Author(s)

R. Schmidt, M. Stoffel & T. D. Vu

Abstract

This paper deals with the experimental investigation, modelling, and finite element simulation of structures exposed to shock-type blast loading conditions taking into account the structural and material non-linear effects. First- and thirdorder transverse shear deformation theories of plates and shells serve as basis of a finite element algorithm for the simulation of the transient, geometrically nonlinear elastic-viscoplastic response. Isoparametric Lagrangian 9-node shell finite elements and the central difference method for the time integration of the nonlinear equations of motion are used. Experiments are performed on thin clamped circular aluminium and steel plates in shock tubes. The main advantage of this experimental technique is that the front wave impinging on the structure is plane and yields a uniformly distributed pressure pulse. Consequently, in contrast to other experimental methods reported in literature, the time history of the shocktype loading can be modelled easily during the FE analysis. Comparative numerical simulations using first- or third-order transverse shear deformation plate theory, respectively, show a very good agreement with the experimental results. The best correlation with the experimentally observed transient response and permanent deflection is obtained by the refined, third-order transverse shear deformation model. Keywords: blast loading, shock tube, first- and third-order transverse shear deformation theory, viscoplasticity. 1 Introduction The present paper deals with modelling, computational simulation and experimental investigation of the transient large deflection elastic-viscoplastic

Keywords

blast loading, shock tube, first- and third-order transverse shear deformation theory, viscoplasticity