Damage assessment of marine grade aluminium alloy-plated structures due to air blast and explosive loads

The objective of this paper is to investigate the response of fusion welded AA5083-H116 rectangular plates and orthogonally stiffened panels, typically found in high-speed vessels and topsides of offshore platforms, under impulsive pressure loading, such as air blast and explosions. Rigorous nonlinear finite element analyses are performed by using ABAQUS/Explicit to determine the deformation of these plated-structures under different impulses. Particular emphasis is given on the effect of the heat affected zone (HAZ), which is due to fusion welding. Based on the extensive numerical results, simple yet accurate formulae to predict the permanent set of the plates are derived as function of a non-dimensional impulse parameter. The derived equations are also compared with the existing analytical and empirical formulae in the literature.