Have you taken a look at the airplanes wings during a turbulence? Sometimes it’s better not to look at them….
Years ago, when crossing the Atlantic Ocean, I went through a scaring turbulence. The plane was shaking in all directions and gave short dives down, returning right after to its original altitude. Its wings flapped as if it was a bird, and seemed to be close to breaking.
Everyone around was scared. Some in silence, others with eyes closed, just waiting for the worst or perhaps praying. And I, by the window, kept instinctively “monitoring” the wings and trying to control myself.
However, I noticed that a man sitting close by me was calm and looked undisturbed, so that I asked him: “Had you already seen such a turbulence? The wings seem to be close to breaking….” He then answered calmly that he had seen even worse situations, and the plane held on firmly.
Actually, the wings did not break because planes are flexible to absorb external forces.
But, did you know that ships are flexible as well? You may not see it, but they twist, bend, etc. to absorb the forces acting on their structure (shear forces), caused by the wind and waves, besides the natural gravity and fluctuation forces. We call these torsion movements as “bending moments”, that is one of the fundamental factors to be taken into account in the stowage plan calculation.
However, it has a limit. If the stowage is not well planned, this torsion flexibility might be exceeded and the ship may break in two.
In this impressive video you can see how a ship reacts in a storm.
