Experimental and numerical studies are carried out to investigate the performance of K joints of a jack-up structure under lateral impact loading. The dynamic response is studied in a drop weight impact testing machine using three different falling heights and the failure mode and local damages of the specimens were investigated. The experimental results show that the force-time curves corresponding to the three falling heights have similar tendency during the plastic deformation process and three stages are observed in each force-time curve. The failure mode of K joints is commonly concave at the impacted area of the chord member and is buckled at the section near the mid-span of the branch members. When both ends are fixed, the chord member shows the conventional plastic failure mechanism due to bending. Numerical simulations that consider the material nonlinearity are conducted to investigate the performance of K the joints. Coupon tests of the steel are conducted to obtain the mechanical properties under both quasi-static and dynamic conditions; and these test results were then inputted as material properties for the above numerical simulating. Good agreement was achieved between the responses obtained by the FEM and the experimental results.

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