Metal skinning energy absorber for a backup marine fender system

Marine fenders incorporating elastic elements have been the most popular system to protect berthing structures due to their economic advantages. However, the failure of these elastic marine fenders has been one of the major causes for unplanned downtime of berthing facilities. A backup marine fender system integrated into conventional elastic fenders is proposed in this study using a metal skinning mechanism. A series of experimental and numerical investigations are carried out to evaluate the energy absorption behaviour of aluminium and brass rods with various skinning depths and impact energy. Reaction forces at impact and specific cutting energy are found to be highly dependent upon skinning depth. Acceleration Severity Index is used to demonstrate that the proposed metal skinning mechanism is capable of absorbing impact energy in a controllable and predictable manner without causing minor injury to the occupants of berthing vessels. An implementation study of the proposed skinning mechanism, as a backup system, integrated within a conventional elastic marine fender shows the efficiency of the system in absorbing berthing energy from various sized vessels. •This study demonstrates the efficacy of metal skinning mechanism in absorbing impact energy in a predictable and controllable manner.•Skinning depth is a key factor to determine the energy absorption behaviour during the skinning process.•Reaction/deceleration forces at impact increase with deeper skinning depths but still within the acceptable range.•The proposed integrated marine fender design can accommodate various safety factors by changing the cutting patterns.