Experimental and numerical study of aluminum foam-cored sandwich tubes subjected to internal air blast

The blast response of aluminum foam-cored sandwich tubes that were subjected to internal air blast was investigated experimentally and numerically. Blast experiments were performed to capture the fundamental deformation, the maximum deflection of the inner face-sheet (MDIF), and the maximum deflection of the outer face-sheet (MDOF). A special MDOF (SMDOF) can be achieved by normalizing the MDOF with respect to the corresponding face-sheet radius and tube mass. Results confirm that the SMDOF of sandwich tubes is moderately sensitive to the core relative density, internal diameter, core thickness, and explosive charge. The finite element (FE) model was constructed using the Voronoi algorithm. After verifying the FE model, numerical studies were conducted to investigate the deformation process of sandwich tubes, the densification of double-layer cores, and the effects of core arrangement and face-sheet thickness on blast resistance. The SMDOF is influenced by the inner and outer face-sheets, whereas the special energy absorption (SEA) is mainly affected by the inner face-sheet.