Radomes are usually constructed from sandwich structures made of materials which usually have a low dielectric constant so that they do not interfere with electromagnetic waves. Performance of the antenna is increased by the appropriate assortment of materials enabling it to survive under marine applications, and it depends on composite strength-to-weight ratio, stiffness, and resistance to corrosion. The design of a sandwich core submarine radome greatly depends on the material system, number of layers, orientation angles, and thickness of the core material. In this paper, a conceptual design study for a sandwich core submarine radome is carried out with the help of finite element analysis (FEA) using two unidirectional composite materials—glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)—as a skin material and six different core materials. Conceptual designs are obtained based on constraints on the composite materials’ failure, buckling, and strength. The thickness of the core is reduced under constraints on material and buckling strength. Finite element analysis software ANSYS WORKBENCH is used to carry out all the simulations.

This paper describes an optimization study of a spherical composite submersible pressure hull employing a genetic algorithm (GA) in ANSYS. A total of five lay-up arrangements were optimized for three unidirectional composites carbon/epoxy, glass/epoxy, and boron/epoxy. The minimization of the buoyancy factor $\left(B.F\right)$ was selected as the design optimization objective. The Tsai-Wu and Tsai-Hill failure criteria and buckling strength factor $\left(\lambda \right)$ were used as the material failure and instability constraints. To determine the effect of geometric non-linearity and imperfections on the optimized design, a non-linear buckling analysis was also carried out for one selected optimized design in ABAQUS. The non-linear buckling analysis was carried out using the modified RIKS procedure, in which the imperfection size changed from 1 to 10 mm. A maximum decrease of 65.937% in buoyancy factor $\left(B.F\right)$ over an equivalent spherical steel pressure hull was computed for carbon/epoxy. Moreover, carbon/epoxy displayed larger decreases in buoyancy factor $\left(B.F\right)$ in the case of 4 out of a total of 5 lay-up arrangements. The collapse depth decreased from 517.95 m to 412.596 m for a 5 mm lowest mode imperfection. Similarly, the collapse depth decreased from 522.39 m to 315.6018 for a 5 mm worst mode imperfection.

A numerical simulation has been carried out to examine the response of steel plates with different arrangement of stiffeners and subjected to noncontact underwater explosion (UNDEX) with different shock loads. Numerical analysis of the underwater explosion phenomena is implemented in the nonlinear finite element code ABAQUS/Explicit. The aim of this work is to enhance the dynamic response to resist UNDEX. Special emphasis is focused on the evolution of mid-point displacements. Further investigations have been performed to study the effects of including material damping and the rate-dependant material properties at different shock loads. The results indicate that stiffeners configurations and shock loads affect greatly the overall performance of steel plates and sensitive to the materials data. Also, the numerical results can be used to obtain design guidelines of floating structures to enhance resistance of underwater shock damage, since explosive tests are costly and dangerous.

As oil and gas exploration moves to deeper areas of the ocean, the weight of flexible risers becomes an important factor in design. To reduce the weight of flexible risers and ease the load on the offshore platform, this paper present a cylindrical tensile armor layer made of composite materials that can replace the helical tensile armor layer made of carbon steel. The ACP (pre) of the workbench is used to model the composite tension armor. Firstly, the composite lamination of the tensile armor is discussed. Then, considering the progressive damage theory of composite material, the whole flexible riser is analyzed mechanically and compared with the original flexible riser. The weight of the flexible riser decreases by 9.73 kg/m, and the axial tensile stiffness decreases by 17.1%, while the axial tensile strength increases by 130%. At the same time, the flexible riser can meet the design strength requirements of torsion and bending.

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite bridges are usually constructed for rapid installation. The durability of the bridge is increased by stiffness, strength to weight ratio, and corrosion resistance. The main factors on which the design of the composite sandwiched bridge considerably depends are ply layers, material system, alignment of ply angles, and thickness of the core. In this work, a parametric design study for a bridge using finite element analysis (FEA) is presented. Two types of composite materials—carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP)—were used as the sandwich structure’s skin, and three different types of woods were used as a core. Different design configurations were acquired based on material and instability constraints by using Euro-codes. Failure criterion of Tsai-Hill, Tsai-Wu, MS, equivalent stress, and maximum shear stress were implemented to analyze the overall failure of the bridge deck under Ultimate Limit State (ULS) conditions. The total deformation was examined under Serviceability Limit State (SLS) conditions, and the results were compared and verified by the previous study. The core was also examined using the core-factor and increasing the thickness of the core through parametric modeling.