The Effects of Air Cushion on the Buffering Performance of a Marine Fender Made of Hard Rubber

摘要

Fenders are used for the protection of ship hull from impact forcescaused at the berthing to a quay, by their buffering effects. The aim ofthis study is to introduce air cushioning effects to the fender design byusing numerical simulation method. We estimate the bufferingperformances of a small rubber sphere based on the numericalsimulation of a drop weight test by changing its internal air pressure.Then, a small scale rectangular rubber block with internal array ofspherical holes is also checked changing their internal air pressure.Finally, the buffering performance is estimated by the maximum reactiveforce and converted energy amount.