A Study to Assess the Use of Cylindrical Bars as Blast Barriers

This paper presents the results of an experimental study to assess how cylindrical bars placed between an explosive source and a target plate disrupt the blast wave impinging on the target plate and its blast mitigation capabilities by means of the deflection of the structure. The blast barriers disrupting the blast wave were made from 25mm diameter mild steel solid bars and laid out in six different arrangements to provide different levels of disturbance. In the planning phase, a numerical investigation using LS-Dyna was carried out to provide insights of how the pressure waves interact with the barriers and to investigate the effect of other arrangement of the bars. The blast tests were carried out using a blast tube on a ballistic pendulum with six different charges ranging from 20g to 70 g used for each barrier configuration. The target plates were square Domex 550 steel with a 2 mm thickness and an exposed area of 200 mm × 200 mm. The results showed that placing a barrier between a charge and a target structure may have attenuating effects or more damaging effects depending on the location and number of barriers. For the set of experiments carried out, the placement of the bars with respect to the explosive charge appeared to have a greater influence on the response of the target plate compared to the number of bars used.

[1]  Ian Barclay Rossiter.  Performance of mild steel perforated plates as a blast wave mitigation technique , 2008 .

[2]  G. Nurick,et al.  Response of V-shape plates to localised blast load , 2012 .

[3]  W. Fourney,et al.  Application of 3D image correlation for full-field transient plate deformation measurements during blast loading , 2009 .

[4]  E. W. Andrews,et al.  Failure mode maps for composite sandwich panels subjected to air blast loading , 2009 .

[5]  Arun Shukla,et al.  Performance of sandwich composites subjected to sequential impact and air blast loading , 2011 .

[6]  Reza Vaziri,et al.  Deformation and failure of blast-loaded square plates , 1999 .

[7]  Gerald Nurick,et al.  The analysis and simulation of welded stiffener plates subjected to localised blast loading , 2010 .

[8]  Jae-Myung Lee,et al.  Blast loaded plates , 2009 .

[9]  G. Nurick,et al.  The air-blast response of sandwich panels with composite face sheets and polymer foam cores: Experiments and predictions , 2013 .

[10]  Genevieve Langdon,et al.  The response of sandwich structures with composite face sheets and polymer foam cores to air-blast loading: Preliminary experiments , 2012 .

[11]  Ulrich H. Leiste,et al.  Scaling of the deformation histories for clamped circular plates subjected to blast loading by buried charges , 2013 .

[12]  Genevieve Langdon,et al.  Experimental and numerical studies on the response of quadrangular stiffened plates. Part II: localised blast loading , 2005 .

[13]  Daniel Rittel,et al.  Scaling the response of circular plates subjected to large and close-range spherical explosions. Part I: Air-blast loading , 2007 .

[14]  G. Nurick,et al.  The Use of Tubular Structures as Cores for Sandwich Panels Subjected to Dynamic and Blast Loading: A Current “State of the Art” , 2014 .

[15]  N. Jacob,et al.  Deformation of mild steel plates subjected to large-scale explosions , 2008 .

[17]  Genevieve Langdon,et al.  Perforated Plates as Passive Mitigation Systems , 2008 .

[18]  Gerald Nurick,et al.  The influence of boundary conditions on the loading of rectangular plates subjected to localised blast loading – Importance in numerical simulations , 2009 .

[19]  J. B. Martin,et al.  Deformation of thin plates subjected to impulsive loading—a review Part II: Experimental studies , 1989 .

[20]  D. Kakogiannis,et al.  Behaviour of sandwich structures with cork compound cores subjected to blast waves , 2013 .

[21]  Feng Zhu,et al.  A Review of Blast and Impact of Metallic and Sandwich Structures , 2007, Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering.

[22]  G. Nurick,et al.  An experimental study of the effects of degrees of confinement on the response of square mild steel plates subjected to blast loading , 2015 .

[23]  M. D. Olson,et al.  Deformation and rupture of blast loaded square plates—predictions and experiments , 1993 .

[24]  S. Chung Kim Yuen,et al.  Experimental and numerical studies on the response of quadrangular stiffened plates. Part I: subjected to uniform blast load , 2005 .

[25]  G. Nurick,et al.  The deformation and tearing of thin circular plates subjected to impulsive loads , 1990 .

[26]  G. Nurick,et al.  The energy-absorbing characteristics of composite tube-reinforced foam structures , 2014 .

[27]  Wesley J. Cantwell,et al.  The blast resistance of stitched sandwich panels , 2014 .

[28]  D. Ambrosini,et al.  Location and mass of explosive from structural damage , 2005 .

[29]  G. Nurick,et al.  Tearing of blast loaded plates with clamped boundary conditions , 1996 .

[30]  Reza Vaziri,et al.  Deformation and failure of blast-loaded stiffened plates , 2000 .

[31]  G. Nurick,et al.  The deformation and tearing of thin square plates subjected to impulsive loads—An experimental study , 1996 .

[32]  G. Nurick,et al.  The influence of core density on the blast resistance of foam-based sandwich structures , 2012 .

[33]  J. Vantomme,et al.  Identification of the plastic behavior of aluminum plates under free air explosions using inverse methods and full-field measurements , 2014 .

[34]  Daniel Rittel,et al.  Scaling the response of circular plates subjected to large and close-range spherical explosions. Part II: Buried charges , 2007 .

[35]  Geneive Langdon,et al.  Using Perforated Plates as a Blast Wave Shielding Technique for Application to Tunnels , 2011 .

[36]  Hugo Sol,et al.  Numerical simulation and experimental validation of the dynamic response of aluminum plates under free air explosions , 2013 .

[37]  Lazhar Houas,et al.  Review of methods to attenuate shock/blast waves , 2013 .

[38]  Guoyin Zu,et al.  Performance of aluminum foam–steel panel sandwich composites subjected to blast loading , 2013 .

[39]  Genevieve Langdon,et al.  Sandwich Panels Subjected to Blast Loading , 2009 .

[40]  Ricardo Daniel Ambrosini,et al.  Experimental and computational analysis of plates under air blast loading , 2001 .