Collision with a crushable bow

Oil tanker collisions and groundings pose the potential for large spills. Currently, the International Maritime Organization and national governments have design standards for tankers that do not account for a vessel's crashworthiness. By using crashworthiness, a vessel can be optimally designed for both weather and extreme loading situations. Minorsky [1] examined the problem of collision damage on a vessel side wall. Using previous collision data, Minorsky generated a simple damage volume to kinetic energy relationship for the safety of reactors on nuclear-powered ships. Since then, many researchers have provided solutions for the extent of damage on a tanker based on an assumption of a rigid bow collision. Such a formulation does not account for the energy consumed by the bow deformation. As a result, the damage extent to the side of a vessel is overestimated. By adding a crushable bow, the final result will allow for a more optimally designed vessel. This paper provides a simple closed-form solution for modeling the collision resistance of the bulbous bow portions of tankers. This closed-form solution can be combined with side collision solutions to optimally design a tanker for extreme loading conditions.