Stress analysis of the application of the diamond plate on the quad-joint connection: A case study on the flat plate hull of ships

The hull structure is a vital part of a ship that supports internal and external loads. Failure that often occurs in the hull structure is due to maximum stress at the meeting point of the hull plate arrangement. The purpose of this study is to analyse and optimize a certain design of the connection plate at the meeting point of the hull plate arrangement to reduce maximum stress. A diamond plate innovation was applied, which is a plate with a diamond shape that aims to reduce the maximum stress at a certain angle. The method of this study is finite element analysis modelling supported by metallographic data. As a comparison analysis, two external loading conditions were carried out, i.e., hogging and sagging conditions; furthermore, the variations of the diamond plate were also carried out to obtain the optimum dimensions. The results of this study show that the plate arrangement using a diamond plate can reduce the maximum stress under hogging and sagging conditions, reaching 37.2% and 33.1%, respectively.