Numerical Modeling
While it is possible to develop fairly accurate analyses of ship loads and responses by hand, or using minimal computer help such as spreadsheets, modern CAD computer programs are usually used today to generate much more detailed and powerful computer models of the structure. Finite element analysis tools are used to measure the behaviour in detail as loads are applied. These programs can handle much more complex bending and point load calculations than human engineers are able to do in reasonable amounts of time.
However, it is still important to be able to manually calculate rough behaviour of ship hulls. Engineers do not trust the output of computer programs without some general reality checking that the results are within the expected order of magnitude. And preliminary designs may be started before enough information on a structure is available to perform a computer analysis.
Read more about this topic: Strength Of Ships
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