Empirical initial scantling equations on optimal structural design of submarine pressure hull

Abstract

The submarine is an underwater weapon system which covertly attacks the enemy. Pressure hull of a submarine is a main system which has to have a capacity which can improve the survivability (e.g., protection of crews) from the high pressure and air pollution by a leakage of water, a fire caused by outside shock, explosion, and/or operational errors. In addition, pressure hull should keep the functional performance under the harsh environment. In this study, optimal design of submarine pressure hull is dealt with 7 case studies done by analytic method and then each result's adequacy is verified by numerical method such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA). For the structural analysis by FEM, material non-linearity and geometric non-linearity are considered. After FEA, the results by analytic method and numerical method are compared. Weight optimized pressure hull initial scantling methods are suggested such as a ratio with shell thickness, flange width, web height and/or relations with radius, yield strength and design pressure (DP). The suggested initial scantling formulae can reduce the pressure hull weight from 6% and 19%.