ABSTRACT
As mentioned earlier, numerical studies, which have been carried out to date, only used FE analysis technique and its equation of motion is based on local continuum theory which needs extra kinematic relations and/or damage evolution equations for the damage prediction analysis. In this study, a novel nonlocal continuum theory called, peridynamics, is used for analysing underwater shock responses of composite structures. The governing equations of Peridynamics naturally incorporate damage into structure and no
1 INTRODUCTION
In recent years, composite structures have found extensive application area in marine field. Especially, they have received a lot of interest in military applications, such as in naval ships, submarines and torpedoes (Mouritz 2001), because these structures may possibly be exposed to extreme loading conditions in their life time and their design must satisfy such conditions without any compromise from its weight. Composite structures have many superior characteristics, such as high strength/weight ratio, high corrosion resistance and low noise transmission (Kalavalapally et al. 2006). However, they constitute from varied materials and each of which possesses very different mechanical properties. Hence, they are rather complex and understanding dynamic behavior of composite materials is not easy especially under extreme loading conditions. Therefore, various studies concentrate on investigating dynamic deformation and/or failure characteristics of composite structures under shock loading conditions.
