Experiment and numerical simulation of thin-walled cylindrical containers subjected to lateral impact

Abstract

The dynamic performance of vertical cylindrical storage tanks under lateral impact of explosive fragments is important for its safe loading. In this paper, the method of combining experiments and numerical simulation is employed. Based on the simplified scaled model of thin-walled cylindrical containers, the lateral impact model experiments are carried out by using the drop hammer impact tester. Typical deformations and failure modes of the structure are then obtained. After processing the experimental data to obtain the load-deformation curve and the absorption energy curve, the curves are analyzed to study the dynamical response characteristics for cylindrical containers under impact as well as the influences for container length and impact velocity on the structural dynamical response. Then, the LS-DYNA program is applied for simulating the impact procedure and its dynamic response. With the reliability of the numerical model being verified, the stress distribution of the cylindrical container during the impact process is analyzed. Through finite element parametric analyses, combined with experimental results, the influences of impact velocity, length-to-radius ratio and radius-to-thickness ratio on dynamical responses as well as failure modes of the structure are investigated. It is shown that the failure mode of the cylindrical container changes with impact velocity and radius-to-thickness ratio, but is not affected by length-to-radius ratio. The variation of peak deformation and average force of the structure with parameters such as impact velocity are obtained.