Springing and whipping of ships

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Introduction to springing and whipping

„ What is springing?
„ What is whipping?
„ Why is it important to study these phenomena?
„ What are the physical parameters that govern the
springing and whipping responses?

MARINTEK
Wave-induced hull girder vibrations

„ Wave-induced hull girder vibrations are normally

described by the terms springing and whipping.
Sometimes the term swinging is used for vibrations in the
horizontal plane (lateral vibrations), while springing and
whipping are then reserved for vertical vibrations.

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What is springing?
„ Springing is resonant hull girder vibrations due to wave-
loads
„ Resonant vibrations implies that
„ they sustain over a certain period (”steady-state” phenomenon)
„ there are wave-forces that oscillate with the same frequency as
one of the natural frequencies of the hull girder – usually the
lowest frequency

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Springing

ωe= ω0 + (ω0)2U /g
U

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Ship types particularly exposed to
springing
„ Ships with high forward speed (i.e. high encounter
frequencies)
„ Ships with low natural frequencies. I.e. relatively flexible
hulls compared to the mass.
„ Examples:
„ High speed craft
„ Vessels made of aluminium of fibre-reincorced plastics
„ Great-Lakes bulk carriers (shallow draft and with reduced
scantlings give flexible ships with large excitation forces)

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What is whipping?

„ Whipping is transient hull girder vibrations due to wave-

loads that increase rapidly.
„ This will normally be impact loads like those arising from
bottom slamming or bow flare slamming.

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Why is it important to study whipping?

„ Normally, whipping is associated with violent slamming

loads in severe wave conditions.
„ The highest hull girder responses are often associated
with whipping events.
„ Hence, whipping contribute to the design loads and are
therefore important to assess.
„ Severe slamming/whipping will make the shipmaster slow
down.

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„ In the past few years there has been some focus on
whipping vibrations due to slamming loads on the aft part
of the ship
„ This will typically occur for ships where the aftmost part
the hull bottom is nearly flat and has a very low draft.
„ Comfort problems on passenger vessels have been
reported.
„ The problem is pronounced only at zero or moderate
speeds (e.g. when the ship is in harbour)

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Why is it important to study springing?

„ Calculations suggest that springing may also contribute to

the extreme response for some ships, but springing
vibrations are generally more important for fatigue.
„ It has been found that springing may contribute to about
50% of the accumulated fatigue damage for long bulk
carriers

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What are the physical parameters that
govern the springing responses (I) ?
• Hull girder stiffness. Lower stiffness generally gives more springing,
since resonance will occur for longer waves, which contains more
energy and also give higher excitation per unit amplitude (higher
RAO) due to less cancellation (ship-wave matching).
• Bow (and stern) geometry. Blunt bows seem to give more springing
than slender bows. Bow stem slamming and wave reflection can
contribute to the springing forces.
• Structural damping. Since springing occurs at relatively high
frequencies, damping caused by wave generation is low. For high
speed ships, however, hydrodynamic damping due to lift effects from
the transom stern becomes important. For other ships, structural
damping is important. Structural damping is very difficult to predict by
theoretical methods. One needs to rely on measured data from the
ship in question or from similar ships.

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What are the physical parameters that
govern the springing responses (II) ?

• Loading condition. More cargo gives higher mass and

lower eigenfrequency (natural frequency) of the hull girder.
A lower eigenfrequency will generally cause more
springing. However, more cargo also gives a higher draft.
Since most hydrodynamic pressures decay rapidly with
draft, this means that the pressure variation (i.e. springing
excitation forces) under the forward part of the ship bottom
becomes lower. This latter effect is normally stronger than
the effect of a reduced eigenfrequency and springing is
normally worse for ballast condition. A wide ship may also
have a low draft even in loaded condition.

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What are the physical parameters that
govern the springing responses (III) ?

• Ship speed. A higher speed will give resonance for longer

waves, which in turn will give more springing. Some
studies indicate that the springing vibration amplitude
increases with the square of the forward speed.

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What are the physical parameters that
govern the springing responses (IV) ?
• Wave condition. Since relatively high encounter frequencies are
needed to give springing, the phenomenon is most pronounced in
moderate seastates, where most of the wave energy is contained in
relatively short waves. Linear springing forces normally come from
very short waves, and they are therefore very sensitive to the high-
frequency tail of the wave spectrum.
Nonlinear springing forces get a contribution from the interaction
between waves with different frequencies and different directions. This
gives rise to forces that oscillate with the sum of the frequencies of the
different waves. The total springing forces are therefore dependent not
only on the frequency-distribution of the wave energy, but also on the
directional distribution.

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 What are the physical parameters that
govern the whipping responses (I) ?
Many of same parameters are important for both springing and whipping
• Since whipping is due to slamming loads, parameters influencing the
slamming loads are important.
• Bow (and stern) geometry. Wider shapes with pronounced flare give higher
slamming loads. Wide and flat hull bottoms may also give large slamming forces
• Draft. Low draft at bow (or stern) gives more frequent and normally more severe
slamming.
• Ship speed. Higher speed gives more frequent and normally more severe
slamming.
• Ship motions. Large heave and pitch motions will cause more slamming.
• Wave condition. Waves that give large heave and pitch motions will give more
slamming. Steep waves generally give more severe bow slamming loads.

• Hull girder stiffness and mass distribution. The dynamic hull girder response
due to the slamming loads depends on the dynamic properties of the hull.
These properties are given by the stiffness and mass distribution.

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What are the physical parameters that
govern the whipping responses (II) ?

• Damping is normally of less importance for the extreme

whipping responses, since the peak response occurs
during the first vibration cycle.

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