Shaft line alignment analysis taking ship construction flexibility and deformations into consideration

Proper shaft line alignment is one of the most important actions during the design of the propulsion system. Usually, a beam model of the power transmission system is isolated from the ship hull. Therefore, determining the correctness of the boundary conditions is one of the most important and difficult issue during the marine shaft line alignment calculations. In the author's opinion stiffness and damping characteristics of the journal bearings' oil film, ship hull and bearings frame should be taken into account. Ship hull deformations, under different load conditions and regular sea waves, are also analysed. The presented numerical analysis method is compared and verified by measurements on real ships. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.