Numerous collision conditions can occur during ship operations, resulting in various consequences that require specific consideration for optimizing crashworthiness design. Existing studies have investigated crashworthiness design in ship structures; however, they often focus on single working conditions and do not comprehensively consider the diverse scenarios encountered during ship operations. To overcome this drawback, this paper proposes a novel method that addresses multi-working conditions and combines orthogonal testing with a backpropagation neural network (BPNN) to establish an efficient surrogate model for collision optimization. The accuracy of the BPNN was improved by introducing the genetic algorithm and Adam algorithm. The technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is introduced to formulate a multi-working condition optimization function. The crashworthiness of the ship structure is optimized using the sparrow search algorithm (SSA) while considering the constraint of lightweight design. The results demonstrate a substantial reduction in the objective functions for the optimized collision conditions. Moreover, the BPNN predicted values are in good agreement with the finite element simulation results, affirming the effectiveness of the proposed method in improving the crashworthiness of the ship structure and providing valuable guidance for engineering design.

The metal sandwich structure is characterized by light weight, high stiffness, and high-impact energy absorption capacity, which is considered a good alternative protective structure in explosion scenarios. In this paper, four design forms of the metal sandwich structure are introduced, and the dynamic response of the metal sandwich structure under explosion load is researched. Then, a new analytical method is proposed to predict the dynamic response of the metal sandwich structure under explosion load, and numerical simulations are carried out to verify the accuracy of the proposed analysis method. The proposed analytical method is designed for aerial explosions without considering the fluid–structure interaction. In addition, a series of parameter studies are carried out, including the influence of the face sheet aspect ratio, the core height, and the thickness of the face sheet and core on the dynamic response of the sandwich structure under explosion load. The research in this paper has reference value for the anti-explosion design of the metal sandwich structure and will provide a useful reference for the design and optimization of the metal sandwich structure.

This paper presents an experimental, numerical, and analytical study of a novel specimen subjected to local in-plane load, to investigate its crushing deformation and resistance. The specimen was designed and fabricated to simplify the cruciform structure in double-hulled vessels subjected to external loads during collision and grounding incidents. The study results will provide reliable insights into grounding scenarios as well as side collision scenarios of double-hulled vessels. A quasi-static indentation test and related numerical research showed good agreement regarding deformation mode and force–displacement response. On the basis of the experimental and numerical results, an analytical method is proposed to derive the deformation energy, the instantaneous resistance, and the mean resistance of the deformed structure. The analytical method was verified with recorded test data and a nonlinear finite element analysis. It enables a rapid assessment of the response of the structure under accidental loads, which is a guideline for the design of crashworthy hull structures and the assessment of their crashworthiness.