The selection of highly efficient materials is a crucial task for designing protective structures or armor against extreme explosive loadings. Due to the high strength‐to‐weight ratio of various grades of aluminum alloys and composites, they are mostly preferred for making protective structures. Investigation of their explosion resistance characteristics through experiments is very costly, dangerous, and time‐consuming. Hence, the present work deals with a cost‐effective numerical analysis on explosion resistance performance evaluation of various armor‐grade aluminum alloy plates of the same areal densities under 1–3 kilograms of trinitrotoluene explosions at a 100 mm stand‐off distance. The superior‐performance aluminum alloy plate is further reinforced with a high‐strength carbon/epoxy polymer composite to enhance its performance. The masses of the plates are maintained constant throughout the study. The Johnson‐Cook rate‐dependent material model and a progressive damage model including Hashin with Puck‐Schumann failure criteria were used to determine the realistic failures in the aluminum alloys and polymer composites, respectively. The outcomes of the study showed that the AA7075‐T6 plate has the highest deformation resistance under extreme explosion loadings. Carbon fiber‐reinforced aluminum laminate (CRALL) showed improved deformation resistance and energy absorption than those of the same mass of monolithic plate.Highlights
Explosion resistance of various aluminum alloys of equal masses is compared.
AA7075‐T6 provides better protection against blast compared with other alloys.
To design CRALL, a carbon/epoxy composite used to reinforce the AA7075‐T6.
CRALL provides 16.3% smaller peak deflection than the same mass of AA7075‐T6.
CRALL improved energy absorption by 29.3% compared with same mass of AA7075‐T6.
