Performance Evaluation of Air-Backed Metallic Circular Plates Subjected to Close-In Underwater Explosion

The topic on performance evaluation of air-backed metallic structures subjected to close-in underwater explosion is of interest to protecting construction designers. The focus of performance includes not only the deformation/failure modes but also the energy absorption capability. This paper presented a blast experiment to investigate the blast resistance of circular solid plate. The deformation and failure modes were classified. The energy absorption of the blast-loaded plate was quantified by the response of another plate, which was arranged below the target. Particular attention was paid to discussing the effects of the charge mass and stand-off distance (SoD) on the blast performance. Results showed that the target plates appeared to experience petalling failure in case of contact tests and large inelastic deformation in case of noncontact. The shock waves induced by the blast explosion and the fragments teared from the target plates caused a capping or some permanent deformation on rear plates. Damages and deformations of target and rear plates were strongly correlated with the explosion intensity. As the increase of stand-off distance, the failure mode of target plates transitioned from petalling to large inelastic deformation. Experimental results presented in this paper provided valuable guidance for the following research on sandwich structures.