HULL STRUCTURE COURSE

Case 7: Oil Tanker

Case 7 Module 5: Oil Tanker

Part A - Oil Tanker Structure:

A surveyor is about to survey the wing tank of a crude oil tanker with the
following boundaries:
 Side
 Bottom
 Deck
 Transverse Bulkhead
 Longitudinal Bulkhead
 Web frames

The surveyor shall prioritize to look for failures in critical structures at the
ship side and connecting boundaries prior to survey more secondary
structures in areas with typical failures. Supdt. must know where to look
and why failures occur in these areas to avoid any surprise during
surveyor inspection..

Ref. Drawing of Wing Tank of Single Hull VLCC:

Q. 1: Discuss where in the side structure / longitudinals / web frame

structure it will be important to look for cracks and explain why the
cracks occur.

Q.2: Provided you find cracks at the connections between the cross-tie
and the ship side, what may be the ultimate failure if the cross-tie
comes loose? Explain the shear force and bending moment distribution
at sides prior to and after failure. E.g. ballast tank in loaded condition
at full draught.
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Case 7: Oil Tanker

Cross Section drawing

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Case 7: Oil Tanker

Part B - Fatigue cracking in bottom longitudinals:

You are onboard an oil tanker built in 1992 to do inspection of the double bottom
structure. Master reports that the crew as part of the maintenance program have
discovered some cracks in two different double bottom tanks. He also tells you that the
vessel experienced similar damages last year. At that time the cracking was dealt with by
gouging out and re-welding the applicable areas. The vessel is located in a port on the
south-west coast of Norway, which is in the region where it normally operates, and is
only planning to stay for a couple of days.

During your survey of double bottom ballast tanks no 3 and 4 you find a number of
cracks in the bottom longitudinals at different web frames. We call these cracks A. Some
of these cracks are small and only in the flange of the longitudinal, but some have
propagated almost through the longitudinal web. You also find one crack in the bottom
plating itself, we call this crack B. All these findings are in the midship area.

Q1: Discuss possible consequences of these damages with respect to the structural
integrity of the vessel.

Q2: What do you believe is the cause for these cracks and what will be your
recommendations for repair?

Q3: Master is a bit frustrated over all these cracks and shows you a report which presents
the calculated fatigue life for the bottom longitudinals (see Appendix 1). Values are in the
range of 17 to 22 years. He claims that the calculation must be wrong as the vessel is only
12 years and already has been cracking.

- How will you explain this situation to him?

Q4: Based on what you now know about the damage history of the vessel, do you have
any other recommended actions you would like to communicate to the office?

Estimated time: 30 minutes

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Case 7: Oil Tanker

Pic 1: Crack (A) in bottom longitudinal Pic.2: Crack (A) in bottom longitudinal

Pic 3: Crack (B) in bottom plating

 HULL STRUCTURE COURSE
Case 7: Oil Tanker

Appendix 1:
‘M/T Oil Tanker’, Id.no 55555
Calculated fatigue life, web frame #67 (midship area)
Assumption for calculation: World wide trade

BL14: 20.9 y
BL2: 22.6 years years
BL16: 20 y BL20: 17.5 y
years years
BL18: 19 y
years
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Case 7: Oil Tanker

Appendix 2:
General arrangement drawing