692

Impact speed of vessel collision considering inland river channel characteristics

Ming-dong Chen 1 , Dan Zheng 1 , Guo-yu Cheng 2
1

Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, China,

2 Shanghai Ocean Steel Structure Research Institute, Shanghai, China
*
E-mail: zhengdan@cquc.edu.cn
ABSTRACT : How to select the impact speed is one of the
most important factors to determine ship collision force with
the pier. It will directly influence the standard on anti-impact
force in the bridge design. In this paper, the existed methods of
determining impact speed in all countries and the examined
examples of ship collision with pier are analyzed. Based on the
limitation of existing method, a new way to determine impact
speed is proposed which can consider the water flow velocity at
every pier along bridge axial and influence of ship accident.
Through application in AnQing Yangtze Railway Bridge, the
reasonableness of the method is examined, which can provide
references for bridge design in ship collision..
KEY WORDS:
field

speed in the waterway should be determined based on

the typical vessel transit speed within the channel. The
use of a triangular distribution of vessel impact speed
across the length of the bridge and centered on the
centerline of the vessel transit path (Fig. 1).

ship Collision, river, impact speed flow

1 INTRODUCTION
The impact speed of vessel will directly influence
ship-bridge impact force and design standards of inner
river bridges, which made it one of the most important
factors in bridge design when vessel collision happens.
The existed methods of determining impact speed in
all countries are analyzed and ship-bridge impact
events are examined.
The impact speed of inner river vessel is considered as
representative ship navigation speed plus river flow
velocity related to river channel morphology and risk
tolerance of bridges. Through application of the
proposed model to ship collision analysis of Anqing
Yangtze Railway Bridge, the reasonableness of the
method is examined. And the influences of different
methods to the collision force have been analyzed too.
2

EXISTED METHODS OF DETERMINING

IMPACT SPEED

2.1 Method in american association of state

highway and transportation officials (AASHTO)
In the guideline of the AASHTO[1]the design impact

Fig. 1 Design impact speed

In Fig. 1, V is design impact speed; Vt is typical vessel

transit speed in the channel; vmin is minimum impact
speed (associated with the current in the waterway; x
is the distance from centerline of vessel transit path; xc
is the distance to the edge of the channel and xl is
3*LOA from the centerline of the vessel transit path.
The present use of a triangular distribution was based
on AASHTO consultants review of accident case
histories during development of the Guide, which
showed that aberrant ship and barges colliding with
bridge piers further away from the channel are moving
at reduced speeds than those piers located closer to the
navigable channel limits. However, the collected data
is very sparse, and most of the data was not from the
inner river but the sea.
This method of determining collision speed has been
employed to the ship collision analysis of ShenZhen
Bay West Bridge and South Macau Bridge in China.
However, ship collision accidents happened recently
showed that this method cannot reveal the actual
impact speed. When the ship collision accidents of

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American Arkansas River, Sunshine Bridge[3] and

JiuJiang Bridge[4] happened in the bridge piers far
away from the channel centerline, however, the
impact speed did not reduce obviously. It is called as
Dishelming without losing speed in ship control[5],
which means in a short time of ship dishelmed, the
speed of ship will not reduce.
2.2 Methods of Europe criteria
In the Guide Specification of Europe EN1991-1-7[2],
the recommended impact speed when collision
happened are inner river ship(3m/s) except in the bay
area(1.5m/s), sea ship(5m/s) is except in the bay
area(2.5m/s). It can be seen that impact speed in this
method is determined as a single speed, which cannot
satisfy the requirement of ship collision analysis of
different channels and bridges.
2.3 Impact speed determination in Japan
The method of determining ship collision speed is
quite different in Japan. Akira Iwai thought that the
impact speed should be twice as the river flow
velocity. Hence in the ship collision analysis of Setoohashi Bridge, the impact speed is chosen as 7~8m/s,
which is much higher than speed recommended by
other method. However, in the in the ship collision
analysis of Nagoya Bridge, the impact speed is chosen
as table 1[6].
Table 1 Impact speed of Nagoya Bridge
1000t
5000t
Ship speed
4.1 m/s
1.0 m/s
Head impact speed
2.1 m/s
1.0 m/s
Shipboard impact speed
1.4m/s
0.7 m/s

