Numerical Study and Finite Element Analysis of Submerged Cylindrical Pressure Hull

Abstract

Weight and volume are a direct impact on diving which is an important indicator of the overall performance of the deep-sea submersible structure. In order to increase the payload, improve endurance, reduce energy consumption, improve work efficiency, and therefore must accordingly reduce the total weight of the submersible. The design of underwater vehicles with minimum buoyancy factor is a major requirement from the underwater vehicles design point of view. The composite material pressure hull is a new concept due to the excellent structural performance. Therefore, in the present study, a comparison between three different pressure hulls with the same volume and various materials subjected to the same hydrostatic pressure will be investigated. The first, model was constructed from carbon fibre, while the second one constructed from steel (HY100) and the last one constructed from Titanium alloy. The finite element analysis (FEA) was executed using ANSYS. The results illustrated that the best buoyancy factor and the minimum mass occurred in the case of the pressure hull constructed from carbon fibre.