Nonlinear finite element analysis of barge collision with a single bridge pier

Vessel collisions with bridge piers are one of the most frequent accidents that may lead to bridge failure. To reliably assess bridge response and damage due to barge impact, and design the bridge piers to resist such impact, the impact force should be accurately defined. In most of the previous works of numerical simulation of barge collision with bridge piers for defining the barge impact force, the pier was assumed to be rigid or elastic and the interaction between the barge and the pier was neglected. As pier plastic deformation and damage will absorb impact energy and also prolong the interaction time, the impact force acting on the bridge pier might not be accurately predicted with rigid and elastic pier assumption. In this paper, a detailed numerical model of barge–pier impact is developed in LS-DYNA. The bridge pier is modelled with nonlinear materials to more realistically generate the bridge pier characteristics. Barge–pier impact force time history, barge crush depth and pier displacements are calculated in this paper. The reliability of the numerical model is calibrated with some results available in the literature. Based on numerical results simplified formulae are derived to predict the impact force time history with respect to the collision conditions. Numerical results are compared with the previous works. The adequacy of current code specifications is also discussed.