Grounding crashworthiness of an inland floating structure

Abstract

Considering the morphological and hydrological phenomena that occur within the inland navigation waterways and the constant maintenance required to ensure safe navigation limits, the risk of grounding of ships can be considered imminent at any given moment. The latter, combined with the year-round fluctuations in the water depth, increases furthermore the risk of accidents. The purpose of the current paper is to evaluate the crashworthiness of a typical inland structure under different grounding scenarios. The study numerically analyses the grounding effect on a river-barge structure. To calibrate the numerical model, a benchmark collision study has been reproduced and the obtained results have been compared. Based on the previous studies of the Danube riverbed, the shape of the indenter has been chosen and employed within the framework of this paper. The analysis study has been performed considering the structure without preload, as well as the ballast and full loading pre-stressed conditions, for a transversal angle of attack of the indenter. Following the grounding impact analysis sets, the damage of the subjected structure has been evaluated using the maximum displacement of the indenter and the total internal deformation energy consumed.