Design of warship plates against underwater explosions

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Design of warship plates against underwater explosions

Rajendran, R. / Paik, J. K. / Kim, B. J.

Design of ship plates against underwater explosion is a mandatory requirement of warship construction. While non-contact underwater explosions of small intensity induce dynamic stresses that die with time, moderate intensity causes permanent or inelastic deformation, and severe intensity leads to rupture. The intensity of explosion increases with the explosive charge quantity and decreases with stand-off. Therefore, a range of combinations of explosive charge quantity and stand-off may deliver the same amount of shock energy to the plate. However, the energy-coupling factor between a shock wave and the plate is the maximum only for a specific configuration of the explosion. This leads to the so-called effective shock factor, which forms the basis for assessing elastic–plastic behaviour in the plating. Plate permanent deformation is predicted by analytical and empirical methods in this article. Contact explosion damage is predicted as a function of target material parameters and explosive parameters with an energy-coupling factor.