Blast response of Hollow glass (H-glass) fibre reinforced epoxy matrix composites

Abstract

The studies on response of materials against explosive blast loads have enormously increased in the recent years due to the increased blast incidents across the globe. Few studies have been reported on the blast performance of glass fibre reinforced composites. However, no studies were reported on the response of the Hollow glass (H- glass) fibre reinforced polymer composites against explosive blast loads. The present paper focuses on the experimental investigation of the response of the H- glass/epoxy composite laminates against air blast loading. The explosive loading on 5mm thick composite laminates at both 300mm and 400mm stand-off distances (SoD) was generated by detonating 142 gms of plastic explosive. The incident and reflected pressures at both the SoDs were recorded using piezo-electric pressure sensors. H-glass composites exhibited mode-I failure (large in-elastic deformation) at both SoDs, whereas E-glass composites showed mode –I failure at 300mm SoD only. The change in failure modes of composites with change in SoD was also discussed. The blast performance of the H-glass composite was compared with the performance of the solid glass fibre (E-glass) composites.