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Compressive strength after blast of sandwich composite materials

Hari Arora Orcid Logo, M. Kelly, A. Worley, P. Del Linz, A. Fergusson, P. A. Hooper, J. P. Dear

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Volume: 372, Issue: 2015, Pages: 20130212 - 20130212

Swansea University Author: Hari Arora Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1098/rsta.2013.0212

Abstract

Composite sandwich materials have yet to be widely adopted in the construction of naval vessels despite their excellent strength-to-weight ratio and low radar return. One barrier to their wider use is our limited understanding of their performance when subjected to air blast. This paper focuses on t...

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Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
ISSN: 1364-503X 1471-2962
Published: The Royal Society 2014
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa37201
Abstract: Composite sandwich materials have yet to be widely adopted in the construction of naval vessels despite their excellent strength-to-weight ratio and low radar return. One barrier to their wider use is our limited understanding of their performance when subjected to air blast. This paper focuses on this problem and specifically the strength remaining after damage caused during an explosion. Carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite skins on a styrene–acrylonitrile (SAN) polymer closed-cell foam core are the primary composite system evaluated. Glass-fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite skins were also included for comparison in a comparable sandwich configuration. Full-scale blast experiments were conducted, where 1.6×1.3 m sized panels were subjected to blast of a Hopkinson–Cranz scaled distance of 3.02 m kg−1/3, 100 kg TNT equivalent at a stand-off distance of 14 m. This explosive blast represents a surface blast threat, where the shockwave propagates in air towards the naval vessel. Hopkinson was the first to investigate the characteristics of this explosive air-blast pulse (Hopkinson 1948 Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 89, 411–413 (doi:10.1098/rspa.1914.0008)). Further analysis is provided on the performance of the CFRP sandwich panel relative to the GFRP sandwich panel when subjected to blast loading through use of high-speed speckle strain mapping. After the blast events, the residual compressive load-bearing capacity is investigated experimentally, using appropriate loading conditions that an in-service vessel may have to sustain. Residual strength testing is well established for post-impact ballistic assessment, but there has been less research performed on the residual strength of sandwich composites after blast.
Keywords: blast, composites, sandwich materials, compression after impact
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Issue: 2015
Start Page: 20130212
End Page: 20130212

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