Mechanical response of V shaped plates under blast loading

An assessment of structural response of blast resistant structures is important for the efficient design of armored personal vehicles (APV). A rigid design of these structures will transfer the blast forces into the crew cabin whereas softer design will lead to excessive structure deformation which is dangerous to the crew. An optimal design should absorb the energy as much as possible and transmit less vibration to the crew in the cabin. For this purpose the effectiveness of different V-shaped plates are investigated here for finding its response under different plate angles, mass, and eccentricity of the TNT charge. The assumed geometry is similar to that of plates used in the armored personal carrier CASSIPIR and the material under consideration is mild steel. Three-dimensional (3D) numerical analyses was performed using the non-linear finite element (FE) code ABAQUS/Explicit to predict the maximum central deflection, impulse transmitted and damage mode of V shaped plates. Results of the numerical simulation for failure in V shaped plates with different included angles(145,160,180 degrees), subjected to localized blasts are presented here. It is seen that primary variables like mass of the charge, the V-angle and eccentricity of the explosive affect the response variables of the plate.