Analysis of a Struck Ship With Damage Opening: Influence From Model and Material Properties Uncertainties

The conditions for damage stability and survivability of a ship struck in a collision in arbitrary sea-state are, from a structural point of view, determined by the size and shape of the damage opening in its side shell. In the current investigation, explicit finite element analyses (FEA) are presented of a ship-to-ship collision scenario in which the damage opening of a struck ship is calculated for a selection of damage degradation models and realistic material properties, here referred to as model and material properties uncertainties. The model uncertainty is considered as a possible (user-related) insecurity in the selection of the most appropriate damage criterion for the analysis; the shear failure and the forming limit diagram (FLD) criteria were compared in the current investigation. The uncertainty in material properties is accounted for in the constitutive material model description and the material parameters used in the two criteria. The size and shape of the damage openings predicted by the FEA are used in damage stability analyses in which the struck ship is subjected to wave motions in an arbitrary sea-state and flooding into the damage opening. The survivability of the struck ship is estimated for all of the damage opening cases. One of the main conclusions is that the high degree of accuracy that a researcher on structure analysis strives for has to be considered together with the natural variation of the sea-state that defines the characteristics in the following damage stability analysis. Consequently, by adoption of a holistic approach, in which structural integrity and damage stability research are combined using a systematic parameter (sensitivity) and collision-scenario-based analysis, simplified models and criteria can be developed more efficiently and with higher precision. It will also be clearer which variables are the most important to focus on when analyzing the survivability or risk for capsizing.