You may think that this is an arbitrary design difference, but the situation is very different from what was expected. Because the rounded or angular windows on ships affect these vessels in many ways, from life safety to durability.
Let’s take a closer look at what advantages the round ones have as opposed to these window shapes that we are familiar with seeing and using.
To understand the logic behind the roundness of ship windows, let’s first talk about airplane windows.
The windows used in airplanes in the 1950s were angular, not round, unlike their current form. The reason why engineers started to design them round was the successive accidents at that time.
Although these accidents were thought to be pilot error at first, they were actually caused by design errors and the problem was in the angular windows of the plane. During the flight, these windows were cracked, and then the fuselage of the plane was damaged at these points.
After these experiences, airplane windows began to be designed in round and oval shapes, and they continue to maintain the same shape today.
So what was the main reason why these angular glasses were inviting big problems?
Airplanes require high altitudes for a more comfortable flight, and in this way, drag and turbulence are minimized. However, there are some downsides to flying at such high altitudes, and the first is that the atmospheric pressure is very low at high altitudes.
As the aircraft rises, the in-cab and out-of-cabin pressure differs, so adjusting the interior pressure in the cabin is essential for crew survival. Ideally, this pressure should be distributed across the plane as evenly as possible, but windows in certain parts of the fuselage direct the pressure to the sides.
In addition, every angular structure contains weak points in terms of structure.
The reason for this is that the force per unit area at the sharp corners increases exponentially. The yellow, green and red colors in the corners of the photograph also reflect the magnitude of the stress at those points.
Stacking at the corners of this object on which force is applied in aircraft and ships is colored red if it is high, and yellow and green if the stress amount of the parts that are not sharp and have different ovalities is low.
These ovals allow the air pressure on the aircraft or ship to spread over the entire surface in the form of round curves and aim to prevent most possible damage and accidents.
Let’s come to the ship windows.
The building materials that make up wooden ships, and especially wet wood, were highly resistant to the fatigue stress encountered in the material, and the first ships were produced from this raw material. It was possible to come across rectangular and square shaped windows quite frequently in the periods when wooden ships were popular.
By the end of the 19th century, however, merchant ships with steel hulls became quite common, followed by warships. Over time, engineers realized that these angular windows were a design flaw, and square and rectangular windows came to an end as well as saying goodbye to wooden materials.
In addition, it was understood that angular windows caused metal fatigue, and then circular portholes and rounded corners were started to be designed for deck covers.
These round windows actually provide resistance to high pressure and traction forces during the movement of ships at sea. In addition, round shapes take up much less space on ships than angular windows and help to use the limited space on board much more efficiently.
For all these reasons, in many architectural designs that are desired to be durable and robust, oval and round shapes are preferred as much as possible by avoiding sharp corners. Again, circular shapes are much more resistant to deformations, regardless of whether it is an aircraft or a sea vehicle, and it is much easier to shape the glass in a round shape.
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