Simulation of the Behavior of a Ship Hull under Grounding: Effect of Applied Element Size on Structural Crashworthiness

Aditya Rio Prabowo,Jung Min Sohn,Teguh Putranto

doi:10.3390/jmse7080270

Abstract

This work models the effect of an impact phenomenon—namely the interaction between seabed rock and a ship during its operations—on the ship structure. The collision between a tanker vessel with a conical rock is simulated, a scenario that is similar to the famous grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker. The study uses finite element analysis to simulate numerical parameters that are related to structural response and the contours of the ship hull under impact loading. The traditional element-length-to-thickness (ELT) ratio of 10 is recommended in this work. ELT ratios in the range of 11 to 13 are shown to produce similar results in terms of internal energy, contact force, and structural acceleration. Additionally, the analysis time is reduced by approximately 20% for the recommended ELT ratio. This result is very helpful for researchers using finite element analysis to simulate ship accidents, since the mesh size or length of complex structures is used to maintain the efficiency and accuracy of the simulation results.

Highlights

Developments in engineering and science have led to demands for more complex analysis and the observation of research subjects, including marine structures
Design plans for various vessels, such as those carrying dangerous cargo, take into account resistance against impacts, the most frequent types of which are grounding and explosion. Such impacts have been studied while using several methods, including the finite element method, which has been used in various studies since the 1990s
The mesh size is an important factor in the finite element method, and the selection of an appropriate mesh size when modeling complex objects, such as ship hulls, is important

Summary

Introduction

Developments in engineering and science have led to demands for more complex analysis and the observation of research subjects, including marine structures. Design plans for various vessels, such as those carrying dangerous cargo, take into account resistance against impacts, the most frequent types of which are grounding and explosion Such impacts have been studied while using several methods, including the finite element method, which has been used in various studies since the 1990s. The mesh size is an important factor in the finite element method, and the selection of an appropriate mesh size when modeling complex objects, such as ship hulls, is important This is important when simulating impact events. In previous research that was related to the effect of accident phenomena on ship hull structures, element-length-to-thickness (ELT) ratios of 5–10 were used to control the finite element mesh size [5,6,7]. It is necessary to examine and verify the use of an expanded range of ELT ratios in simulations of the effects of accidents on marine structures

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