What does this research mean for the field?

In thin-walled UHPC cylindrical shells subjected to underwater contact explosions, high dynamic compressive strength suppresses blast-facing crushing while rear-surface tensile-wave reflection governs spalling, with failure modes predictable via a dimensionless parameter space of relative charge scale and thickness. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To investigate the damage mechanisms and failure modes of thin-walled ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) cylindrical shells subjected to underwater contact explosions.

September 3, 2026Applied Ocean ResearchOpen Access

Underwater contact explosion response of thin-walled UHPC cylindrical shells: Experiments and simulations

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Authors

RWRunlin WangShanghai University of Engineering Science LHLi HuWuhan University of Science and Technology YCYeqing Chen

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Implication

Experimental and numerical study demonstrates damage evolution in underwater UHPC shells, highlighting critical thresholds for spalling and punching failure modes.

Key Points

To investigate the damage mechanisms and failure modes of thin-walled ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) cylindrical shells subjected to underwater contact explosions.
Conducted underwater contact explosion experiments on air-backed UHPC cylindrical shells using 20 g, 30 g, and 40 g TNT charges, measuring surface damage via three-dimensional laser scanning.
Constructed and validated an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) fluid-structure interaction numerical model incorporating strain-rate effects.
Performed parametric analyses across varying charge masses, shell thicknesses, and outer diameters using normalized dimensionless parameters (relative charge scale and relative thickness).
The initial 3 ms post-detonation accounted for 99.19% of the cumulative pressure impulse across 0–30 ms, indicating that subsequent bubble pulsation has minimal influence on ultimate failure.
UHPC's dynamic compressive strength restricted blast-facing crushing, whereas tensile-wave reflection governed rear-surface spalling; an 8.3% increase in charge mass near the critical state triggered a shift from spalling to through-thickness punching.
Mapped structural responses into a dimensionless parameter space, successfully delineating distinct regimes for bending, spalling, and punching failure modes.

Cite This Study

Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9934ea636c6408cfa7cb61 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2026.105239

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Implication

Experimental and numerical study demonstrates damage evolution in underwater UHPC shells, highlighting critical thresholds for spalling and punching failure modes.

Underwater contact explosion response of thin-walled UHPC cylindrical shells: Experiments and simulations

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Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Underwater contact explosion response of thin-walled UHPC cylindrical shells: Experiments and simulations

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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