Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
of Ship Research,
Hideomi
Ohtsubo,
and Donald
the Grounding
Strength
of Ships
Liu3
1. Introduction
of the Exxon
Valdez, and several other
tanker accidents that resulted in oil outflow, created public
outcry over the need for environmental protection and precipitated extensive discussions on means of preventing accidental
oil spills (see, e.g., Ohtsubo et al (1994)).
There are two loading situations pertinent to grounding of
ship bottom structures: vertical loading and loading in the ship
length direction (Fig. 1). A vertically loaded bottom behaves
somewhat like the side shell structure of a vessel in a collision,
and a fair amount of literature related to this subject currently
exists. However for the longitudinal loading situation (raking),
the phenomenon and the consequences are quite different from
collision. Very little can be found in the literature on how to
predict the bottoms horizontal strength during raking damage.
Analytical and theoretical methods required to make an accurate and realistic assessment of bottom structural strength do
not exist in a complete form. Although some efforts have been
made, the grounding of ships has remained a largely unexplored
field of research.
Early research on grounding prediction relied on empirical
methods based on experimental
investigations,
most of which
were developed from the important work of Minorsky (1959).
Recently, studies by ASIS (Association for Structural Improvement of Shipbuilding
Industry) in Japan postulated that two
proportionality
constants are needed to calculate the resistance
of a ships bottom: one for the plating and one for the stiffeners (Kuroiwa et al 1992). In general, the formulations of such
damage prediction methods based on model experiments are
THE
GROUNDING
1997
fundamentally
correct, but are restricted in their application.
With the development of computer technology and the progress
of FEM techniques, it has now become feasible to use FEM
in analyzing complicated problems such as the collision and
grounding of ships (e.g., Kitamura 1995). At present, however,
it is still not practical to run a supercomputer analysis to check
a design.
In this context a good way to assess the damage of a ship
structure in grounding is to develop a reliable simplified method. The challenge is to find a method that is both rational in
its mechanics and simple in its mathematics. In their efforts to
achieve this goal, Wierzbicki & Thomas (1993), and Wang &
Ohtsubo (1995a) investigated some energy absorption mechanisms that occur in the event of a ships grounding. However,
the necessary global model to represent the behavior of a ships
hull in a grounding accident remains undeveloped.
This paper proposes an appropriate global damage prediction method. The main purpose is to assess the strength of
a ships bottom against horizontal penetration. A raking scenario is assumed which is based on observations of grounding accidents and existing experiments. Four kinds of primary
structural failure modes are identified and are considered in the
global damage model. The prediction method is constructed by
assembling available strength formulas for these failure modes.
The method developed is illustrated by applying it to the large
scale experiments conducted by ASIS and also to an actual
grounding accident.
2. Prediction
method
0022-4502/97/4103-0241$00.39/0
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OF SHIP RESEARCH
241
Ship
I
,!
I/
::
Rock
(a) Load in Vertical Direction
Rock
(b) Load in Ship Length Direction (Raking)
Fig.
Grounding
phenomena
Fig. 2
in ships
tal plane, with no pitching or heaving movements. The dynamics of the whole ship, therefore, are considered in this paper
only in a simplified manner.
A ships hull structure can be characterized as consisting
of periodically arranged structural members. For example, going from the bow towards the stern in the longitudinal
direction, frames and/or bulkheads occur at certain intervals. As a
consequence of structural periodicity
a ships resistance during grounding can also be considered periodic. The load period
starts from one transverse structure and ends at the next transverse structure.
Observations of actual grounding processes and of existing
experiments reveal that a grounding scenario may be represented as shown in Fig. 2. When a rock on the seabed makes
contact with transverse structures such as floors, that structure and the bottom plating immediately
behind it interact
and show a very complicated deformation pattern. The transverse frame fails mainly by in-plane stretching. The bottom
plate behind the transverse structure bulges and folds in front
of the intruding rock. Usually, many folds are found in that
part of the bottom plate. During this damage stage, the internal resistance force of the bottom increases as the rocks penetration increases. Eventually, as ductile rupture occurs in the
overstretched plates! the resistance force reaches its ultimate
value and then begins to decrease. This state of damage then
gives way to a different damage process. Contribution
from the
transverse structure becomes negligible. Only bottom plate and
Periodicity
of ship bottom
resistance
Nomenclature
B = width
of beam model
of denting mechanism,
or width of concertina
tearing mechanism
Eg = initial kinetic energy
of grounded VLCC
Eb = plate bending energy
Em = plate stretching energy
26 = width
Ef
242
SEPTEMBER
1997
F = resistance force
Fm = mean force
Fs = steady-state
resistance of
tearing mode
L = half-length of beam model
1 = tearing length
I, = tearing length when wedge
shoulder goes into plate
No = fully plastic membrane force
of a unit width of plate
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OF SHIP RESEARCH
failure
modes
structure
plate
immediately
behind
transverse
The plate behind the transverse structure is subjected to inplane concentrated loading. From the viewpoint of energy absorption characteristics, the main interest here is in the range
of deflection that exceeds the plate thickness by two or more orders of magnitude. Plasticity has sufficiently developed enough
in this deformation range. The existing methods in which either the buckling strength or the ultimate strength is used are,
therefore, not appropriate.