It can be seen that without uniform guideline for ship

collision design in Japan, the determination of ship
collision speed are quite different.
3 IMPACT SPEED CONSIDERING INLAND
RIVER CHANNEL CHARACTERISTICS

collision happen.
Normally, the reason which caused ship collision to
happen included climatic conditions, misoperation and
mechanical fault etc. The influence of flow condition
near the bridge area is very important too, especially for
mountain stream. High river flow-rates are always the
vital reason for ship collision. Hence, it is more
reasonable to express ship speed as the sum of flow
velocity and ship still water speed. According to the
viewpoint of Dishelming without losing speed in
ship control, the still water speed can be regarded as
unaltered when ship collision happened, because
theres no enough time for the ship machine to halt
and the ship propulsion would be kept for a while.
Generally speaking, the transverse river flow velocity
across the channel was parabolic relationship, which
means the flow-rate at central channel (navigation
channel) is higher than the areas near the riverside
(secondary navigation channel and non-navigation
channel).
Accordingly, when determine the ship impact speed,
the flow velocity of the transit area should be
considered to achieve the navigation speed near the
bridge piers area. Therefore, it is reasonable to
calculate the ship collision for with that speed as
follows:
(1) The normal navigation speed of typical ship
transiting the bridge area (navigation channel) should
be obtained by investigation.
(2)The flow field near the bridge after the bridge is
constructed should be obtained by field survey or
numerical calculation and the flow-rate at each pier
should be calculated to achieve the typical impact
speed distribution along the bridge axes.
V ( x) = V0 v0 + v( x)

(1)

Where V ( x) is the typical design ship speed and v( x) is

flow velocity at the distance x, V0 and v0 are normal
vessel speed and flow-rate at central navigation channel.

4 APPLICATION OF THIS METHOD

It is very important to determine the design impact speed
for bridge collision analysis. But the calculation method
of impact speed in each country is different and lack of
theoretical basis, which cannot satisfy the requirement
of ship collision analysis and bridge design of
different bridges in different channels.
It is well known that the design impact speed in the
waterway should be determined based on the typical
vessel speed within the channel while transit the
bridge area. To calculate the actual transit speed near
the bridge are, it is quite important to distinguish
normal vessel speed from the ship speed while ship
yaw from the main river channel. The water flow
velocity at every pier along bridge axes should be
considered to determine the impact speed when ship

4.1 Introduction of the project

The proposed AnQing Yangtze Bridge is located at
TiZhiJi reach at downstream Yangtze River. The
bridge is 2996.8 meters long with double-track
railways. The main bridge is 1361.0m meters long
with a main span of 580m.
To meet the requirement of connection of road at the
side banks and navigation height, the bridge deck is
more than 40 meters higher than the river water surface
and the main pylon pier and transition piers are all higher
than 50 meters, which results in a large distance between
navigable water level and piers bearing platform. It is
unfavorable to the bridge to undertake ship collisions.

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By investigating the vessel type, annual number of vessel,

and the development of water transport, the followed
bridge types are chosen as typical vessel transit the
bridge area. The typical vessel of main navigation
channel is seacraft of 10000t, and the typical vessels of
secondary navigation channels are seacraft of 7000t, the
typical vessels of other navigation channels are seacraft
of 300t. Since the ship collision force of bridges are
mainly determined by ship weight, the design collision
vessel types are showed table 2.
Table2 Design collision vessel types of Anqing Yangtze Bridge
Pier
Impact
ship(t)

3#

4#

5#

6#

7#

W1~W7

10000

10000

10000

5000

3000

3000

from the centerline of ship channel. Hence, it may

underestimated the ship collision risks of these piers
and reduce the safety factor of the bridge in ship
collision accidents.
Table 1 Impact Speed of Anqing Yangtze Bridge (m/s)
Piers
3#
4#
5#
6#
7#
Flow rate
0.86
0.85
0.54 0.40
0.32
Impact
Up
3.16
3.15
2.84 2.70
2.62
speed
Down
3.99
3.98
3.67 3.53
3.45
Left
W1
W2
W3
W4 W5~W7
Flow rate
0.26
0.20
0.14 0.07
0.00
Impact
Up
2.56
2.50
2.44 2.37
2.30
speed
Down
3.39
3.33
3.27 3.20
3.13

4.2 Impact speed

According the normal ship speed investigation, the
upstream ship speed is 3.3m/s, downstream ship speed
is 4.16m/s. The upstream fleet speed is 2.2m/ s and
downstream fleet speed is 3.3m/s
The flow speed and water depth distribution is showed
in Fig. 2.

