Numerical investigation of the response of sandwich-type panels using thin-walled tubes subject to blast loads

The response of a novel lightweight panel design under blast loading is numerically investigated. The sandwich-type panel uses thin-walled square tubes as the core material with mild steel outer plates. A parametric study is carried out with ABAQUS/Explicit to examine the effects and interaction between design variables in three different tube layouts. Tube position, thickness and aspect ratio as well as top plate thickness are varied. Buckling stability and absorption performance are shown to be highly sensitive to tube placement due to interaction effects between the top plate and tubes. For each panel an optimal tube positioning is obtained corresponding to nearly perfect axial progressive symmetric tube buckling. Tube thickness is shown to influence the onset of buckling and hence affects the stability of the core, while energy absorption performance is also highly configurable. Tube aspect ratio shows only a small effect on core buckling stability and energy absorption. Top plate thickness influences absorber performance significantly while having a small effect on buckling stability. A simple theoretical analysis is presented and shows reasonable agreement with the numerical simulations. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.