ABSTRACT
Finite element simulations of ship and offshore structures subjected to lateral impact are performed to evaluate preliminary designs. These simulations need to define the nonlinear behaviour of the material including strain hardening and failure. Commonly, the mechanical properties of the material are determined with tensile tests. Hence, the true stress-strain relationships are obtained from the recorded engineering stress-strain state in the form of a power relation or using instantaneous measurements of the crosssectional area. However, the material relationship adopted, affects the necking and rupture behaviour obtained by the finite element simulations. Moreover, the failure due to material rupture is still not well resolved numerically, because the fracture length is much smaller than the side length of the elements in a finite element model. Thus, it is difficult to establish a procedure suitable for prediction of failure in the engineering practice.
