Numerical investigation of the response of sandwich panels subject to blast loads

The response of a novel lightweight panel design under blast loading is numerically investigated. The sandwich type panel uses thin walled tubes as the core material with mild steel outer plates. A parametric study is carried out with ABAQUS/Explicit to examine the effects and interaction between design variables in three different tube layouts. Tube position, thickness and aspect ratio as well as top plate thickness are varied. Buckling stability and absorption performance are found to be highly sensitive to tube placement due to top plate interaction effects. For each panel an optimal tube positioning is found corresponding to nearly perfect axial progressive symmetric tube buckling. Tube geometry shows little effect on buckling stability, while energy absorption performance is found to be highly configurable. Similarly, outer plate thickness is found to influence absorber performance while having a small effect on buckling stability.