Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Achieves Success in Submarine Pressure Hull Fatigue Design Technology Development

POSCO and Korean Register Achieve Results from Two Years of Joint Research

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has succeeded in developing core technology essential for enhancing submarine operational performance through joint research with POSCO and the Korean Register.

On the 13th, DSME announced that it held a completion report meeting for the "Submarine Pressure Hull Fatigue Design Technology Development" at the Geoje Okpo Shipyard, attended by about 30 officials including DSME Shipyard Director Vice President Park Doo-sun, POSCO Steel Solutions Research Institute Director Executive Director Joo Se-don, and Korean Register Research Headquarters Director Executive Director Kim Dae-heon.

This joint research and development of submarine pressure hull fatigue design was led by DSME's Special Ship Business Division, with participation from DSME Industrial Technology Research Institute, POSCO Steel Solutions Research Institute, and Korean Register Eco-friendly Ship & Marine Research Institute.

The submarine pressure hull is a safe space that withstands the external pressure of deep water during submersion, allowing crew members to perform operations and live safely. Unlike conventional warships, submarines must repeatedly dive and surface during operations. These operating conditions subject the hull to constantly changing pressures, which can cause fatigue cracks in the pressure hull welds. Even small defects in the pressure hull can determine the survival of the submarine and its crew, making fatigue design technology the most critical essential technology for maintaining submarine performance.

Starting with a memorandum of understanding in 2019 and after two years of research, three major tasks and ten detailed tasks were carried out, including ▲development of fatigue design guidelines ▲development of fatigue analysis procedures ▲fracture mechanics-based evaluation. Through the synergy of experts from the three companies, they developed fatigue design standards considering the unique characteristics of HY steel, a special steel exclusive to submarines, and elucidated the mechanism of through-thickness crack occurrence, thereby securing core technology for submarine fatigue design.

DSME is the only domestic defense company that has undertaken all Jangbogo-I, II, and III submarine projects, and in 2011, it demonstrated its status as the world's fifth submarine exporter through overseas submarine exports.

In particular, following the successful delivery of the 3,000-ton class Jangbogo-III first ship, Dosan Ahn Changho, independently designed and built with domestic technology, inquiries have been flooding in from several overseas countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America. With expectations for dozens of submarine orders over the next decade, this technology development is anticipated to give DSME a competitive edge in overseas submarine contract bids.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.