Blast Performance of Foam Filled Sandwich Panels Under Extreme Temperatures

Abstract

An experimental investigation of the dynamic response of syntactic foam filled corrugated steel sandwich panels, subjected to shock loading at room and elevated temperatures, was performed. A shock tube apparatus was used to generate the shock loading. High speed photography coupled with 3D Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was used to obtain real time full-field deformation of the back face. An additional camera was used to capture side-view deformation images. Photo-optical techniques were incorporated to capture images during high temperature experiments. The shock pressure profiles and DIC analysis were used to obtain the impulse imparted on the specimen, transient deflections, in-plane strain, and out of plane velocity of the back face sheet. It was observed that using the syntactic foam as a filler material decreased the front face and back face deflections compared to an empty panel while maintaining a thermal gradient of at least 180 °C. As a consequence of temperature dependent properties of steel, the specimen demonstrated an increasing trend in back face deflection with increasing temperature. © The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc. 2015.