Wang & Ohtsubo (199510) termed this kind of structural
failure the denting of a plate. Considering experimental
observations, they proposed a kinematic model in which six fixed
plastic hinges are assumed. This model has the capability to
describe the main features of the damage process, such as the
progressive development of material folding. The energy absorption is due to the bending of the plastic hinges and the
membrane tension in the regions surrounded by these hinges.
By equating the internal energy dissipation to the external
work, they derived a closed-form expression for the plates mean
strength. The expression is:
Fm = (2.32/X)cq(2b)0.33t1.67
1997
3.3 Bottom
plate
(1+&J
C3)
where 1 is the tearing length, 8 half the wedge angle, and p the
friction coefficient.
In reality the wedge has finite width and finite length. During
the initial tearing phase, the tearing force increases as the penetration proceeds. At some point it transfers to a steady state
when the tearing load becomes constant. This transfer occurs
approximately
when the shoulder of the wedge goes into the
plate. Substituting the corresponding tearing length into equation (3) results in an expression for the constant tearing load
(see Appendix for details):
Fs = 1.51aet151~5(sin6)05
(1+&d
(*I
+ 2Rt)/X
examples
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243
4.1 Grounding
experiment
by ASIS
Model
244
Large-scale
SEPTEMBER
1997
grounding
experiments
conducted
by ASIS
Test
Concertina Tearing
1.2
2.4
3.6
(a)
Test No. 1
Tearing
4.8
6.0
3.9
4.3
4.6
data relating
to horizontal
experiments
of ASIS
load
1.5
2.5
3.3
Bottom Model /
Predictions
and test
grounding
in the
OF SHIP RESEARCH
400
350
300
.-
&..,.
Prediction:
Concertina Tearing
,,
rupture
dent
--.
I,--,;
touch
I
2.4m D=2.5.7m
250
200
Fig. 6
Grounding
oil tanker
150
100
50
0
0
1.0
Concertina Tearin
Predictions
and test
in the grounding
experi-
360 MPa. Our predicted results are also plotted against the
experimental
data in Fig. 4. The calculated trough and peak
values of the resistance are seen to be close to the measured
values.
Integration of the measured load versus horizontal penetration curve results in the energy versus horizontal penetration
curves shown in Fig. 5, where the predicted energy dissipation
is plotted alongside the experimental data. Indentation up to
the first floor is not included because the forepart of the bottom model is different from the structure of the after part (see
Fig. 3). The experimental curves lie between the two calculated
curves that are based on the tearing mode and the concertina
tearing mode.
From the comparisons shown by the curves in Figs. 4 and
5, it is clear that the proposed method gives reasonable and
promising prediction results.
4.2 A case study:
grounding
accident
of a VLCC
1997
304.000 m
52.400 m
25.700 m
19.800 m
237 OOOton
OF SHIP RESEARCH
245
of the predicted
energy
Table 1 Comparisons
dissipation
(fp) and initial kinetic
energy of vessel
(Eo). for the grounding
accident
of a VLCC
Rupture Width
Failure Mode
2.0m
Concertina Tearing
115.0%
2.0m
Tearing
82.8%
5.0m
Concertina Tearing
Tearing
5.0m
EdEQ
93.9%
5. Conclusions
A ship hull is characterized by structure that is periodically
arranged along the ship length. As a result, the internal resistance force during grounding is also periodic in the longitudinal direction. For the main structural members! four primary
structural failure modes are identified. A prediction method is
constructed by assembling the strength calculation formulas for
these four primary failure modes. This method is successfully
applied in predicting the results of the large scale grounding experiments conducted by ASIS and the grounding damage in an
actual accident of a VLCC. The proposed method is based on
only four structural failure modes, and the formulas for these
failure modes are very simple to express mathematically.
Therefore, the proposed method is easy to use in practical design.
Acknowledgments
to thank Mr. 0. Kitamura
at
and Mr. &I. Watanabe at ASIS
References
ATKINS, A. G. 1988 Scaling in combined plastic flow and fracture.
International
Journal
of Mechanical
Science,
30, 173-191.
1983 The effective crushing distance in axially
ABRAMOWICZ, W.
compressed thin-walled
metal columns. Internatzonal Jaw-nal of
Impact Engineering,
1, 309-317.
KIWMURA, 0.
