Review of the damage and protection of warship structures under internal blast loading

Warships are naval platforms to launch and survive attacks, and they are the main target of the enemy in a sea war. Antiship missiles are one of the main threats to warships. The main attack mode of an antiship missile is to penetrate into the ship deck or side plate and explode inside the cabin. The main damaging elements of an internal blast loading through a warhead include shock wave and quasistatic pressures and high-speed fragments. All the damaging elements are coupled, resulting in a serious damage to the warship structure. Therefore, research on warship defense technology is particularly important to improve the ability of warships to resist impact damage and enhance the vitality of warships. In this paper, advances in research on the explosion damage and protection of ship structures in cabins are systematically discussed. Moreover, the load characteristics of an explosion in the cabin and damaging effects to the ship structure are introduced, and the status of defense technology research is summarized. Finally, some suggestions for future research are proposed.