Thermal Stresses in the SS Boulder Victory

The lack of comprehensive experimental measurements of thermal stresses induced in a ship's hull structure by diurnal temperature changes prompted the present study. Its essential purpose is to provide reliable prototype measurements of thermal stress patterns around a complete transverse section. These results are compared with stresses computed by the theory of simple beams under arbitrary temperature distributions across their section. The research was conducted under direct sponsorship of The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers at the Maritime Reserve Shipyard in Richmond, Cal. The SSBoulder Victory was supplied as the test vessel by the Maritime Administration. The ship was instrumented during June and July, 1957, and tests run during August. Various temperature conditions were observed and corresponding strain measurements taken. The results are consistent and give a reliable picture of thermal-stress conditions in the ship. They also verify the prediction of thermal stresses afforded by the simple beam theory.