NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON THE ULTIMATE STRENGTH FOR A STIFFENED TITANIUM CYLINDER

摘要

Titanium alloys are widely used in naval ships due to its high strength, low density, no magnetism, corrosion resistance and so on. However, the material nonlinearity brings new challenges to the ultimate strength evaluation on the Titanium structure. This work is to evaluate the ultimate strength for a stiffened titanium cylinder with consideration of material nonlinearity by numerical analysis and scaled model experiment. Firstly, a series of titanium alloy stiffened cylinder pressure hulls are analyzed for their ultimate strength by non-linear Finite Element Method (FEM). Secondly, model tests are carried out for the above titanium cylinders to obtain their ultimate carrying capacity. Thirdly, the good agreement between experiment and numerical results verify that the numerical simulation method is suitable for ultimate strength evaluation. Finally, some influential factors on the ultimate capacity of the stiffened titanium cylinder are investigated, including stiffeners arrangement, thickness of cylinder hulls, inside diameter. The research work can map the limitations of the current rules and to support the development of ultimate strength assessment guidelines for titanium cylinder pressure hulls.