Abstract
Increased ship dimensions and installed propulsion power require still heavier shaft systems. As a consequence, in a shaft alignment process, even higher accuracy has to be achieved. A serious problem in a shafting system comes from the fact that less bearings lead to high bearing pressures and thus to higher deflections due to elasticity of the bearing foundation. The elasticity of bearings is rarely accounted for because of the complications it implies both in its simulation through a stiffness coefficient and in treating the resulting differential equation. A FE (Finite Element) code capable of being applied on a personal computer has been developed in order to deal with the alignment of main propulsion shafting systems.
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