POTENTIAL FAILURE OF SURFACE SHIP AND SUBMARINE DRYDOCK BLOCKING SYSTEMS DUE TO SEISMIC LOADINGS AND RECOMMENDED DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS

TL;DRAbstract

U.S. naval shipyards are located in regions where significant earthquakes occur. This paper describes a nonlinear material model for drydock block caps. It is determined that submarine drydock blocking systems would fail at accelerations that are significantly lower than the Navy's 0.2 g survival requirement. Natural rubber caps and dynamic isolators are analyzed to determine their potential for increasing system survivability. When incorporated in blocking systems, significant increases in survivability occur; however, eleven submarine systems studied still fall well below the required level. A three-degree-of-freedom submarine drydock blocking system computer-aided design package is developed. The computer program is verified by a case study of the USS LEAHY (CG-16) earthquake sliding failure. System survivability using site-specific earthquakes with differing frequency spectrums is studied. Two adequate design solutions are found. The low-stiffness solution uses dynamic isolators an

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