Simulating the collision response of ship side structures: A failure criteria benchmark study

Simulations of the collision response of three different ship side structures are performed using the finite element method. The aim is to obtain a force–penetration curve based on the inner mechanics without considering outer dynamics. Respective structures were previously tested in large scale under the right angle ship–ship collision with a bulbous bow and these experiments were used to validate the simulations. The analysis focus is to determine the influence on the collision results from different failure criteria including the mesh size sensitivity. This paper applies the Germanischer Lloyd (GL) criterion based on thru thickness plastic strain, the criterion based on studies of Peschmann and the Rice–Tracey and Crockcroft–Latham (RTCL) criterion. The comparison of results attained here with the experimental results brings an insight into the sensitivity of the failure criteria. The final conclusion of this work is the performance of the studied failure criteria and further guidelines for collision or grounding simulations.