Influence of material property on semi-sealed cylindrical shell during high-speed vertical water entry

•The mechanism of deformation at the top position of the shell due to impact during high-speed water entry is studied.•Comparison and analysis of the differences in hydrodynamics and structural dynamics of shells with same material but different plastic properties during high-speed water entry are obtained.•The cavity evolution and motion characteristics of Shells with different materials is attained and discussed.•The entry of the shell into different solutions is discussed, and the difference between different solution is compared. To study the hydrodynamics and structural dynamics of the semi-sealed cylindrical shells with different material properties during water entry, based on the STAR-CCM+and ABAQUS collaborative simulation method, the numerical simulation with different material properties is conducted in this paper. The results show that shells with the same material but different plasticity have similar velocity and displacement, but their deformation and stress distribution on the top position differ significantly. The cavity evolution of shells with different densities is evidently different. The volume of secondary cavity of the shell with higher densities is larger, and the concentration force and stress distribution on the inner upper wall are also greater. When shells of the same material shell penetrate into solutions with different densities, the depth of the shell gradually increases as the solution density decreases. Solutions with different densities can fill the inner space of the shell for the first time, but not all solutions with different densities can fill the inner space of the shell for the second time, the volume of solutions with lower densities which entering into the inner space is larger.