Blast resistance of water-backed metallic sandwich panels subjected to underwater explosion

Abstract Explosion tests were performed underwater to study the blast resistance of water-backed sandwich panels. Effects on the structural response of face-sheet and core configurations, including face-sheet thickness, cell wall thickness of the honeycomb, core thickness and charge mass, were investigated by a large number of experiments. Quantitative results were obtained in the tests with corresponding sensors and further processing. Further results characterized the permanent deformation of sandwich panels. A failure mode map was adopted to identify the effect of design parameters on the structural failure mechanism at this blast magnitude. Finally, a comparison between sandwich panels and monolithic plates was performed. The comparative study provided further experimental evidence for the benefits of sandwich in water-backed configuration. Present study led to the apprehension of blast resistance of water-backed sandwich structure to underwater blast load, thereby developed useful guidelines for the design of blast-resistant structural systems.