A Programme to Validate Computer Codes for Container Impact Analysis

The detailed analysis of containers during impacts to assess either margins to failure or the consequences of different design strategies, requires the use of sophisticated computer code,S to 'model the interactions of the various structural components. The combin~tion of plastic deformation, impact and sliding at interfaces and dynamic lo'ading effects provides a severe test of both the skill of the analyst and the robustness of the computer codes. A programme of experiments has been under way at Winfrith since 1987 using extensively instrumented models to provide data for the validation of such codes.