Experimental investigation of Steel–Concrete–Polymer composite barrier for the ship internal tank construction

Transportation of dangerous cargo by ships demands ensuring an appropriate protection level in case of an accident. Two of the most dangerous accident types resulting in an oil spill are grounding and ship to ship collision. The article presents results of research on a new composite construction for a ship hull that increases structural safety during collision. The concept of semi-elastic Steel–Concrete–Polymer structure is presented. The most important results of the research are discussed. The resistance to collision and grounding of the new sandwich solution is investigated by means of two independent large scale experiments. The first collision experiment was conducted on a reference ship section representative for a double bottom or a double side of a ship. The second test was performed on a construction similar to the first one, but with an additional semi-elastic protective barrier. Both ship sections were loaded in the same manner by a sphere-shaped intender simulating the assumed collision scenario. On the basis of large-scale collision experiments the new solution of semi-elastic protective barrier was proven to significantly increase resistance to collision and grounding.