The effect of cargo on the crush loading of RAM transportation packages in ship collisions

Recent intercontinental radioactive material shipping campaigns have focused public and regulatory attention on the safety of transport of this material by ocean-going vessels. One major concern is the response of the vessel and onboard radioactive material (RAM) packages during a severe ship-to-ship collision. These collisions occur at velocities less than the velocity obtained in the Type B package regulatory impact event and the bow of the striking ship is less rigid than the unyielding target used in those tests (Ammerman and Daidola, 1996). This implies that ship impact is not a credible scenario for damaging the radioactive material packages during ship collisions. It is possible, however, for these collisions to generate significant amounts of crush force by the bow of the impacting ship overrunning the package. It is the aim of this paper to determine an upper bound on the magnitude of this crush force taking into account the strength of the radioactive material carrying vessel and any other cargo that may be stowed in the same hold as the radioactive material