Blast Alleviation of Sacrificial Cladding with Graded and Uniform Cellular Materials

Abstract

Graded cellular material is a superb sandwich candidate for blast alleviation, but it has a disadvantage for the anti-blast design of sacrificial cladding, i.e., the supporting stress for the graded cellular material cannot maintain a constant level. Thus, a density graded-uniform cellular sacrificial cladding was developed, and its anti-blast response was investigated theoretically and numerically. One-dimensional nonlinear plastic shock models were proposed to analyze wave propagation in density graded-uniform cellular claddings under blast loading. There are two shock fronts in a positively graded-uniform cladding; while there are three shock fronts in a negatively graded-uniform cladding. Response features of density graded-uniform claddings were analyzed, and then a comparison with the cladding based on the uniform cellular material was carried out. Results showed that the cladding with uniform cellular materials is a good choice for the optimal mass design, while the density graded-uniform cladding is more advantageous from the perspective of the critical length design indicator. A partition diagram for the optimal length of sacrificial claddings under a defined blast loading was proposed for engineering design. Finally, cell-based finite element models were applied to verify the anti-blast response results of density graded-uniform claddings.

Sacrificial Cladding with Brittle Materials for Blast Protection

“…In fine, this experimental set-up allows the characterization of a system composed of the front plate and the core, but does not allow the characterization of the core alone, as a drop tower would do. This peculiar approach has already been used for investigating blast protection because it allows to take into account the full phenomenology of the blast interaction with the structure and the blast loading profile [ 4 , 7 , 24 ], making it closer to practical application. However, this set-up could be used more traditionally by projecting the front plate on the sample, like a horizontal drop tower focusing on velocity instead of weight.…”

“…Depending on its position, this material aims to mitigate the detonation of the explosive [ 1 , 2 ], to disturb the blast wave propagation [ 3 ], or to passively protect the target [ 4 ]. Among these solutions, sacrificial claddings are passive architectures which allow to dissipate the blast wave energy and to improve the target’s resistance against such solicitation [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. It is made of three components: a crushable core, sandwiched between a front plate and a rear plate.…”