Has any tried to use Simulation to analyze global longitudinal strength of a ship's hull while afloat? I have attempted to do this, but I am not pleased with the results. To start with I am simply considering a "prismatic" barge. My methodology was:

Solidworks:

1) Import ship midship section from an already created AutoCAD file

2) extrude midship section over desired length

3) apply steel material

Simulation:

4) Start static analysis

5) Treat model as beam

6) Apply buoyancy pressure to under water part of hull as non-uniform distribution

7) Add cargo weight as equally applied load to deck

8) Mesh and run