A Quick and Practical Approach for Concept-design of Submerged Thin-walled Stiffened Cylinders

Goal based and limit state design is nowadays a well-established approach in many engineering fields. Ship construction rules started introducing such concepts since early 2000. However, classification societies’ rules do not provide hints on how to verify limit states and to determine the structural layout of submerged thin-walled stiffened cylinders, whose most prominent examples are submarines. Rather, they generally offer guidance and prescriptive formulations to assess shell plating and stiffening members. Such marine structures are studied, designed and built up to carry payloads below the sea surface. In the concept-design stage, the maximum operating depth is the governing hull scantling parameter. Main dimensions are determined based on the analysis of operational requirements. This study proposes a practical concept-design approach for conceptual submarine design, aimed at obtaining hull structures that maximize the payload capacity in terms of available internal volume by suitably adjusting structural layout and stiffening members’ scantling, duly accounting for robustness and construction constraints as well as practical fabrication issues. The proposed scantling process highlights that there is no need of complex algorithms if sound engineering judgment is applied in setting down rationally the hull scantling problem. A systematic approach based on a computer-coded procedure developed on purpose was effectively implemented and satisfactorily applied in design practice.