Structural design of helicopter landing platform for super-yacht

Abstract

Owner’s request of having on their yacht the facilities to allow helicopter landing, is getting more frequent regardless of the yacht size. It is of primary importance, at a contract stage to understand what owners want and, based on this to verify his request.

Three different uses could be achieved. Emergency landing, occasional touch and go, were it is not possible to transfer guess. Private yacht, with no requirements, were helicopter pilot operate at his risk. Commercial use, were it is possible to transfer guess, and are constructed fully in compliance with Large Yacht Code.

Many helicopter platforms are already in use for private or emergency porpoises. The challenge presented is to develop a platform large enough to comply with the requirements of the Large Yacht Code.

The aim of this Thesis is to design a state of the art helicopter platform in a super-yacht for commercial use. After completing the design, the insurance approve will be essential for the success of the project. The development of the new platform is presented in three different steps.

Location, at the very first part of the design is necessary to find an optimum accommodation for the platform. Many rules are analyzed according to the requirements, of landing visibility, space available for this purpose on the yacht. At this stage is important to solve problems like, interaction of columns with garage exits, or even the fact of moving columns for aesthetical reasons.

Structure, this is the main part of the work, were analysis is performed for the extreme landings. This section is based in a mix of rules approach with direct structure calculation. The main members of the structure like, transverses, primary stiffeners and pillars are designed according to direct calculation. Different diagrams of loads shear stress and maximum bending moments were necessary to calculate the section modulus of the girders. The columns are analyzed based on Euler´s approach. For secondary stiffeners and plate a rule approach is presented.

Validation is performed in order to review the structural calculation. At this stage is necessary to realize an analysis, to confirm that, the structure will really support the extreme landings at different locations of the helicopter platform. After several loops the final design is presented.