Effects of the standoff distance on hull structure damage subjected to near-field underwater explosion

The near-field underwater explosion poses a great threaten to marine ships by introducing both local and overall damage on their hull structures. In this paper, a series of near-field underwater explosion experiments were carried out on the mimic steel hull structures to investigate the effects of the standoff distance on their dynamic behavior. Special attention was paid on their deformation process and failure modes. After that, a fluid-solid coupling algorithm was implemented in establishing a finite element (FE) model to simulate dynamic response of the hull structures under a near-field underwater explosion. The numerical results showed a good agreement with the experimental data. A standoff distance threshold was found to result in the maximum structural deformation. The deformation magnitude was monotonically decreased by either increasing or decreasing the standoff distance from the threshold value.