ABSTRACT
A simplified method is proposed for predicting the resistance force of the side of a ship when colliding to a bridge pier. Bridges spanning over ship navigation routes may suffer from accidental loads from collision of passing ships. Collision of ship with bridge piers can injure the load bearing capacity of the bridge and become a threat to the bridge users. The permanent set of side structure after a collision accident is usually very large. The deformation is comparable to frame spacing in order and is tens or even hundreds of times that of side shell thickness. The concept of structural crashworthiness has been successfully introduced into the researches on damages of ship structures in a collision or grounding accident. A beam builds up large resistance against large cylinder, but its ultimate load-carrying capacity tends to decline and a large radius of the cylinder leads to less strained material in the beam.
