Numerical Analysis on the Response of Deck Plates Laterally Impacted by a Rectangular Indenter

Ship deck plates are often subjected to localized dynamic loads, such as the loads of landing helicopter or impacts of ice floes. In order to investigate the dynamic response of ship plates subjected to such dynamic loads, a series of numerical simulations are performed on ship plates with different thicknesses. Parametric studies are performed on the impact response of plates, including the thickness of the plates, mass and impact velocity of the rectangular indenter. The maximum permanent deflections of the plates are obtained during the simulation. The relation between maximum force and permanent deflection is obtained and the deformation modes are analyzed. A theoretical procedure is developed to predict the deformation of plates with different initial impact energies, and a good agreement between the theoretical and numerical results is obtained. It has also been observed that the thickness of plates has little effect on the dimensionless maximum permanent deformation and dimensionless maximum impact force.