Fig.3 Impact speed distribution of Anqing Yangtze Bridge

4.3 Determination of impact force

After obtained the typical bridge and impact speed,
the ship collision force can be calculated by the
equation of China railway design criteria as[7]:
F = V sin [W / (C1 + C2 ) ]

1/ 2

Figure 2 Flow speed and water depth distribution at Anqing

Yangtze Bridge area

It can be seen from Figure 2 that, the flow velocity of

Center River is higher than Riverside. The largest
flow velocity is 1.03m/s of No.8 Pier is, the least flow
velocity is NO.1 Pier 0.40m/s
The typical water flow velocity near the piers of
Anqing Yangtze River can be determined from Fig.3,
along with impact speed considering inland river
channel characteristics.
Based on the analysis above, the ship collision speed
distribution along bridge axis by AASSHTO Guide
Specification methods and present method in this
paper can be achieved, which is plotted in Fig. 3.
The origin of Figure 3 is the midpoint of an Anqing
Bridge main span. It can be seen from Figure 4 that
the recommended method in AASSHTO Guide
Specification overestimated the reduction of ship
collision speed when ship collision happened far away

(2)

Where F(kN) is ship impact force , (s/m) is kinetic

energy reduction factor, V(m/s) is design impact
speed is the angel between ship traveling direction
and the tangent line of pier abutment at the impact
speed, which are be adopted as 20 if actual data is
unavailable. W(kN) is the ship weight, C1and C2(m/kN)
are Deformation coefficients f bridge and piers
According to the analysis result above, the following
ship parameters are chosen to calculate the typical
ship collision force.
Table 4 Typical vessel parameters
Ship Type
Length/m
Width /m
Weight/kN
Deformation
coefficient

10000t
136.0
22.4
220000

5000t
103.3
16.8
92444

3000t
91.8 7.1
14.0
54375

0.00012

0.00021

0.00023

The design impact force of each pier under water can

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be achieved as table 5.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Table 5 Ship collision force of piers of Anqing Yangtze Bridge

in water (MN)
Piers
ASSHTO
Present
method
Piers
ASSHTO
Present
method

Up
Down
Up
Down
Down
Up
Down
Up

3#
42.8
53.4
40.6
53.4
W1
40.6
53.4
11.8
15.6

4#
42.8
53.4
40.5
53.4
W2
40.5
53.4
11.5
15.4

5#
12.8
12.8
36.5
47.1
W3
36.5
47.1
11.3
15.1

6#
6.3
6.3
17.0
22.2
W4
17.0
22.2
10.9
14.8

7#
4.6
4.6
12.1
15.9
W5~W7
12.1
15.9
10.6
14.4

It can be seen from figure 5 that comparing with the

method recommended by the ASSHTO Guide
Specification, the vessel collision force at main pier
didnt change much. However, the vessel collision forces
at the piers far away from main navigation channel are
much smaller. Hence, method recommended by the
ASSHTO Guide Specification may underestimate the
ship collision risks of the piers far away from main
navigation channel and reduce the protection standards
of bridges.
At the same time, the proposed method can also
consider the influence of water level and flow velocity
variation to ship collision force at overflow and
drought period. It can evaluate ship collision risk of
the bridge more accurately.

In this paper, by analyzing the limitation of existing

methods to determining ship impact speed, a new method
is proposed which can consider the flow velocity at every
pier along bridge axes and influence of ship accident.
Through the application of the method on Anqing
Yangtze River Bridge, the reasonableness and simplicity
of the method had been proved, which can provide
references for design and research of bridges at inner
rivers.

REFERENCES
[1]AASHTO. Guide Specification and Commentary for Vessel
Collision Design of Highway Bridges[S]. American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials,
Washington D.C, 2009.
[2] Vrouwenvelder AW. Design for Ship Impact according to
Eurocode [S]. Ship Collision Analysis, 1998.
[3] Shao Xudong, Zhan Xuefang, Liao Chaohua, et.al. Risk
Assessment for Collision Protection of Existing Bridge-View
from Collision and Replacement of Sunshine Skyway Bridge
[J], Higway, 2007(8).(In Chinese).
[4] Du XuSheng. Lessons to be learned from the June 15
Accident involving a ship collided with the Jiujiang
Bridge[J] .China maritime safety, 2007(9) .(In Chinese).
[5] Chen Guoyu, Zhang Cheng. Discussion about Arkansas
River bridge impact collapse[J]. China Water Transport,
2002(12) .(In Chinese).
[6] Fujii Y. Some factors affecting the frequency of accidents
in marine traffic[J]. Journal of navigation 1974(27)29-235.
[7] TB 2010002.1-2005, Fundamental code for design on
railway bridge and culvert[S]. Beijing, China Railroad Press,
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