US1952156A - Ship hull construction - Google Patents

Description

March 27, 1934. A. J. BIRCH v v v ,9 ,1

' SHIP HULL CONSTRUCTION Filed Feb. 3, 1931 4 3 Sheets-Shet l I I INVENTOR Mm, J. :v

A TTORNE Y5 March 21; 1934.

A. J. BIRCH SHIP HULL CONSTRUCTION Filed-Feb. 3, 1931 s Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Ahdvtw J .jsh k v ATTORNEYS March 27, 1934. A. J; BIRCH SHIP HULL CONSTRUCTION Filed Feb. 3; 1951 A 3 Shets-Sheet 5 can an.

In S Rm Y O M ma l E .0 WW n A r AYW Patented Mar. 27, 1934 UNITED \STATES PATENT V OFFICE 1 1,952,156 surr HULL CONSTRUCTION Andrew J. Birch, Staten Island, N. Y.

Application February 3, 1931, Serial No. 513,099

14 Claims. (01. 114--79)' t This invention relates to iron ship construction, and particularly to water craft employed which they have to meet in their transport op-.

erations.

Among the conditions which vessels engaged in harbor and inland water service must be constructed to meet are the liability to damage from collision with other vessels and the liability to damage from collision with wharves and other projections into the courses which they traverse. In substantially all cases the impact of such collisions is either from a long, substantially perpendicular object such as the stem of a vessel,

or from a long substantially horizontal object" such as a side fender guard or a rubbing strip of a vessel.

Water craft as heretofore constructed for harbor and inland water transport have not been well adapted to meet such conditions. As heretofore constructed, such water craft have embodied one of two types of side framing, the "transverse and the longitudinal. In the transverse type of side framing the frame members immediately in contact with the inner surface of the side plating are for the most part vertical, while in the longitudinal type of side framing the frame members which contact immediately with the inner surface of the side plating are horizontal. It will be apparent that when a vessel is provided with either of these two types of side framing, a blow from a perpendicular object may land between two vertical frame members of a transversely framed vessel and damage its side, and that a blow from a horizontal object may land between two horizontal frame members of a longitudinally framed vessel and damage its side. 45 A general object of the present invention is to provide a construction for iron ships or the like, and particularly an improved side framing for such ships that will better meet the conditions of usage to which such ships are subjected than the types of construction heretofore employed.

More particularly the present invention aims to provide side framing for iron ships or the like, and particularly for vessels employed in harbor and inland water services which. has its frame 55 members so arranged that the outer skin or plating of the vessel is so directly backed and reinforced by said frame members that the skin or plating is not vulnerable to damage from impacts to which the vessel is at all likely to be subjected even under the roughest conditions of V usage. The invention also aims to improve and strengthen the entire frame construction of ship hulls to make them more rugged and more resistant to the strains and stresses of navigation as well as to the less usual strains and stresses to which they are subjected in collisions with other vessels and with stationary objects.

Other objects and important features of the invention will appear when the following description and claims are considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic elevation of a scow embodying the present invention,

a part of the riveting only being shown;

Figure 2 is a broken longitudinal section of a part of this scow, showing particularly the side framing;

Figure 3 is a perspective of a portion of the framing with the deck, side and bottom plating removed; and

Figure 4 is a section on the line 44 of Figure 2 through one-half of the structure, illustrating the construction of one of the bulkheads.

In the illustrative embodiment the invention is shown as applied to the-construction of a steel- 86 deck scow of the type employed by railroads for car ferries, but no details are shown of the special features such as tracks, etc. necessary to adapt the scow for car transport.

In the hull construction illustrated, the sides 90 of the hull comprise a skin, or plating 2 of steel or other suitable material for constructions of this type reinforced by frame members 4 directly backing and riveted or otherwise connected to the side skin or plating, these frame members 4 being inclined to the horizontal at any suitable angle,

the illustrated frame members 4 being inclined to the horizontal at an angle of 45.

The frame members 4 may be of any suitable section, for example, Z section or channel section, the illustrated frame members being of 2 section. As shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings, the inner flange 6 of each diagonal or oblique frame member 4 is connected at its headto a continuous longitudinal angle 8 which in turn is connected to a continuous longitudinal channel 10 forming the shelf upon which the deck beams 12 are supported and to which they are connected, the heel of each oblique frame member 4 being likewise connected to a continuous .20 are continuous between bulkheads.

tinuous longitudinal channel 16 to which the transverse beams 18 of the bottom are connected. Both the channel 10 and the channel 16 are also riveted or otherwise connected to the side plating 2.

