Ultimate strength formulations for FPSO stiffened panels under combined compression and shear with initial imperfections and damage

Abstract Accidental collision of striking objects, such as a supply vessel, into the side panel of a FPSO highly influences its ultimate strength assessment. An empirical formula for predicting the ultimate strength of damaged stiffened panels under combined loading of shear and longitudinal compression is empirically derived in this work based on curve fitting of quasi-static nonlinear finite element (FE) analyses. Initial imperfections are introduced by scaling the first buckling mode shape and the damage is caused by residual deformation from a rigid sphere indentation. A pure shear loading is applied at several levels followed by compression loading using the modified Riks method for a number of sphere indentation damages. The suggested formula for a typical FPSO stiffened side shell panel presented an excellent correlation with the nonlinear FE results and can be particularly useful in the preliminary design phase (no damage) and for a quick estimation of the panel residual strength with indentation damage.