Dynamic response of Dyneema® HB26 plates to localised blast loading

• A series of scaled localised air-blast tests were conducted on square Dyneema® panels.
• Maximum permanent out-of-plane deformation was recorded as response parameter.
• A new dimensionless impulse parameter was proposed to link loading to response.
• The proposed parameter is general and has been used to unify results.

This paper reports on the dynamic response of a potential blast-resistant lightweight alternative to steel for military applications, namely ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMwPE) fibre composites known as Dyneema®. The results of localised air-blast loading tests on Dyneema HB26 panels are reported and analysed.Various failure modes were observed, including permanent deformation, delamination, in-plane shear, buckling around the boundary, localised melting and matrix damage. Total penetration (rupture) at the highest charge masses was also exhibited by the Dyneema panels.The experimental results are compared to the numerically simulated responses of mild steel and armour steel plates of equal areal density and reasonable correlation was observed in most cases. Dimensional analysis was used to compare the responses and showed that there is a possibility of unifying all the results i.e. the responses for all materials once a newly proposed slenderness ratio was incorporated into the formulation. Simple dimensionless expressions are proposed to predict permanent midpoint transverse displacements, irrespective of the particular material type.It was also observed that armour steel and Dyneema HB26 offer potential displacement reductions of almost 50% and 30%, respectively for the range of impulses tested.