Analysis and Design of Marine Structures: including CD-ROM

This book collects the papers presented at the second International Conference on Marine Structures, MARSTRUCT 2009, which was held in Lisbon 16 to 18 March. This Conference follows up from the initial one that was held in Glasgow, Scotland two years before and aims at bringing together researchers and industrial participants specially concerned with structural analysis and design. Despite the availability of several conferences, it was felt that there was still no conference series specially dedicated to marine structures, which would be the niche for these conferences.

The initial impetus and support has been given by the Network of Excellence on Marine Structures (MARSTRUCT), which is now in its 6th year of funding by the European Union and brings together 33 European research groups from Universities, research institutions, classification societies and industrial companies that are dedicated to research in the area of marine structures. However this Conference is not meant to be restricted to European attendees and a serious effort has been made to involve in the planning of the Conference participants from other continents that could ensure a wider participation, which is slowly happening.

The conference reflects the work conducted in the analysis and design of marine structures, in order to explore the full range of methods and modelling procedures for the structural assessment of marine structures. Various assessment methods are incorporated in the methods used to analyze and design efficient ship structures, as well as in the methods of structural reliability to be used to ensure the safety and environmental behaviour of the ships. This book deals also with some aspects of fabrication of ship structures.

The 60 papers are categorised into the following themes:

· Methods and tools for establishing loads and load effects

· Methods and tools for strength assessment

· Materials and fabrication of structures

· Methods and tools for structural design and optimisation

· Structural reliability, safety and environmental protection.

The papers were accepted after a review process, based on the full text of the papers.