On Impact mechanics in ship collisions

The purpose of this paper is to present analytical, closed-form expressions for the energy released for crushing and the impact impulse during ship collisions. Ship–ship collisions, ship collisions with rigid walls and ship collisions with flexible offshore structures are considered. The derived mathematical models include friction at the contact point so that situation where the collision results in a sliding motion is included. Results obtained by application of the present procedure are compared with results obtained by time simulations and good agreement has been achieved. In addition, a number of illustrative examples are presented. The procedure presented in the paper is well suited for inclusion in a probabilistic calculation model for damage of ship structures due to collisions.