Stochastic Characterisation of Ship Hull Damage in Collisions

This paper presents the probabilistic characterisation of basic variables of ship structures and their application in characterising ship hull response during collisions. 83 dog-bone samples from mild steel are tested until fracture by axial displacement and basic strength variable data are collected from their resulting stress-strain relations. The data are fitted with suitable probability density functions (PDFs), with the two best PDFs identified from Goodness-of-Fit (GoF) test results. In order to analyse response variability from ship hull collisions, indentation tests are done on six hull plate models by penetrating them with two bulbous bow models. A sampling technique is then used to select probable input design sets from the probabilistic characteristics derived for basic variables. These design sets are propagated through an automated nonlinear finite element (FE) simulation of the hull plate indentation to characterise hull plate response at the onset of rupture.