The oblique frame members 4 and the side plating 2 may be further reinforced by longitudinal side stringers 20 such as illustrated, the illustrated side stringers 20 comprising Z sections slotted to receive the oblique frame members, the outer flange 22 of each of the stringers 20 being riveted or otherwise directly connected to the side plating and the web portion of the stringer being connected to the inner flange 6 of each oblique member 4 by a short angle piece 24'. stringers At each bulkhead-the stringer 20 may be connected to a bracket 26 which in turn is connected to a vertical frame member 28 which may be a web plate or channel section forming a part of one of the bulkheads, this web plate or channel section 28 being riveted at head and heel respectively to the deck beams12 and bottom beams 18 and the brackets 26 being each riveted as shown to the web of the web plate or channel section 28.

It will be'noted from an inspection of Fig. 4 that the bulkheads in the illustrative embodiment of the invention may comprise angle struts 30 and 32 to which plates 34 are riveted where the struts cross, the struts" 30 and 32 adjacent the sides of the hull being riveted to the web of the vertical frame member 28 and all of the struts being riveted to deck and bottom beams 12 and 18.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that the longitudinal stringers 20 and the vertical web plates orchannel sections 28 serve to reinforce the diagonal frame members 4 longitudinally and vertically, and that the bulkhead construction extending across the hull serves to increase this reinforcement. The number of bulk- I heads may be that usually provided for structures of this sort.

Between the sides of the hull and at the ends the framing may be that usually employed in structures of this sort as shown particularly in Fig. 3.

Among the advantages of the above-described construction in addition to its presenting reinforcement to the sideplating against damage by impact with either vertically or horizontally ex-- tending objects are the increased ability of the structure as a whole to-resist the strains which tend to distort it and to cause shearing of rivets, etc. In forming the sides, the side plating is preferably one deep plate with few vertical joints.

"It will be seen, moreover, that these few vertical joints are well bridged. over. by the diagonal frames which insures that there will be a minimum of breakage because there are so few rivets under stress when the forces are applied which tend to push the ends up and the center down or vice-versa.

It will further be seen that the overlap of on diagonal frame member. over the next one throughout the length of the hull, the illustrated embodiment of the invention having at least three overlapping diagonal members in substantially any vertical section of the side, constitutes in itself a longitudinal continuity of the rigidity of the side framing and a continuous reinforcement of the side plating against buckling or shearing strains by reason of the connections be tween the plating and the frame members,

- longitudinal angle 14, in turn connected to a con- In completing the covering of the frame of the hull in theillustrative embodiment of the invention, the deck plates 36 are riveted to the beams 12; the bottom plates 38 are riveted to the bottom beams 18 and the strips 40 are welded to the outer face of the side plate 2 preferably over the longitudinal stringers 20. Corner plates 42 and 44, butt-welded at their ends, are riveted respec- When assembling a hull embodying the present invention, the sides may be brought to the point of assembly with the diagonal brace members 4 and the side stringers 20 already bull-riveted to the skin or plating 2. In the illustrative embodiment of the invention, for example, one entire side may be made up of two sections of side plating, each of. the full depth of the hull and of onehalf its length, with the diagonal frame members 4 and the side stringers 20 bull-riveted to the plating at the steel mill. In this construction, therefore, there will be but a single vertical joint which will be covered by a butt-strap 46 spanning the joint and riveted to the two plate sections, the diagonal braces which are cut at this point being connected by splice bars 48 spanning the joint. The side stringers 20 may be similarly spliced.

It will be noted that the angles 8 and 14, or other suitable sections used for attachment of the diagonal frame members 4, together with the associated channels 10 and 16, which constitute the continuous top and bottom shelves of the structure,.take the place of the usual beam knee brackets and materially increase the strength of the side because of their mass and 'either direction. Moreover, these continuous shelves and connected angles make for fairer alignment during erection, protrude less into the hold than beam knees do and permit the deck and bottom beams 12 and 18 to be spaced to suit the loads imposed, each regardless of the other and all regardless of the location of any of the diagonal side frame members, a condition which is not possible in the transverse system where the beam knees compel a compromise to be made between the demands of side deck and bottom in fixing the spacing in order that the beams and frames may lie in the same transverse vertical plane. a

It will be understood that many modifications may be made in the sections of the frame members used, in the relative locations of the parts and in the relative inclinations of the frame members to each other without departing from the spirit of the invention. It will also be understood that when the expression "iron ship con struction is used it is employed merely to denote the system of construction generally utilized in iron ship building as distinguished from timber ship building and ferro-concrete ship building, irrespective of the actual material employed.

Although stress has been placed on the suitability of the hull construction hereinabove described for harbor and inland water craft, it will be understood that it may equally be applied to ship hulls in general and that the connections between the various frame members and the plating and also between the various frame members themselves may be made in any suitable way and not necessarily in the specific ways herein illustrated and described.

The expression sheet metal, used for convenience in the following claims, is intended to include metal, in sheet form, of a substantial range of thicknesses and particularly plates of a thickness suitable for the skin or plating of the sides and decks of ships.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A ship hull construction for iron ships and the like having its side frame construction formed of similarly inclined spaced diagonal frame members of steel frame section, continuous longitudinal shelves connected respectively to the heads and to the heels of said diagonal frame members, longitudinal stringers reinforcing said diagonal frame members between said shelves, and an outer skin or plating of sheet metal directly backed by said diagonal frame members and permanently connected thereto.

