A Finite Element Analysis Based Study on Effects of Polyurea Coating for Blast Mitigation

Abstract

One of main threats for Armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) is anti-tank mines. Future war scenario insists on light tanks that can withstand land mines with higher order destruction. Hence a non-classical approach for blast mitigating structures has dealt with. In this sequence, there are two kinds of approach, one is to redesign the bottom plate structure and second is using special materials for coating. This work investigates the effect of special material Viz., Polyurea coating on the bottom structure of the AFV hull. Polyurea coating added to the Steel plate (considered as localized AFV vehicle hull structure) in such a way that the coating thickness is lesser than the thickness of base material. Explicit dynamic Finite Element (FE) based numerical simulations were performed using ANSYS AUTODYN. In this setup, coating is introduced to the Steel plate in two variations, namely, on non-blast face (opposite to the blast load) and blast face. The simulation is carried out with varying coating thickness (6mm, 8mm, 10mm 14mm) and with varying blast charges of TNT (2kg, 5kg, 7kg, and 12kg) in the stand-off distance (distance from the center of the explosive to the plate) of 450mm. The peak deformation of the plate caused by the blast load on the coated and uncoated homogenous plate is compared for their relative performances.