Prediction of Surface Ship Response to Severe Underwater Explosions Using a Virtual Underwater Shock Environment

During World War II many surface combatants were severely crippled by close-proximity underwater explosions from ordnance that had actually missed their target. Since this time, in order to test the survivability of mission essential equipment in a severe shock environment, all new classes of combatants have been required to have shock trial tests conducted on the lead ship of the class. While these tests are extremely important in determining the vulnerabilities of a surface ship, they require an extensive amount of preparation, manhours, and money. Furthermore, these tests present an obvious danger to the crew onboard, the ship itself and any marine life in the vicinity. Creating a virtual shock environment by use of a computer to model the ship structure and the surrounding fluid presents a valuable design tool and an attractive alternative to these tests. This thesis examines the accuracy of shock simulation using the shock trials conducted on USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG 81) in 2001. Specifically, all three explosions DDG 81 was subjected to are simulated and the resulting predictions compared with actual shock trial data. The effects of the fluid volume size, mesh density, mesh quality, and shot location are investigated.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA Dept of Mechanical Engineering is the author of 'Prediction of Surface Ship Response to Severe Underwater Explosions Using a Virtual Underwater Shock Environment', published 2003 under ISBN 9781423501206 and ISBN 1423501209.