2. A ship hull construction for iron ships and the like having its side frame construction formed of similarly inclined diagonal frame members of steel frame section so spaced and so overlapped as to intercept blows against the side from either perpendicular or horizontal objects, a skin or outer plating of sheet metal directly backed by and permanently connected to said diagonal said diagonal frame members.

3. A ship hull construction comprising deck and bottom shelves formed of continuouslongitudinal channel sections, similarly inclined vertically overlapping spaced diagonal frame members extending between said shelves, angles riveted respectively to said diagonal frame members and to the webs of said shelf-forming channels, and side plating of sheet metal directly riveted to said diagonal frame members.

4. A ship hull construction for iron ships and the like having its side frame construction formed of similarly inclined spaced diagonal frame members of steel frame section overlapping vertically, an outer skin or plating of sheet metal directly backed by said diagonal frame members and permanently secured thereto, longitudinal stringers I an outer skin or plating of sheet metal directly backed by said diagonal frame members and permanently secur'ed thereto, and vertical frame members reinforcing said diagonal frame members.

6. A ship hull construction for iron ships and the like having its side frame construction formed of similarly inclined spaced diagonal frame members of steel frame'section overlapping vertically, an outer skin or platingof sheet metal directly backed by said diagonal frame members and permanently secured thereto, longitudinal stringers also directly backing said skin or plating and to which said skin or plating is permanently secured, and'vertical frame members to which said longitudinal stringers are permanently secured, said vertical frame members constituting parts of transverse bulkheads.

7. A main hull structure for ships and the like comprising only in combination a plurality of substantially parallel obliquely and uni-directionally arranged frames between the bulkheads, longitudinal girders at the upper part of the hull to which the frames are connected, longitudinal girders at the lower part of the hull to which the frames are connected and plating attached to the frames and the girders so as to form the side walls of the hull.

8. A main hull structure for ships and the like comprising only in combination a plurality of substantially parallel obliquely and uni-directionally arranged frames between the bulkheads, a plurality of longitudinal girders connected to said frames, one of said girders being arranged at the upper part of the hull and one of the said girders being arranged at the lower part of the hull and plating attached to the frames and girders so as to form the side walls of the hull.

9. A main hull structure for ships and the like comprising only in combination a plurality of substantially parallel obliquely and uni-directionally arranged frames between the bulkheads, a plurality of longitudinal girders connected to said frames, one of said girders being arranged at the upper part of the hull and one of the said girders being arranged at the lower part of the hull and plating attached to the frames and girders so as to form the side walls of the hull, some or all of the longitudinal girders being of box form.

10. In a side frame construction for iron ship hulls having side plating, a truss constituting the side frame and comprising a web formed of the side plating, frame members of steel frame section extending from top to bottom of said truss and directly connected to and bearing against said plating on its inner face, the said frame members being all parallel to each other, inclined to the vertical at a substantial angle and so spaced with respect to their inclination that successive members overlap vertically, and top and bottom frame members to which said inclined frame members are connected at their respective ends.

11. In a side frame construction for iron ship hulls having side plating, a truss constituting the side frame and comprising a web formed of the side plating, frame members of steel frame section extending from top to bottom of said truss and directly connected to and bearing against said plating on its inner face, the said frame membersbeing all parallel to each other, inclined to the vertical at a substantial angle and so spaced with respect to their inclination that substantially any vertical section through said truss will intersect at least three of said inclined frame members, and top and bottom frame members to which said inclined frame members are connected at their respective ends.

12. In a side frame construction for iron ship hulls having side plating; a truss constituting the and longitudinal stringers connected to said side thereof.

13. In a side frame construction for iron ship hulls having side plating, a truss constituting the side frame and comprising a web formed of the side plating, frame members of steel frame section extending from top to bottom of said truss and directly connected to and bearing against said plating on its inner face, the said frame members being all parallel to each other, inclined to the vertical at a substantial angle and so spaced with respect to their inclination that successive members overlap vertically, top and bot-- tom frame members to which said inclined frame members are connected at their respective ends, and longitudinal stringers connected to said side frame members at points between the top and bottom thereof, said longitudinal stringers also I 1,952,156 'frame truss at points between the top and bottom bearing directly against the inner face of said side plating and being connected thereto.

14. In a side frame construction for iron ship hulls having side plating, a truss constituting the side frame and comprising a web formed of the side plating, frame members of steel frame section extending from top to bottom of said truss and directly connected to and bearing against said plating on its inner face, the said frame members being all parallel to each other, inclined to the vertical at a substantial angle and so spaced with respect to their inclination that suc-

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