Dynamic modeling and vibration characteristics analysis of submerged stiffened combined shells

•A precise transfer matrix method (PTMM) is developed to obtain the dynamic response in vacuo accurately.•The fluid load of combined shells is described by wave superposition method (WSM).•A coupled PTMM) and WSM method is established for predicting the dynamic response of submerged combined shells.

A semi-analytical method is present to analysis the vibration response of submerged stiffened combined shells. In general, the submarine hull can be modeled as submerged stiffened combined conical-cylindrical-spherical shells. The precise integration method is imported to develop a precise transfer matrix method (PTMM). The dynamic model is established to solve the dynamic responses of the combined shell in vacuo. The fluid load is described by wave superposition method (WSM). Then the structural responses of a submerged stiffened submarine hull can be obtained by coupled PTMM and WSM method. The effectiveness of the present method has been verified by comparing the frequency parameters of the combined shells and the structural responses of the submerged spherical shell with existing results. Furthermore, the effects of the model truncation, stiffness, damping and fluid load on the structural responses of the combined shells are studied.