This paper presents a theoretical and numerical analysis of the impulsive response of clamped rectangular multilayer gradient foam-filled sandwich panel (GFSP) under blast loading. The yield criterion of the rectangular multilayer GFSP section is established. On the basis of the proposed yielding criterion, an analytical model for the impulsive response of the rectangular multilayer GFSP under blast loading was developed. The bounds for analytical solutions of the structural response were obtained by inside square and outside tangent square along the accurate yield trajectory. The membrane solution for impulsive performance of the rectangular multilayer GFSP is acquired by neglecting bending moment effects. Concurrently, a three-dimensional model is constructed and numerical analysis is conducted employing ABAQUS/Explicit software. The theoretical results show good consistency with numerical ones. The impact of interlayer factors, foam’s thickness, average yield strength, shape factor, and on the impulsive response of the clamped rectangular multilayer GFSP is discussed. The structural maximum deflection decreases with the decline of interlayer factor, the decline of shape factor and decrease of foam thickness. The impact of foam strength on the impulsive performance of clamped rectangular multilayer GFSP is not evident. Under equal mass constraints, sandwich panels with a positive gradient distribution of foam core yield strength exhibit the smallest dimensionless center deflection compared to sandwich panels with uniform or negative gradient distributions. The established theoretical model can efficiently predict the blast performance of multilayer GFSP.
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