Ship Strength Laboratory

The Kiel University of Applied Sciences operates a strength laboratory for the education in Naval Architecture and Maritime Technologies. During the past years, the laboratory developed under the direction of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Berend Bohlmann from a mere training and education centre for graduate engineers. Today it facilitates various projects of different types and sizes for Bachelor- and Master graduates as well as PhD-students. Besides investigations on general strength and stiffness aspects, the lab especially conducts projects on fatigue strength of structural constructions.

The laboratory works in close relationship with industry and consultants as well as other research institutions. In the context of external projects and/or public funded research and development, the lab provides assistance ranging from basic research to product development to failure analysis.

The emphasis of the projects lies within the area of maritime applications. Additionally, projects are executed in other areas such as in general mechanical engineering and in the food industry.

The experimental backbone of the laboratory consists of 3 test rigs for the performance of static and dynamic studies. They are suitable for small scale experiments, for instance, for analysing the fatigue strength on weld seams as well as semi complex specimen with specific construction details, to full scale measurements on actual component parts. Furthermore, mobile equipment is available for field measurements. If required, experiments are complemented by detailed calculations utilising e.g. the FE-method.