Experimental and Numerical Study on Plated Structures Subjected to Blast Loading - Numerical Simulations and Experimental Validation

The main objective of this thesis was to investigate the response of thin plates, made of Docol 600 DL steel and the aluminium alloy EN-AW-1050A-H14, subjected to blast loading. The intention was also to validate the use of the shock tube facility at SIMLab at NTNU, and to recreate the experiments by using non-linear FE numerical simulations. The material parameters were obtained by performing tensile tests of the two materials. An accurate material description was obtained by applying an inverse modelling method. To verify the pressure distribution in the shock tube, blast experiments were conducted and the exact pressures applied to the plate were measured. The results displayed a uniform pressure distribution subjected to the plate. After calibrating the pressure, component experiments were used to determine the structural response of the steel and aluminium plates. Different analytical techniques were used in order to predict the structural response of the plates. Due to a dynamic blast loading, idealizations and analytical solutions proved to be too inaccurate. Numerical non-linear finite element simulations had to be introduced in order to solve the plate problem. The finite element program Abaqus CAE was used to provide a simple numerical model of the plates. The implemented blast loads were based on the Friedlander equation. Although several simplifications were made in the design of the plates, the numerical model provided efficient results with adequate accuracy. A parameter study was performed in order to investigate how different parameters in the numerical model influenced the response of the plate. The reflected peak pressure and the thickness of the plate proved to affect the structural response the most