Abstract: With the rapid development of inland waterways， collision protection for bridge piers has become an increasingly prominent issue. However， existing forward design methods for pier protection structures largely rely on iterative finite element simulations， which limits their practical applicability. This study proposes a force-deformation-strength-based forward design method for honeycomb collision protection structures， fully leveraging the stable deformation mode and nearly constant reaction force of honeycomb materials under compression while systematically accounting for force and energy indicators during ship-bridge collisions. With only basic bridge information， target vessel parameters， and operating conditions， the method enables rapid determination of the required honeycomb layout height and compressive strength at the preliminary design stage. The structural configuration parameters are further derived using a modified Tresca yield criterion and an equivalent wall thickness conversion. Through simulation-based verification， the study demonstrates the feasibility of directly deriving protection structure design requirements from general bridge parameters， thereby simplifying traditional iterative workflows. The results show that the proposed method can effectively reduce collision forces， mitigate pier damage， and significantly improve design efficiency， providing both theoretical and practical guidance for the efficient collision protection design of inland waterway bridges.