Side structure filled with multicellular glass hollow spheres in a quasi-static collision test

The evolution of ship constructions has been developed for hundreds of years and still exists in form of a conventional architecture consisting of frames, longitudinal and transverse girders, stiffeners, stringers and plates. The present numerical methods offer engineers the possibility of weight optimisation as well as the development of highly complex structures. But even with the use of the Finite Element Method it was not possible to achieve a novel ship structure worldwide which is significantly different from conventional architectures. In the context of two collaborative research projects, the authors are carrying out several quasi-static collision experiments with different kinds of bulbous bow and double hull side structures on the test facility of the Institute for Ship Structural Design and Analysis of TUHH. Following up the publication at ICCGS 2010, the current state of research will be presented. This paper focuses on ship side structures which are investigated by simulations and validated by experiments. Based on a conventional ship side structure and a rigid bulbous bow, enhanced side structures regarding the collision safety will be presented and afterwards compared with a conventional side structure. The aim of this work is to improve the passive collision safety without breaching present regulations of the classification societies. Therefore one conventional side structure is filled with granulate material and it is investigated by experiments and simulations.