Blast resistance of metallic tube-core sandwich panels

• An easily-made tube-core sandwich is developed as panel of anti-blast wall.
• Corrugations at the front face mitigate blast wave under close-in explosion.
• Skin tearing and tube crushing are the failure modes under contact explosion.
• Spaced tube-core panel is the better choice under close-in explosion.
• Connected tube-core panel is the better choice under contact explosion.

A tube-core sandwich panel was designed to serve as anti-blast panel of blast resistant walls. Steel tubes are non-expensive and strong for anti-blast walls, and can be easily connected with face sheets through welding. Static three-point bending experiments, close-in explosion experiments and contact explosion experiments were performed to explore its anti-blast ability. The tough interface and shear-resistant tube-core endow the panel with high bending rigidity. In close-in explosion, the front face mitigates the shock wave corrugations through corrugated plastic deformation and the panel is rigid enough to resist the shock wave. In contact explosion, the panel attenuates the shock wave through tube-crushing and skin-tearing. Appropriate thicknesses of the front face and the tube wall promote energy absorption. The experiments indicate that spaced tube-core panel is the better choice for close-in explosions while connected tube-core panel has advantages under contact explosions.

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