Analysis of damage to ship personnel in different seated postures by near-field underwater explosions

Abstract

With the frequent occurrence of ship explosion accidents at sea, the safety of ships and crews has attracted much attention. At present, the research on crew injury is relatively weak. Consequently, the current study constructs a numerical model of the ship structure-crew-blast flow field to investigate the discrepancies in injury response of crew members across different sitting postures. LS-DYNA software is used for simulation and direct analysis to evaluate the damage of crew members in different positions under 100 kg TNT equivalent and 2 m blast distance conditions, and the relationship between different explosive equivalents and crew damage is analyzed. The results demonstrate that for crew members situated in working compartment, the injuries incurred across different sitting postures also differed. The lower leg and foot sections were at greater injury risks, while the head area was associated with minimal damage risks. Altering upper body postures of the crew human body had only a very small impact on lower extremity injuries. Moreover, positive correlations were exhibited between explosive equivalents and crew injury values. The research findings may offer references for injury analysis and protective device design of naval personnel.