On the local nature of the strain field calculation method for measuring heterogeneous deformation of cellular materials

• Local strain field calculation method is developed for cellular materials.
• The choice of cut-off radius strongly affects the accuracy of local strain.
• An optimal choice of the cut-off radius is suggested and applied.
• Local strain fields for double-layer cellular claddings are calculated.
• Shock wave propagation mechanisms in the two claddings are interpreted.

A strain field calculation method based on the optimal local deformation gradient technique has been developed to calculate the ‘local’ strain tensor of cellular materials using cell-based finite element models. The local nature and accuracy of this method may be strongly dependent on the cut-off radius, which is introduced to collect the effective nodes for determining the optimal local deformation gradient of a node. Two different schemes are first analyzed to determine the suitable cut-off radius by characterizing the heterogeneous deformation of Voronoi honeycombs under uniaxial compression and we suggest that in Scheme 1, the cut-off radius defined based on the reference configuration is about 1.5 times the average cell radius; in Scheme 2, the cut-off radius defined based on the current configuration is about 0.5 times the average cell radius. Then, Scheme 3, a combined scheme of the two former schemes, is further suggested. It is demonstrated that the optimal cut-off radius in Scheme 3 characterizes the local strain reasonable well whether the compression rate is low or high. Finally, the strain field calculation method with the optimal cut-off radius is applied to reveal the evolution of the heterogeneous deformation of two different configurations of double-layer cellular cladding under a linear decaying blast load. The 2D fields and the 1D distributions of local engineering strain are calculated. These results interpret the shock wave propagation mechanisms in both claddings and provide useful understanding in the design of a double-layer cellular cladding.