ABSTRACT
A series of blast experiments were conducted at two standoff distances (SODs) using cylindrical charges of plastic explosive to study the response of S2-Glass/SC1008 phenolic fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composite subjected to localised blast loading. Experiments were conducted with digital image correlation (DIC) to determine the transient deflection of the composite; and, without DIC to isolate the rupture threshold. The rupture thresholds at SODs of 50 mm and 25 mm, were determined to be 72.5 g and 32.5 g, respectively. Negative values were recorded for the permanent midpoint deflection of the back face of the composite samples at a SOD of 50 mm, highlighting the importance of capturing the transient deformation of composite materials. Fibre rupture was found to be the dominant damage mode at the centre of panels with delamination and local buckling present at other locations. The response of this composite material was compared with three armour grade steels, a high strength industrial steel and two composite materials that were previously tested using similar loading conditions. The results indicated that the S2-Glass phenolic FRP performed well in comparison to the previously evaluated composite materials. However, the rupture threshold of the S2-Glass FRP was significantly lower than the various grades of armour steel of the same areal density.
