Abstract
In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to use fiber-reinforced composite material in place of metal for a shell used for underwater applications which is majorly subjected to hydro-static pressure. The study comprises the use of popular numerical techniques such as finite volume and finite element methods. CFD tool ‘ANSYS fluent’ which works based on finite volume method is used for the fluid flow simulation to get the forces acting on the structure. Structural analysis is performed for the imported loads from CFD result onto the structure with one-way fluid-structure coupling. FEM tool ‘ANSYS static structural which works based on finite element method is used for obtaining deformations and stresses in the shell. A sufficient number of iterations are made to get convergence of the numerical solution. Alternatives such as increasing the shell thickness and/or providing stiffeners to the shell are suggested to replace the metallic structure with FRP composites.
Highlights
Underwater shell structures are mainly subjected to external pressure
The mechanics part of a composite structure is similar to a metallic one but it is required to consider the anisotropic nature of composite materials which is due to their directional dependent material properties while designing a structure with composites
A unidirectional carbon-epoxy composite material, which is designated as Epoxy Carbon UD (230GPa) Prepreg in ANSYS software is considered for the present analysis
Summary
Underwater shell structures are mainly subjected to external pressure. The major component of external pressure is hydro-static pressure that depends on the depth of the structure from the free surface of the water. Rajesh et al [4] solved a multidisciplinary optimization problem to design a torpedo with metallic and composite materials and subjected it to underwater explosions. Observed that for underwater explosion loads, the composite torpedo model exhibits better specific strength than the metallic design. Ramesh and Yogesh [12] analyzed homing headshell of a torpedo They prepared various configurations of the homing head-shell and made a comparative study before finalizing the design. [15] performed finite element analysis on an Atlas torpedo subjected to shock load. They used CATIA software for the solid model of the problem and carried out the analysis part in ANSYS software. Observations from the review of literature motivated the authors to take up the problem of replacing the existing metallic shell used for underwater applications with a composite shell to explore the issues that arise in the processes of replacement and the ways to correct the situation
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