Accuracy of Failure Criteria Commonly Used for Ship Collision Simulations

The paper summarises observations of the fracture response of small-scale double hull specimens subjected to quasi-static impact loads by means of simulations of the respective experiments. The collision scenarios are used to evaluate the discretisation of the finite element models, and the energy-responses given by various failure criteria commonly selected for collision assessments. Nine double hull specimens are considered in the analysis so that to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different failure criterion selected for the comparison. Since a large scatter is observed from the numerical results, a discussion on the reliability of finite element analysis is also provided based on the present study and other research works found in the literature.