Exploring the load characteristics and structural responses of a high-speed vehicle entering water

Abstract

The process of a trans-medium vehicle crossing from air into water is referred to as water entry. It involves the interplay of air, water, and the vehicle and is a non-stationary process. In this study, we use the coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian method, along with the constitutive Johnson–Cook model and the model of cumulative damage-induced failure, to describe the dynamic plastic flow and fracture-related behavior of the vehicle shell, and use it to develop a method to numerically simulate the process of a high-speed vehicle entering water. When it contacts with water, the elasticity of the medium prompted a significant deflection and deformation in the central area of the head of the vehicle shell. As deformation approached its limit, tensile fractures occurred that caused the shell of the head to separate from the main body. Changes in its angle of water entry influenced the fracture process of the shell. The symmetric, parabolic bending deformation of the head of the vehicle shell occurred around its central axis. The time taken by different types of vehicle heads to fail varied significantly, leading to marked differences in their peak deformation. We determined the quantitative relationship between the dimensionless factor χ and the velocity of water entry, using it to estimate the ultimate water entry velocity for vehicles of different sizes but composed of the same material.