Metallic sandwich panels with prismatic cores offer the potential for superior blast
resistance relative to monolithic plates of equivalent areal density. However, under
sufficiently high impulse, severe plastic strains can occur at the junctions of the face
sheets and the core members shortly after arrival of the pressure wave but prior to
significant deformation elsewhere. The potential consequence is localized shear
rupture with minimal plastic dissipation. To characterize this failure mode, a
combined experimental-numerical protocol has been used to ascertain the plastic
strain for dynamic shear rupture of ductile metals. The experimental component
involves firing cylindrical projectiles through plates of the targeted materials and
monitoring changes in projectile velocity during penetration. With appropriate
combinations of plate thickness and projectile velocity, penetration occurs through
propagation of an annular shear crack. In parallel, a numerical model of
dynamic deformation and rupture has been employed to infer the critical
strain through comparisons with projectile velocity change measurements.
Experiments and analyses have been performed on both 304 stainless steel and
superaustenitic AL6XN. Effects of mesh size on the resolution of the predicted
strain distribution and the plastic dissipation associated with penetration are
addressed.
Keywords
sandwich panels, dynamic rupture, projectile penetration,
finite elements