Use of aluminum foam core sandwich structures to improve the blast-mitigation performance of light tactical vehicle side-vent-channel solution

Abstract

In our recent work, a side-vent-channel blast-mitigation concept/solution for light tactical vehicles was proposed. As a part of this solution, side-vent channels are attached to the V-shaped vehicle underbody, in order to promote venting of the soil ejecta and gaseous detonation products and, in turn, generate a downward thrust on the targeted light tactical vehicle. As a consequence, the blast loads resulting from a shallow-buried mine detonated underneath a light tactical vehicle are mitigated, improving the probability for vehicle survival. The concept was motivated by the principles of operation of the so-called “pulse detonation” rocket engines. To quantify the utility and blast-mitigation capacity of this concept, use was made of several computational and design optimization methods and tools in our prior work. It was found that the capacity of the proposed blast-mitigation solution is relatively small, but still noteworthy. The present work focuses on further improvements in the blast-mitigation capacity of the side-vent-channel solution. Specifically, the benefits offered by substitution of the all-steel side-vent channels with side-vent channels made of sandwich structures (consisting of steel face-sheets and aluminum foam core) for all-steel side-vent channels are explored. The results obtained clearly demonstrated that this substitution can improve the blast-mitigation efficiency of the side-vent-channel solution. In addition, through the use of a design optimization analysis, it was established that this improvement can be further increased through proper grading of the aluminum foam density profile through the sandwich structure core.