The Experimental and Analytical Response of Circular Metal Sandwich Panels with Tubular Cores under Blast Load

The sandwich panels are important structures for absorbing the explosion energy. Crushing and plastic deformation of the core along with the plastic bending of the faces are the main factors in absorbing the explosion energy in these structures. Structural components undergo significant permanent deformation after the explosion and its related energy absorption. In circular sandwich panels with symmetrical geometry and loading, the greatest amount of deformation occurs in the center of the back face. In this paper, the energy absorption of the structure and the deformation of circular metal sandwich panels with tubular core under explosion load have been studied analytically and experimentally. The tubes are arranged radially and symmetrically in the core constructions, which is a new configuration for the energy-absorbing sandwich panels in the literature. Experiments have been performed by making sandwich panels under free blast load in order to evaluate and validate the analytical results. The analytical solution is performed using the energy method by balancing the kinetic energy and the plastic work which is done by the different components of the sandwich panels. Maximum deflection, the amount of core crushing and the amount of energy absorbed by the whole structure and different parts of the structure are studied for different cases. There is a good agreement between analytical and experimental results.