Effect of pneumatic rubber fenders on the prevention of structural damage during collisions between a ship-shaped offshore installation and a shuttle tanker working side-by-side

This study investigated the effects of pneumatic fenders on the prevention of structural damage from collisions between a ship-shaped offshore installation and a shuttle tanker during side-by-side offloading operations. A nonlinear finite element modelling technique was developed to simulate the kinetic energy absorption behaviour of pneumatic fenders during collisions. Full-scale pneumatic fenders were physically tested to validate the computational model at various collision speeds. The developed pneumatic fender model was integrated with a conventional finite element model of a hull structure to simulate the crashworthiness of the hull structure in collisions with a shuttle tanker during side-by-side offloading. This integrated computational model was then applied to examine case studies involving a VLCC class ship-shaped offshore installation hull with and without pneumatic rubber fenders colliding with a Suezmax class shuttle tanker. The key findings and insights of these investigations, particularly the collision energy absorption characteristics are summarised.

Automated summary

This study investigated the effects of pneumatic fenders on preventing structural damage from collisions between a ship-shaped offshore installation and a shuttle tanker. A nonlinear finite element modeling technique was developed to simulate the kinetic energy absorption behavior of the fenders. Physical tests were conducted to validate the computational model at various collision speeds. The integrated computational model was used to examine case studies and summarize the collision energy absorption characteristics.