Experiments on curved sandwich panels under blast loading

• Published in: International journal of impact engineering Vol. 37; no. 9; pp. 960 - 970
• Main Authors: Shen, Jianhu, Lu, Guoxing, Wang, Zhihua, Zhao, Longmao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aluminium; Aluminum; Blast loading; Collapse; Curvature; Curved; Deformation; Deformation/failure modes; Exact sciences and technology; Foams; Fracture mechanics (crack, fatigue, damage...); Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Metal foam; Physics; Sandwich construction; Sandwich shell; Solid mechanics; Structural and continuum mechanics; Vibration, mechanical wave, dynamic stability (aeroelasticity, vibration control...); Sandwich shell; Deformation/failure modes; Blast loading; Metal foam; Cable; Collapse; Rupture; Sandwich structure; Aluminium; Experimental study; Porous material; Plate; Shell; Radius of curvature; Blast wave; Ballistics; Curvature; Memory effect; Impact test; Assembly; Dynamic load
• ISSN: 0734-743X; 1879-3509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2010.03.002

In this paper curved sandwich panels with two aluminium face sheets and an aluminium foam core under air blast loadings were investigated experimentally. Specimens with two values of radius of curvature and different core/face sheet configurations were tested for three blast intensities. All the four edges of the panels were fully clamped. The experiments were carried out by a four-cable ballistic pendulum with corresponding sensors. Impulse acting on the front face of the assembly, deflection history at the centre of back face sheet, and strain history at some characteristic points on the back face were obtained. Then the deformation/failure modes of specimens were classified and analysed systematically. The experimental data show that the initial curvature of a curved sandwich panel may change the deformation/collapse mode with an extended range for bending dominated deformation, which suggests that the performance of the sandwich shell structures may exceed that of both their equivalent solid counterpart and a flat sandwich plate.