Underwater explosion testing of catamaran-like structure vs. simulation and feasibility of using scaling law

Abstract

The objective of this study is a comparison of test and simulation results. The simulation is conducted using the LS-DYNA code, and the actual explosion test is conducted at a reservoir. To study the impact of an underwater explosion on a structure, a 1 m 2 m ship (catamaran)-like structure is constructed using aluminum. Velocity, acceleration, and blast pressure sensors are used to measure the dynamic response of the structure caused by the shock wave and bubble pulse pressure. To investigate the dynamic response of the ship-like structure and underwater explosion phenomena, a numerical study is conducted by employing the ALE (arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) method. A finite element model is created by using TrueGrid for the fluid model and VPG for the structure. The model analysis is performed with the FSI (fluid structure interaction) technique by using LS-DYNA. In this study, small-scale underwater explosion experiments are carried out. Therefore, the experiment procedures of this study can be applied to scaled-down ship shock tests. Hence, the feasibility of using the scaled-down method is investigated by a simulation technique.