753. Service Life Weight Control for Naval Ships
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Paper
Abstract
In recent years, weight control for naval ships has become an accepted norm in maintaining required naval architectural limits for new construction and major conversions. However, there is no parallel effective control program to maintain these limits throughout the service life of the ship. The basic program now in effect consists primarily of weight reporting and compensation. It is, in general, dependent upon ‘ball park’ alteration estimates, the inclining experiment, careless weight reporting and inadequate reporting requirements. Weights, for alterations accomplished by forces afloat and by shipyards between overhaul periods, are often not reported. For scheduled overhauls, actual determinations of the weight and moment growth usually occurs after accomplishment or too late in the overhaul sequence to be an effective control parameter. Consequently, the present program, instead of controlling vertical moment and displacement growth is primarily an ‘after the fact’ compensation for this growth.
The present program was established by a number of separate and often uncorrelated publications. These publications are briefly reviewed with appropriate comment as to their requirements and effectiveness. Emphasis is placed on these publications as they relate to the difficulty of the overhaul activity, the design activity, the Naval Ship Systems Command (NAVSHIPS), and forces afloat in maintaining an effective control program.
The necessity of an effective control program during conceptual development, during detail design and during installation is discussed. A modified program building on some of the present requirements is advanced. Among the various points discussed are: unification of the publications pertaining to the program, determination of the stability base with a prorated service life weight and moment margin allocation, determination of the effect of alterations prior to detail design and verification of preliminary weights. The overall NAVSHIPS responsibility for coordination, control and education that is necessary for an effective control program, is stressed.
