Interactions between blast loading and dynamic elastic response of containment vessels

The interactions between internal blast loading and dynamic elastic response of a containment vessel are studied in this paper. The blast loading history is proposed to be divided into three periods, i.e. the primary-shock period, the shock-reflection period and the pressure-oscillation period. It is shown that the initial response of the containment vessel is determined by the peak overpressure and duration of the primary-shock. However, during the shock-reflection period, the response of the containment vessel may be influenced by the shock reflection in the vessel, especially when the dominant frequency of the shock reflection is close to the dominant response frequency of the vessel, and the reflected shock pressure is coupled with the vessel response. During the pressure-oscillation period, the dynamic loading is mainly the oscillation of the internal pressure due to the oscillatory volume change of the vessel, which couples dissipatedly with the vibration of the vessel leading to reduced vibration amplitudes. These fundamental features in the elastic response of containment vessels are demonstrated through an elastic circular ring (or an infinite-length cylindrical shell), which are applicable to other containment vessels.