ABSTRACT
This chapter presents mathematical procedures for estimating the risk associated with ship collisions with bridges. The frequency part of the calculations is based on information related to the volume and the composition of the ship traffic in the vicinity of the bridge. The chapter describes some of the essential tools for estimating the consequences of ship impacts on bridge structures. Bridge structures spanning ship navigation routes can rarely be designed so that they can sustain all possible ship collision scenarios. The consequence of a ship collision depends on the impact capacity of the bridge structural element, the displacement of the ship, the ship velocity, and the location and direction of the strike. The chapter analyses the factors which influence the probability of ship impacts against bridge piers or bridge girders. In classical ship collision theory the collision consequence estimation is separated into two independent problems: outer collision dynamics, and inner collision dynamics.
