Introduction
When collision or grounding happens, a ship’s hull suffers a great load in a short time. It
is a nonlinear dynamic response process including material, geometric, and contact
nonlinearities. Aspects that need to be examined include fatalities, cargo spills, damage
stability, residual strength, and economic and social impacts. The research of ship collision
and grounding includes many uncertain factors such as environmental conditions, collision
or grounding properties, and strength. With decades of data, the research approach for ship
collision and grounding can be divided into five methods: analytical; numerical simulation;
empirical formula; experimental research; and risk analysis, which has been developed in
recent years. The analytical and numerical simulation methods are older than the others.
Because of a lack of accident data, the accuracy of the empirical formula method is
limited. Because of similar uncertainty rates, only the local part of the ship, or the single
member, can be used in the experimental research method, thus hindering scalability. The
risk analysis method unites probability and statistical methods with the damage
mechanism concerning the probability of and results from accidents.