Abstract
Impact-induced loads associated with barge-to-bridge collisions frequently control the design of bridges spanning navigable waterways. To design for such loads, widely used bridge design standards use an approach in which impact loads are computed from the kinetic energy of either a single impacting barge or a multibarge flotilla. Within a flotilla, individual barges are arranged into columns and rows and are connected together with lashing elements, such as wire-rope cables. During impact these lashings elongate and may rupture, influencing the degree of overall flotilla mass that contributes to impact force generation. In this study, finite-element impact simulations are used to investigate lashing deformation and relative sliding between barge columns during flotilla impacts with bridge piers. After analytically quantifying the fraction of overall vessel mass, which contributes to impact load generation, an “effective flotilla mass” is formulated for use in bridge design. Importantly, the majority of impact simulation results indicate that the effective flotilla mass is nearly equal to total flotilla mass rather than the impacting-column mass presently assumed by bridge design standards.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 24 • Issue 4 • April 2019
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 8, 2018
Accepted: Oct 1, 2018
Published online: Feb 12, 2019
Published in print: Apr 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Jul 12, 2019
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Barges
- Bridge design
- Cables
- Coasts, oceans, ports, and waterways engineering
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Continuum mechanics
- Design (by type)
- Dynamic loads
- Dynamics (solid mechanics)
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering mechanics
- Equipment and machinery
- Finite element method
- Impact loads
- Infrastructure
- Methodology (by type)
- Motion (dynamics)
- Navigation (waterway)
- Numerical methods
- Ship collisions
- Ships
- Solid mechanics
- Standards and codes
- Structural dynamics
- Transportation engineering
- Water transportation
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