Numerical investigation of ship structure damage subject to strong impact using a 3D meshless SPH-RKPM method

Abstract

The strong impact load will seriously threaten the ship vitality. The accurate prediction of the damage of ship structure under impact is an important step to the design of the ship protection structure to improve the ship vitality. Since the mesh-based method faces challenges in the simulation of structural fracture, on the basis of previous work, a complete meshless square model and calculation method of structural damage under strong impact load are established in this work. The SPH method is adopted in the calculation of fluid load in underwater explosion, and the RKPM is applied in the modeling of contact and fracture of the ship structure. Finally, based on the normal flux method and coupled with SPH-RKPM, a completely 3D meshless fluid-structure coupling numerical model is built, and several numerical complex examples verify the effectiveness of the numerical model. The numerical program for ship structural damage under strong impact is further developed and the robustness of the program is improved. As a module, the program has been integrated into the FSLAB industrial software with independent intellectual property rights. Compared with the traditional grid method, the numerical model has advantages in dealing with structural fracture and damage, and can provide necessary technical support for the design of ship protection structure.