Blast mitigation using sandwich panels with saffil foam

Abstract

Abstract The demand for the protection of important government and public buildings has increased in recent days to resist blast loads due to frequent terrorist activities occurring around the world. Sandwich panels are preferred structural elements that can be used to protect the parent structure by mitigating the blast pressure. Numerical analysis of sandwich panel consisting of steel plates of equal thicknesses separated by a saffil foam core is carried out to evaluate its response under blast load. Parametric analysis of sandwich panels with varying foam thicknesses and standoff distance is performed using LS-DYNA®. The steel face and back-sheets in sandwich panels are modelled using piecewise linear plasticity material model and saffil foam is modelled using crushable foam material model available in LS-DYNA®. Moreover, back sheet of sandwich panels is stiffened using six different stiffener configurations. Finally, behaviour of conventional sandwich foam panel is compared with the stiffened sandwich foam panels for the considered stiffener configurations. Response of these different configurations of sandwich panels is evaluated based on peak central point displacement at the back sheet of the panel and it is observed that provision of stiffeners considerably improves the blast mitigation capacity of the sandwich panel.