Shipboard Shock Environment and Its Measurement

Abstract

Ship shock environments caused by adjacent explosions are reviewed and discussed. The reponses of a ship's structure and equipment to such environments are also considered. The ability to develop a wholly satisfactory characterisation of the mechanical shock environment produced by a non-contact underwater explosion in proximity to a surface ship is limited. In addition to the obvious effects of charge size and distance of the explosion from the ship (attack geometry), there is the response of the ship's structure to underwater shock and the dynamic properties of the equipment and the ship. Reasonable experimental procedures for characterising the free-field shock wave and resulting motions of the ship's structure do, however, exist. One approach to adequate characterisation of the ship's structure is implicit in the (U.S.) Navy's Dynamic Design Analysis Method (DDAM), although in its present form it is not adequate for an engineering analysis of all classes of shipboard equipment. Selected classes of equipment are amenable to analysis based on existing motion characteristions of the ship shock environment, and new approaches are being studied.