Mitigation of Blast Effects on Protective Structures by Aluminum Foam Panels

Abstract: Aluminum foams have low density and are attractive materials to mitigate high-speed pressure by blast loads due to high-energy absorption capabilities. In order to develop nonlinear material models for the aluminum foam with different density, mechanical properties of the foam and foam panels under compression, tension, shear and bending moment were obtained by numerous tests. Through the explicit analyses of the foam panels by LS-DYNA, the derived models were verified. Performance of the foam panels with different scaled distances was evaluated by blast tests. Thickness, density and skin plate properties of the panel are the most important parameters to estimate the transmitted pressure to protective structures. Because the pressure of close range blast loading is not uniform, the skin plays an important role in the behavior of the foam. Numerical simulations considering the parameters provided basic design guidelines for the protective structures with sacrificial foam panels. Properly designed panels for the required blast loads can control the transmitted pressure to the target structure under a certain pressure on the yield strength of the foam.