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A Computational Analysis Of Marine Fenders Under Heavy Weather Mooring Conditions, Zachary Eskew

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic loading of marine fenders is a situation that is unique to the United States Navy (USN), due to the use of Heavy Weather Mooring (HWM) for naval vessels during extreme weather events, such as hurricanes. Traditional analysis has not been concerned with the fender reaction on vessel hulls. However, newer classes of Naval ships, such as the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), have designs that emphasize speed and agility, resulting in them having thinner hulls more susceptible to damage from fenders. In traditional analysis, fenders are modeled as idealized springs, with static- load derived spring constants from manufacturer charts. This …