Damage Characteristics of Structure under Underwater Explosion and Bubble Flooding Loads

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that explosive sequence loads can cause serious damage to underwater vehicles, especially the bubble surge in the later stage of the explosion, which poses a huge threat to the internal structure of the vehicle. This study explores the damage characteristics of cylindrical shell structures under complete sequence loads based on the Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method. By conducting experiments on the surge characteristics near the damaged plate under explosive action and comparing them with numerical results, the effectiveness of the method is verified. Subsequently, the damage characteristics of single- and double-layered cylindrical shell structures under underwater explosion sequence loads (shock waves, bubbles, surges) were explored, and the failure modes of cylindrical shell structures under various loads were summarized. The results indicate that the damage of shock waves to single-layer cylindrical shell structures is most severe at a blast distance of 0.5 m. For double-layer cylindrical shells, increasing the blast distance will reduce the impact of bubble surge on the pressure-resistant shell. The stress and strain in the central area of the pressure-resistant shell also decrease, and the deflection and Z-direction velocity also decrease accordingly. This study laid the foundation for enhancing the impact resistance of underwater vehicles.

Keywords

• ALE method
• underwater explosion
• reinforced cylindrical shell
• bubble flooding