Review on the damage and protection of large naval warships subjected to underwater contact explosions

Abstract

Large naval warships are severely threatened by underwater weapons. Especially, the hull structures will suffer excessive local damage in the case of underwater contact explosion, which brings severe challenges to the combat effectiveness and even vitality of ships. In this paper, the underwater protective structures of large naval warships were taken as the research object. The development history of underwater protective structures in various countries was briefly introduced. The damage loading generated by underwater contact explosion and the damage mechanism of underwater protective structures were analyzed. Based on the specific structures and different damage loading, the corresponding protective measures were summarized. In view of the present research situation, some problems were put forward for the future investigation. This may provide a reference for the design of underwater protective structures so as to improve the anti-explosion ability of large naval warships.