Extension of the super-elements method to the analysis of oblique collision between two ships

The present article is concerned with the resistance of a ship during a collision with another ship. The paper is directly related to the so called super-elements method developed to estimate the capability of a ship to withstand to an impact. This approach consists of dividing the structure into several elements (the so-called super-elements), whose resistance to collision is evaluated individually. At the recent stage of development, the super-elements method is only able to treat the case of perpendicular collision scenarios. The purpose of this paper is to go one step further, by establishing analytical formulations giving the resistance of various super-elements to an oblique impact. As a first step, the paper gives a short description of the original super-elements method. After that, analytical calculations in oblique collision cases are performed for the different super-elements involved in the procedure. Finally, the formulations are validated by comparison with results provided by classical nonlinear finite element method. As a conclusion, some perspectives on the future work are presented. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.