Dynamic Responses of Composite Sandwich Panels Under Air Blast Loading

Sandwich plates have been widely used in shipbuilding industry due to its superior protective capability when subjected to extreme loads, and it has become an excellent candidate to replace conventional stiffened plates. This research investigates the blast response of composite sandwich panels with high density polyethylene (HDPE) core. Explosion tests are performed to reveal the primary failure characteristics of composite sandwich panels. Attention is focused on the effects of core arrangements. Meanwhile, numerical simulations are performed to examine the blast responses of sandwich panels. Coupled effects of strain rate and temperature are considered in the constitutive model. In combination with the validated numerical models, multiple failure patterns can be captured, including the perforations of front face, petalling or cracking of backface, plugging of filling core and debonding failure between cores and facesheets. Results indicate that introducing the HDPE core is beneficial to alleviating the damage extent of the sandwich panels. Under explosive loadings, composite sandwich panels with full-filling HDPE core possess more desirable anti-explosion capacity. Besides, more obvious debonding failure can be observed in sandwich panels when subjected to severe explosive loadings, and this phenomenon can be adequately captured in all numerical models with the developed material model.