An integrated structure of air spring for ships and its strength characteristics

Abstract The increasing demand for the impact resistance of ships entails the excellent impact resistance and deformability of air spring (AS) for ships under high internal pressure. However, an AS of traditional structure is difficult to satisfy such new demand since it is designed with only 10 mm maximum deformation under high internal pressure and strong impact. For this reason, an integrated structure of filament winding reinforced bellows is proposed to ensure the structural strength at the connection of AS bellows and flanges under strong impact and high internal pressure. On this basis, a parameterized design of integrated bellows strength is explored, and we analyzed how the strength of the bellows was affected by the parameters of geometrical structure, material features, and filament winding. As proved in tests, the integrated structural design of the bellows could ensure the strength of AS under strong impact and high internal pressure, and the test result perfectly matches with the calculated strength of the integrated bellows as well as the optimized design.