Collision Simulation Method and Protection Mechanism of Composite Fenders for Ships

Abstract

Fenders play an important protective role in ship collisions, but there are few studies related to the collision simulation methods and the protection mechanism of composite fenders. First, aimed at the new composite fender design scheme proposed in this paper and based on the material properties exhibited in the test, low-density foam and hyperelastic models are selected to simulate the inner foam and outer polyurethane of the fender, respectively. Subsequently, for the hull-fender-quay collision problem, a multi-body geometry model is established and a collision simulation method is formed to analyze the fender protection mechanism from the perspective of energy conversion. It is proved that the composite material has a better protection effect on the hull structure than the rubber fender. Finally, the inner foam strength, hull stiffness, outer polyurethane thickness, and tensile strength of composite materials are varied to analyze the protection mechanism of composite materials respectively. The results show that the relative stiffness of the fender and the structure is the main factor affecting the protection performance. The inner foam of the composite fender is the main energy-absorbing structure, absorbing the kinetic energy of the hull through compression deformation to reduce the response of the structure, while the outer polyurethane mainly plays the role of protecting the core.

Keywords

• ship collision
• numerical simulation
• composite fenders
• collision capability