Your job
Need and necessity of transverse hopper floors related to one side loads
Hopper dredgers are executed with one or more hopper spaces to store the cargo. Customers do have their own preference how the shape of the hopper should look like, based on the expected exploitation during the life cycle of the ship and their experience. The used shapes of the hopper spaces can be mainly subdivided in V-shaped hoppers and cellular central keelbox hoppers. The way of unloading differs. Customers do use bottom doors, conical bottom doors, pre dumping doors.
Quite often the hoppers are also executed with a self- emptying channels through which the cargo/ sand can be unloaded via rainbowing or a floating pipe line.
The hopper space is sub divided in multiple compartments and between these compartments a hopper floor is positioned. The structural execution differs, but from structural point of view they are needed for transverse strength purposes, but functions also as subdivision while unloading the cargo. Hoppers are often unloaded asymmetrically, which results structurally in force acting in longitudinal direction.
The Proposal
During the thesis research will be done for para metric design criteria.
- Which static and dynamic forces are acting on the construction
- What are expected differences at the different hopper types
- What are expected effects for fatigue and unloading cycli
- Which type/execution of hopper floor type is the most optimized for forces acting in longitudinal direction?
- Are there operational benefits or disadvantages for a high or low hopperfloor
- Define a conceptual design rule for future designs.
