Dynamic Response Of V-shaped Aluminum Foam Sandwich Panel Under Blast Loading

Aluminum foam is of acoustics, thermal and mechanical. It can be used not only as a functional material, but also as a structural material. It is widely applied in construction, transportation, military defense and aerospace. Sandwich panel structure consists of aluminum foam core and two layers of steel plates, which can absorb the huge deformed energy because of characteristics of the foam, and provide high strength and stiffness due to the steel plate. With the changes in the international situation, various problems took on constantly, and the war occurred one after another, so armored vehicles have been frequently employed on the battlefield. Meanwhile, landmine was also adopted widely to damage the armored vehicles. Therefore, the resistant to blast design of the baseplate of armored vehicles should been paid more attention to. It is essential that the baseplate structure not only provides high strength and energy absorption capacity, and also should be so lightweight that it can meet the requirements of high mobility. So the investigation on the resistance properties of aluminum foam sandwich panel is great significance.Firstly, this paper introduces the atmosphere detonation theory, including formation and propagation of air shock wave, initial parameters of blast wave and peak overpressure of empirical formulas addressed by home and overseas scholars and Chinese design codes. The results indicate that peak overpressure has a close relationship with charge and distance of the explosion.Secondly, this paper states the basic theory of dynamic finite element analysis. Subsequently, finite element models of the V-shaped aluminum foam sandwich panel under blast loading were established by finite element software LS-DYNA and were verified in terms of energy balance. It has been confirmed that V-shaped panel has better blast resistance compared to flat plate by observing the response of sandwich panel.Finally, the effects of many factors such as the angle of V-shaped plate, the thickness of the core layer, the thickness of the panel, charge weight and standoff distance on dynamic responses of the V-shaped sandwich structure were systematically researched. The main conclusions are drawn as follows:(1)With the included angle decreases, the deflection of back plate and the energy absorbing reduces, thus the protective capability of sandwich panel can be approved. But the energy absorption capacity of aluminum core has not been fully played and small included angle can decrease ground clearance and lower the mobility of the vehicle.(2) With thickness of core plate increases, the energy absorption capacity of aluminum core increases and the deformation of structure decreases, thus the protective capability of sandwich panel can be approved.(3) Increasing the thickness of plate can improve the bending rigidity of the structure and reduce the deformation of back plate, but it goes against energy absorption of core panel.(4)With the charge weight raises, the deformation and the energy absorption of V-shaped panel increase. With the standoff distance raises, the deformation and the energy absorption of V-shaped panel decrease.