Abstract:
"Limiting Impact Force Due to Yielding and Buckling of the Plates and Internal Structural Frame at the Impact Corner of the Barge During Its Glancing Blow Impact With a Lock Approach Wall"
This study uses the explicit nonlinear transient finite element program LS-DYNA to compute the limiting or "crushing" force imparted by a jumbo open-hopper barge during a glancing blow impact with a lock approach wall, providing a revised "capping force" for existing empirical design correlations. A detailed finite element mesh of the barge bow, consisting of 177,241 fully integrated shell elements representing the deck, hull, and internal trusses, was constructed using Truegrid software. This model was used in a series of 24 numerical analyses simulating the impact corner of the barge being crushed by a rigid wall at various approach angles and velocities. The analyses incorporated a nonlinear, plastic-multilinear material model for A-36 steel based on true stress-true strain data, a contact surface formulation, and element erosion at a 20% failure strain to realistically capture the structural response. The finite element results show that the barge corner acts as a structural "fuse-plug," yielding and buckling to produce a limiting impact force that ranges from 3,170 to 3,910 kips, which occurs at permanent deformations of 5 to 15 inches depending on the impact angle.
