Numerical simulation of the post-failure motion of steel plates subjected to blast loading

This paper describes the numerical simulation results of two experimental studies [Teeling-Smith RG, Nurick GN. The deformation and tearing of thin circular plates subjected to impulsive loads. Int J Impact Eng 1991;11:77-91; Nurick GN, Bryant MW. Fragmentation damage as a result of an explosion. In: Gupta NK, editor. Plasticity and impact mechanics, December 1996, New Delhi, India, p. 484-498] in which the deformation and post-failure response of a plate subjected to blast loading were investigated. In Ref. Teeling-Smith and Nurick, uniform blast loading was considered, while in Ref. Nurick and Bryant, localised blast loading was investigated. The finite element code ABAQUS was used to simulate the structural response of the respective blast structures, while the hydro-dynamic code AUTODYN was used to characterise the localised blast pressure, time, and spatial history. The simulations showed satisfactory correlation with the experiments for energy input, large inelastic deformations and post-failure motion.