Dynamic buckling of masts of large sail ships

The design of sail systems is a fascinating topic that naval architects have been facing since many centuries and nowadays is revived because of the increasing size of modern pleasure and racing yachts. It is hence surprising that empiricism largely drives mast and rigging design even at the present time. Actually, while structural dynamics is explicitly considered in current scantling design of hull structures, this is not usually the case for mast and rigging. However, numerical simulations can now be successfully applied to assess effects of load variations in time. Considering the governing limit states and the typical behaviour of a pre-tensioned slender structure, the dynamic buckling of the bottom panel of a typical large mast is evaluated in this paper, showing significant differences from the widely applied quasi-static approach. The obtained results provide a new perspective for the scantling assessment of sail systems, overcoming the current empirical and prescriptive approach proposed by rules of classification societies and international standards.