Reliability-based structural design for cylindrical shell subjected to underwater explosion

Abstract

The aim of this research is to develop a method for designing structures in an underwater explosion environment. A reliability-based structural design theory is considered to develop a model. From the theory, a first-order reliability method and a Monte-Carlo simulation are applied. The arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian method is used to model a submerged cylindrical shell. For the design procedure and results, LS-DYNA and MATLAB computer software is used respectively. The reliability and the probability of failure are calculated by the programming code using the first-order reliability method and the Monte-Carlo simulation developed in MATLAB. The proper reliability value is obtained via iteration. The failure probability and the reliability are obtained visually and numerically. At the end of the iterations, a safety factor was generated from the strength and loading values at the end of iterations. For each variation of a probability distribution, a sensitivity study was conducted. The method, process, and procedure developed in this study provide engineers with practical and useful methods with which to design structures for underwater explosions.