Sensitivity analysis for seismic response of a ship-block system

In this paper, seismic response of a free-standing ship located in a dry dock and supported by an arrangement of n keel blocks due to base excitation is addressed. Formulation of the problem including derivation of governing equations in various modes of motion as well as transition conditions from one mode to another is given in Moghaddasi and Bargi (2006) by same authors. On the base of numerical solution for presented formulation, several numbers of analyses are conducted to study sensitivity of system? responses to some major contributing parameters. These parameters include friction coefficients between contacting surfaces, block dimensions, peak ground acceleration, and the magnitude of vertical ground acceleration. Finally, performance of a system with usual parameters normally encountered in design is investigated.