Abstract
For making a protective structure, the AL6XN steel has high ductility and excellent strength, and in the current study, it is used for making protective structures. The present work deals with a cost-effective numerical analysis of the protective structures’ blast performance. To investigate the significant effects on the air blast mitigation of a solid plate, a stiffened plate, and a sandwich plate of equal masses, their quarter parts are modeled. The use of quarter models significantly reduces the computation cost in terms of storage and computation time. The finite element models of a solid plate, a stiffened plate, and a sandwich plate are subjected to blast loads of 1–3 kg of TNT for a 0.1 m stand-off distance. To analyze the dynamic response of the modeled structures under blast loads, the Conventional Weapons Effects Program (CONWEP) module of Abaqus/Explicit is used. In air blast loadings, the structures are subjected to high impulse and deform with a high strain rate. To predict their plastic deformation behavior, the Johnson-Cook (J-C) plasticity model is used. This model is the most preferable for isotropic structures that are subject to large deformation with a high strain rate and high temperature. To verify the applicability of the numerical approach followed, the obtained results for solid plates’ deflection and impacted peak overpressures at applied blast conditions are compared with experimental data obtained from the literature. The blast performance comparison of the modeled structures deals with their deflection behavior, kinetic energy, energy absorption, and plastic deformations. The obtained results show that the sandwich plate has the greatest blast mitigation capacity, followed by the equivalent stiffened plate and the equivalent solid plate. Due to the sandwich plate’s smallest back face deflection and the highest capability to absorb energy, it is also applicable to the bulkhead, hull, and decks of ships.
