Deformation and tearing of circular plates with varying support conditions under uniform impulsive loads

Transient dynamic finite element analysis of circular plates with varying support configurations under uniform single square wave form impulsive load has been carried out in FEA package ANSYS. Experimental results of Teeling-Smith and Nurick [The deformation and tearing of thin circular plates subjected to impulsive loads. Int J Impact Eng 1991;11(1):77–91] and Nurick et al. [Tearing of blast loaded plates with clamped boundary conditions. Int J Impact Eng 1996;18(7–8):803–27] for the onset of thinning and tearing at the boundary of clamped circular plates subjected to uniformly loaded air blasts have been used to compare and validate the numerical simulation and procedure. The Mode II failure with respect to clamped circular plates has been simulated using a rupture strain criteria. Mode III failure or plastic shear sliding, has been considered using a shear strain failure criteria as proposed by Wen and Jones for plates. A stiffness reduction scheme has been proposed to decide on the initiation and progression of tearing in conjunction with suitable failure model under Modes II and III. The evolution of deflections, plastic zones, rupture zones and failure modes under the blast loading conditions are found to match well with the experimental results. The validated numerical model has further been used to study the effect of plate thickness on the deformation and tearing response of the circular plates subjected to impulsive loads. The deformation, tearing and shock absorption response of clamped circular plates under uniform impulsive loads with ring support of varying edge configurations at the boundary have also been numerically studied. Further, the response of circular plate–tube combination with varying boundary support configurations has been studied. The plate has been considered at the mid-span of the tube of length equal to the plate diameter with the ends of the tube modelled as clamped. The numerical model has been used to study the effect of tube thickness variations on the deformation and tearing response of the circular plate under shock loads. The response of tube–plate combinations under uniform impulsive loads with ring support at the plate–tube junction have also been numerically studied.