Experimental and Numerical Study on Response of Sandwich Plate Subjected to Blast Load

This article presents the experimental and numerical study carried out to capture the response of metallic sandwich plate when subjected to air blast loads. A full scale field test is carried out on a sandwich panel with tetrahedral truss core, subjected to the action of pressure waves originating from the detonation of high explosive charges. The time history of acceleration and blast overpressure at the centre of the plate is recorded. An explicit finite element analysis is performed on the sandwich panel with identical geometry. Blast loading is applied using CONWEP code. Very good agreement has been observed between the numerical and experimental results. A systematic parametric study is conducted by varying the geometrical and loading parameters of the panel. Performance of panel under blast load is judged on the basis of sandwich panel efficiency. It is observed that geometrical parameters have significant effects on the panel response for varying load. For a fixed core cross section and face sheet thickness, highest panel efficiency is obtained corresponding to a core height of 140 mm.