Objectives In order to accurately evaluate the longitudinal ultimate strength of a hull girder under the cyclic bending moment, the effects of an elastic-perfectly plastic and Chaboche material model on the elastic shakedown and ultimate strength of the hull girder under the cyclic bending moment are studied.

Methods The nonlinear finite element method is used to carry out the ultimate strength numerical simulation of a double bottom bulk carrier considering the elastic shakedown under the cyclic bending moment. In this study, the Bauschinger effect of the material during the reverse loading of the structure and influence of the welding initial deformation and residual stress are considered.

Results The calculation results show that the welding initial deformation significantly reduces the lower limit of the elastic shakedown of bulk carrier, and the range of the elastic shakedown considering welding initial deformation and residual stress is the largest. After reaching the elastic shakedown under the cyclic bending moment, the ultimate strength of the bulk carrier considering the welding initial deformation and residual stress under hogging and sagging states are 7.15% and 5.68% higher than that under single loading respectively.

Conclusions The welding initial deformation has a major impact on the elastic shakedown interval and elastic shakedown ultimate strength of the bulk carrier, which should be carefully considered in actual research and analysis.