Dynamic Response and Optimal Design of Curved Metallic Sandwich Panels under Blast Loading

Abstract

It is important to understand the effect of curvature on the blast response of curved structures so as to seek the optimal configurations of such structures with improved blast resistance. In this study, the dynamic response and protective performance of a type of curved metallic sandwich panel subjected to air blast loading were examined using LS-DYNA. The numerical methods were validated using experimental data in the literature. The curved panel consisted of an aluminum alloy outer face and a rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) steel inner face in addition to a closed-cell aluminum foam core. The results showed that the configuration of a “soft” outer face and a “hard” inner face worked well for the curved sandwich panel against air blast loading in terms of maximum deflection (MaxD) and energy absorption. The panel curvature was found to have a monotonic effect on the specific energy absorption (SEA) and a nonmonotonic effect on the MaxD of the panel. Based on artificial neural network (ANN) metamodels, multiobjective optimization designs of the panel were carried out. The optimization results revealed the trade-off relationships between the blast-resistant and the lightweight objectives and showed the great use of Pareto front in such design circumstances.

Three-dimensional pulse response of curved composite sandwich panel with compressible core using non-linear higher-order theory

“…Qi et al. [7] performed numerical analysis on curved metallic sandwich panels subjected to blast loading using LS-DYNA. The radius of curvature was found to affect the deformation response and the energy absorption capacity of the sandwich panel.…”

On the Blast Mitigation Ability of Multiple V-Shape Deflectors

“…In the most common scenario, an explosion takes place under a vehicle, making its chassis responsible for the transfer of blast energy to the hull, and consequently, to the crew members. Various aspects of blast mitigation problems can be found in [3,4], where, for example, the authors of [5][6][7][8] focused on an optimal material design, while the authors in the following [9][10][11] studied the selection and geometric features of the panels. An advanced theoretical and experimental study of the oblique shock wave reflection phenomena [12] proved the potential advantages of geometrical barriers located on the propagation route of the blast wave in terms of momentum and energy transfer.…”

Multi-objective optimization for designing metallic corrugated core sandwich panels under air blast loading

“…Qi et al. [33,34] optimized the blast resistance of aluminum foam core sandwich panels by using the multi-objective genetic algorithm coupled with artificial neural networks. Premised on the Gaussian process metamodel, Wang et al.…”

“…Aiming to take full advantage of the protective capacity of structures, the multi-objective optimization is a practical methodology to compromise the conflicting objectives and then seek the desirable designs. Hitherto, several investigations have been dedicated to improving the performances of structures under dynamic loading with the help of multi-objective optimization [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. In most cases, there are no direct function relations between design variables and objectives due to the highly nonlinear features of the dynamic responses of structures.…”

“…Although the studies in regard to the crashworthiness optimization of structures with diverse topologies were conducted extensively [30][31][32], relatively little work has been done to optimize the anti-blast ability of sandwich constructions. Qi et al [33,34] optimized the blast resistance of aluminum foam core sandwich panels by using the multi-objective genetic algorithm coupled with artificial neural networks. Premised on the Gaussian process metamodel, Wang et al [35] conducted the parametric optimization of the air blast performance of double-V auxetic structure through MOPSO.…”