ABSTRACT
The response of the sandwich structure is governed by some important characteristics that include strength, stiffness, deformation modes for energy absorption, and dissipation under extreme loading conditions such as a blast. In the present study, numerical simulation is carried out using ABAQUS/Explicit to investigate the blast resistance capability of an enhanced honeycomb sandwich structure. Initially, the effect of reinforcement in honeycomb structure in blast load mitigation is evaluated. Thereafter, different configurations obtained by varying depth and cell wall thickness of the core as well as tube reinforcement are also studied to get the effective configuration. The sandwich structure is subjected to a charge weight of 1 kg TNT located at 300 mm standoff distance, i.e., scaled distance (Z = 0.3 m/kg1/3). The study on reinforced honeycomb sandwich structure is further extended considering charge weights of 0.5 kg, 1.0 kg, and 1.5 kg TNT. The response of the tube-reinforced honeycomb sandwich structure is compared based on the peak central point displacement at the backsheet of the sandwich structure. From the deformation behavior of different configurations of bare and reinforced honeycomb sandwich structures, it is observed that reinforcement has a significant influence on blast mitigation characteristics. Further, the depth of both core and reinforcement also has maximum effects in blast response mitigation with relatively less sacrifice of the weight of the core. In contrast, the configuration with less depth of both reinforcement and core showed the least reduction in backsheet deflection. The effect of foil thickness of the core and reinforcement also indicated that thinner tube reinforcement compared to core thickness performs better under blast load.
