Electrosiag Welding of an Advanced Double-Hull-Design Ship

摘要

Since Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, all tankers entering U.S. harbors must have double hulls by the year 2010 (Refs. 1, 2). A typical double-hull design for an oil tanker or military ship has a greater number of hull-to-stiffener T-joints (Ref. 3) than a standard design, and these are ideal applications for electroslag welding (ESW). The fabrication of double hulls is extremely competitive (Refs. 4, 5) with nearly all current double-hull tanker fabrication being performed overseas. Although ESW was widely used in the construction of buildings (Ref. 6) and bridges (Ref. 7), it has seen limited applications in ship construction in this country (Refs. 8, 9).