Coupled acoustic–structural response of optimized ring-stiffened hull for scaled down submerged vehicle subject to underwater explosion

Abstract One of the major problems confronted by the designer of submersibles is to minimize the weight of the pressure hull for increasing the payload of a crew and necessary equipment and to simultaneously enhance the strength of the pressure hull for withstanding hydrostatical pressure, underwater explosive loading and other environmental loading. Hence, this paper presents the optimal design of a small-scale midget submersible vehicle (MSV) pressure hull with a ring-stiffened cylinder and two hemispherical ends subjected to hydrostatic pressure, using a powerful optimization procedure combined the extended interior penalty function method (EIPF) with the Davidon-Fletcher-Powell (DFP) method. According to the above optimum design results, we built up midget submersible vehicle finite element model. Then, the coupled acoustic–structural arithmetic from the widely used calculation program of the finite element – ABAQUS, was used to simulate and analyze the transient dynamic response of a midget submersible vehicle pressure hull that experiences loading by an acoustic pressure shock wave resulting from an underwater explosion (UNDEX). The analytical results are presented which will be used in designing stiffened optimum submersible vehicle so as to enhance resistance to underwater shock damage.