Effect of thickness on the buckling strength of egg-shaped pressure hulls

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper is devoted to a further investigation on a range of externally pressurised egg-shaped pressure hulls. Hulls are 2.561 m long, 1.767 m wide, and have uniform wall thickness varying from 10 to 80 mm with 5 mm increment. Series of numerical simulations and laboratory scale experiments are performed to systematically study the buckling of egg-shaped pressure hulls, along with the effect of wall thickness on the buckling. Volume and mass equivalent spherical pressure hulls are also proposed to make a like-for-like comparison with egg-shaped pressure hulls. The results show that egg-shaped pressure hulls seem to be applicable to deep sea manned/unmanned submersibles, especially to full ocean depth ones (11,000 m). Also, deep pressure hulls tend to buckle in an elastic–plastic regime, which is strongly affected by the wall thickness.