The efficient design of hybrid and metallic sandwich structures under air blast loading

Abstract

A novel hybrid composite honeycomb sandwich structure (HCHSS) and metallic honeycomb sandwich structure (MHSS) were developed to obtain realistic and blast resistance parameters for the consideration of blast loading. Hybrid composite square honeycomb sandwich structure (HCSHSS) and metallic honeycomb sandwich structure with different cores such as square, hexagonal, octagonal, and circular were modelled to obtain the target protection level (lowest deflection) for the vehicle armour structure. The Johnson-Cook and Donadon failure criteria were incorporated into finite element analysis (FEA) for MHSS and HCSHSS, respectively. For the progressive damage modelling of the HCSHSS, the Donadon criterion was implemented in ABAQUS/Explicit software as a user-defined subroutine. The HCSHSS showed the fibre failure, matrix failure and delamination modes of failure in composite laminates and the plastic deformation failure of the core and metal plates. The HCSHSS was shown to have excellent blast worthiness properties in comparison to the MHSS. The metallic circular honeycomb sandwich structure (MCHSS) was shown to have the minimum deflection of the top and bottom face plates as compared to the square, hexagonal and octagonal honeycomb sandwich structures. A novel HCSHSS has obtained the minimum deflection for both the top and the bottom face plates in comparison to the other MHSS.