1995 Numerical simulation of large scale grounding tests. Conference on Prediction Methodology
of Tanker Structural Failure & Consequential
Oil Spill, Tokyo, July 1995.
KUROIWA, T.! K.4w.4~0~0: Y.. AND YUHARA, T.
1992 Study on
damage of ship bottom structures due to grounding. Conference
on Prediction Methodology
of Tanker Structural Failure & Consequential Oil Spill, Tokyo, June 1992.
MINORSKY, V. V. 1959 An analysis of ship collisions with reference to protection
of nuclear power plants. JOURNAL OF SHIP
RESEARCH, 3, Oct., 1-4.
OHTSUBO; H. et al 1994 Structural
design for pollution
control:
Report of Committee V.6 of ISSC 94. 12th International
Ship and
Offshore Structures Congress, Canada, 2, 2499295.
OHTSUBO, H. AND WANG. G. 1995 An upper-bound
solution to
the problem of plate tearing. Jownal
of Marzne
Science and Technology,
1, 46-51.
VAUGHAN, H 1978 Bending and tearing of plate with application
to ship-bottom
damage. Naval Architect,
97, 97-99.
1995 Full scale groundVREDEVELDT: A. W. AND WEVERS, L. T.
ing experiments. Conference on Prediction Methodology
of Tanker
Structural
Failure & Consequential
Oil Spill: Tokyo: June 1995.
\VA?IG; G. AND OHTSUBO, H. 1995a Energy absorbing mechanisms
involved in grounding. International
Conference on Technologies
for Marine Environment
Preservation,
Sept., Tokyo.
246
SEPTEMBER
1997
Appendix
114.8%
model
model
(6)
Eb = 2irMo(2b)
Fig. 7
Deformation
model
of a plate
subjected
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T I; Section
E,
= 3NoH3/b
(7)
The resulting mean resistance force is defined as the sum of both
the bending work and the membrane work divided by the fold length
2H:
Fm
(8)
= (Eb + .%n)/(2H)
- _
I
Substituting
Equations (6) and (7) into (8) gives an expression
containing an unknown parameter 2H, which can be determined by
minimizing the mean resistance load.
In the theoretical
model the structure
is flattened completely.
However: the plastic hinges in the theoretical
model are in reality
shells having curvatures.
The presence of a shell radius results in
reduction of the effective crushing distance. It is found from experiments and also from the analysis of Abramowicz
(1983) that the
compressed structural
length in such cases is approximately
2/3 of
its original length. When one introduces a parameter X to take this
effect into account equation (8) becomes equation (2).
Tearing
$1
I
F
i J
--
model
The problem of cutting a plate with a rigid wedge has been investigated experimentally
and theoretically
by many researchers. When a
wedge with an angle 20 advances with a velocity V into a metal sheet
the material of the plate separates ahead of the wedge tip and then
curves into two surfaces of variable curvature.
Figure 8 shows the
resulting deformation
model of the plate (Ohtsubo & Wang 1995).
Plastic hinges AE shown (dashed lines) move outwards in the plate
with the advance of the wedge. As a result more and more plate
material becomes involved in the tearing process. The instantaneous
radius of the curved plate at the position of line AE is denoted T.
According to the proposed kinematic model, the rate due to bending
work of one moving plastic hinge is
k:, = k$(vl
tan 6/r)
k,
The instantaneous
of virtual work
= (r/2
tearing
- 1) NorVcos
F = 2(&b
+ ,k&)/V
(10)
Concertina
Model
tearing
+ Em + E,h +
J3f)/(Zf)
(12)
where 2H is the length of one fold and Eb, Em, E,h and Ef are
work due to plate bending, plate stretching, plate shearing, and plate
fracture/tearing,
respectively.
Substituting
the expressions for Eb,
Em: E,h and Ef into this equation leads to the following expression
which is dependent on two parameters, H and 6:
Fm/Mo
= n(2b)/H
+ ZnE/H
+ H2/@
+ 2H/t
+ 4&iR/qt
(13)
(11)
Substituting
equations (9) and (10) into (11) gives an equation
which has one free parameter T, the instantaneous
radius of the
curved plate. Minimizing
the above equation with respect to r and
taking into account the contribution
from friction leads to equation
(3), the proposed formula for the relationship
between tearing length
and tearing load.
According to equation (3) the resistance force increases with the
increase of tearing length. However, the wedge cannot be infinitely
long or infinitely
wide. When the shoulder of the wedge goes into
the plate the tearing force typically
reaches its ultimate value and
then becomes relatively constant. Substituting
Is, the tearing length
when the shoulder of the wedge goes into the plate, into equation (3)
results in equation (4).
1997
Fig. 8
(9)
SEPTEMBER
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$1
2b
Fig. 9
Concertina
tearing
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