1. The Blast Load Response of Honeycomb Sandwich Panels Y. Chi Supervisors: Prof G. N. Nurick, Dr G. S. Langdon Blast Impact Survivability Research Unit (BISRU), University of Cape Town

2. Slide 2 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Background Passenger Aircraft Safety Lockerbie Plane Crash

3. Slide 3 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za General Aim In search of better protection against blast

4. Slide 4 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Specific Aims of This Study To determine the response of honeycomb sandwich panels to uniformly distributed air-blast loading. To investigate the effect of: Core thickness Plate thickness Core material Core configuration

5. Slide 5 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Structure Under Investigation Front face plate Back face plate Aluminium honeycomb core

6. Slide 6 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Presentation Structure Blast test configurations Various panel configurations have been proposed and tested Quasi-static testing on the components Characterise the materials (mild steel plates and aluminium honeycombs) Blast testing on the sandwich panels Concluding remarks

7. Slide 7 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Experimental Setup

8. Slide 8 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Panel Configurations

9. Slide 9 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Dharmasena et al, 2007, in press Background Knowledge

10. Slide 10 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Background Knowledge Dharmasena et al, 2007, in press

11. Slide 11 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Honeycomb Material Characterisation Jones, Structural impact

12. Slide 12 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Honeycomb Material Characterisation

13. Slide 13 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Background Knowledge

14. Slide 14 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Focus of Today

15. Slide 15 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Single-1.6: 1.6mm plate 29mm h/c

16. Slide 16 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Single-1.6: 1.6mm plate 29mm h/c Front plate deflection – 5.3Ns to 29.2Ns

17. Slide 17 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Mid-point deflection of the face plates and the honeycomb cores Single-1.6: 1.6mm plate 29mm h/c

18. Slide 18 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Single-1.6: 1.6mm plate 29mm h/c at the center

19. Slide 19 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Honeycomb Material Characterisation Densification

20. Slide 20 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Honeycomb crush distance graph Densification = 29.2Ns Single-1.6: 1.6mm plate 29mm h/c

21. Slide 21 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Single-1.6: 1.6mm plate 29mm h/c Back plate deflection – 5.3Ns to 36.8Ns

22. Slide 22 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za 11g 1.6mm 11g 1.0mm Effect of Plate Thickness

23. Slide 23 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za 1.6mm vs 1.0mm Plate Thickness Mid-point deflection of the face plates

24. Slide 24 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za 1.6mm vs 1.0mm Plate Thickness Honeycomb crush distance graph Densification

25. Slide 25 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Mid-point deflection of the face plates 1.6mm vs 1.0mm Plate Thickness Densification

26. Slide 26 © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za For the effect of plate thickness: A honeycomb sandwich panel with thinner face plates will have higher front face plate deformation. This means the core will densify at a lower impulse and transmit larger forces to the back plate. This is generally undesirable. This, in conjunction with the effect of the core thickness, provides a detailed investigation of the response of honeycomb sandwich panels to blast loading. Further details will be available in my MSc thesis. Concluding Remarks