A study on collision buffer characteristic of sharp entrance angle bow structure

SEA-Arrow (sharp entrance angle bow like an arrow) has no protrusion of the bulbous bow to reduce bow waves and has a transverse stiffening system in the narrow bow space to apply the buffer bow concept. This system has lower longitudinal stiffness than a conventional longitudinal stiffening system and therefore has buffer characteristic in ship-to-ship collision. A comparative collision study of SEA-Arrow and the conventional bulbous bow was conducted using elasto-plastic finite element analysis. A collision scenario where the striking ship hits the side shell of tanker midship perpendicularly was selected. The results showed that the buffer bow characteristic of SEA-Arrow is superior to that of the conventional bulbous bow, since much more energy is dissipated by the plastic deformation of striking and struck ships until the inner shell of struck ship ruptures.