Experimental and numerical simulation study on polyurea-coated fuel tank subjected to combined action of blast shock waves and fragments

Fuel tanks, as core fuel components of many types of mechanical equipment, are highly vulnerable to strong dynamic loads, such as those from explosions and fragments. In this paper, two types of polyurea materials (AMMT-53 and AMMT-55) were designed to enhance the damage resistance of fuel tanks. The mechanical parameters and performance differences of the two polyurea materials were first obtained. On this basis, a series of experiments study on fuel tanks coated with different thicknesses polyurea subjected to a combination of blast waves and fragments were performed. The results showed that these two types of polyurea materials had different protective abilities. The AMMT-53 polyurea could effectively reduce the perforation rate but could not prevent the liquid leakage, while the AMMT-55 polyurea could not significantly reduce the perforation rate, but the self-healing property could effectively prevent the leakage of liquid. The whole process of the shock wave and the fragments acting on the fuel tank was revealed by numerical simulations. From the change of the fragment velocity, the strength of the shock wave in the liquid, and the energy change of the polyurea layer, it was proven that the coated polyurea layers had good protective effects on the fuel tank.