Effect of polyurea coatings on the response of curved E-Glass/Vinyl ester composite panels to underwater explosive loading

The effects of polyurea coatings on the response of E-Glass/Vinyl ester curved composite panels subjected to underwater explosive loading has been studied. The thickness and location of the polyurea coating has been varied to determine how these parameters affect the transient response. The composite material is a 0°/90° biaxial layup and the coatings are applied to either the loaded or non-loaded faces. The current work utilizes a conical shock tube facility which produces shock loading conditions equivalent to the underwater detonation of an explosive charge. The transient response of the plates is recorded using a three-dimensional (3D) Digital Image Correlation system, consisting of high-speed photography and specialized post processing software. The results show that for a given polyurea thickness, better performance is obtained when the back face of the panel is coated. Similarly the performance is improved as the coating thickness is increased; however this comes at a cost in terms of increased areal weight. The results show that there is likely an optimal coating thickness, that when located on the back face, provides a balanced tradeoff between panel performance and weight increase.