal of Performance of Constructed
Facilities, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 68-76, 2001.
Grabovac, Ivan. “Bonded Composite Solution to
Ship Reinforcement,” Composites: Part A, vol.
34, 2003 pp. 847–854, Elsevier.
Lamb, Thomas and Nathaniel Beavers,
“Aluminum Applications to Naval Ship Design
and Shipbuilding,” Proceedings of the 2010
SNAME Annual Meeting and Ship Production
Symposium, SNAME 2010, Vol. 2, pp. 68–77.
Moen, L.A., O.S. Hopperstad, M. Langseth,
“Rotational Capacity of Aluminum Beams
Under Moment Gradient I: Experiments”,
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8 910-920. 1999.
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Jang, J K Seo, S W Park, S K Soe, C Renaud,
and N I Kim, Mechanical Collapse Testing on
Aluminum Stiffened Panels for Marine
Applications, Ship Structure Committee Report
SSC-451, U.S. Coast Guard,
www.shipstructure.org, 2008.
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Dorsch, “Manufacturing Techniques and Process
Challenges with CG47 Class Ship Aluminum
Superstructure Modernization and Repairs,”
presented at the ASNE Fleet Maintenance and
Modernization Symposium 2011 held August
30–31, 2011 in San Diego, California.
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a Deckhouse Material,” Naval Engineers
Journal, Vol. 99, No. 3, pp. 165–172, May 1987.
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Sielski, Robert A., Aluminum Marine Structure
Design and Fabrication Guide, Ship Structure
Committee report SSC-452, 2007.
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Salvino, Karlin Anderson, and Robert Dow,
“The ONR Ship Structural Reliability Program,”
presented at ASNE Day 2012 held February 9–
12, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia, American
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Acknowledgements
Much recent research in the reliability of
aluminum ship structures has been performed
under the sponsorship of the U.S. Office of
Naval Research and directed by Dr. Paul Hess.
His Ship Structural Reliability Program aims to
provide the Navy with a quantitative ship
structural life-cycle performance prediction
capability to support design, operation,
recoverability, and maintenance decisions. The
authors appreciate his continuing support for this
vital work.
Author Biographies
Dr. Matthew Collette joined the Naval
Architecture and Marine Engineering
Department of the University of Michigan in
2009 as an Assistant Professor. His research
focuses on the application of numerical methods
to design and operational support, with a focus
on lifecycle structural response including
lightweight structures, structural optimization,
and stochastic methods. He is currently an
associate editor for Ocean Engineering. Before
joining Michigan, he worked at SAIC as a
Senior Naval Architect supporting a variety of
governmental and commercial research projects
covering hydrodynamic analysis, optimization,
and computational technologies for design and
operation, and analysis tools for lightweight
structures. Dr. Collette started his career in
Boston working for John W. Gilbert Associates
as a naval architect. He is a 1999 graduate of
Webb Institute and completed his PhD at the
University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom
in 2005.

Robert A. Sielski is a naval architect

specializing is ship structures. He was formerly
Director of the Structural Integrity Group of the
Naval Sea Systems Command, chair of the Chair
of Panel HS-3, Stress Analysis and Strength of
Structural Members of The Society of Naval
Architects and Marine Engineers and was a
member of Panel HS-4, Design Procedures and
Philosophy, as well as the SNAME Hull
Structure Committee. Dr. Sielski was a member
of the International Ship and Offshore
Structures Congress, serving on Committee II.1,
Design Methods. He is a member of the
American Society of Naval Engineers, the
Association of Scientists and Engineers of the
Naval Sea Systems Command, and is a member
of the editorial board of the international
journals Marine Structures, Ships and Offshore
Structures, and Shipping and Ocean
Engineering. He received the degrees of BSE in
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
from the University of Michigan, MEA in
Engineering Administration and DSc in
Structural Engineering from the George
Washington University,

14