Dynamic lateral mass impact on steel stringer-stiffened cylinders

This paper focuses on the impact responses of large-diameter, thin-walled steel stringer-stiffened cylinders subjected to low-velocity mass impact. The impact scenarios employed in this study represent load actions as a result of supply vessel collisions with the main legs of floating offshore platforms and wind turbine structures. Two steel stringer-stiffened cylinders were fabricated and drop tests were performed at mid-span, using a rigid knife-edged indenter. The details of the experimental setup, test procedure and test results are reported in this paper. The experimental data appear to be useful for future benchmark studies. Numerical predictions of the impact response of the test models were simulated by means of the explicit solver of the finite element software package ABAQUS. The numerical predictions show a good agreement with the test results. The effect of the strain-rate hardening definition on the results is highlighted. Furthermore, parametric studies were conducted on stringer-stiffened cylinder models in order to clarify the progressive impact responses.