Docol 600 DL Steel Plates Subjected to Blast Loading: Numerical Simulations and Experimental Validation

Abstract

The main objective in this thesis is to further investigate the accuracy of the accumulated blast impulse and plate response employing this method, and comparing the results with performed experiments. Experiments were performed at \O st\o ya, Norway, where quadratic 0.8 mm thick Docol 600 DL steel plates were subjected to free air explosion. The experimental results have been compared with numerical simulations employing the discrete particle method implemented in Impetus-Afea. A pure Lagrangian simulation is performed in Abaqus/Explicit to compare the results with Impetus-Afea.A comparison between the estimated pressure from ConWep, the blast-load function included in Abaqus/Explicit, which is based on ConWep, and the reflected pressure recorded at \O st\o ya. From the results , the blast-load function in Abaqus/Explicit seem to underestimate the peak pressure for all stand-off distances, while the accumulated impulse is overestimated when increasing the stand-off distance. A parametric study is performed in Impetus-Afea to investigate how the plate response is influenced by different parameters. From the results obtained, it may be assumed that the parameters describing the load, have greater influence on the deflection than the plate properties.Impetus-Afea has proven to recreate the loading conditions and the dynamic response of the steel plates for the given conditions, with a good level of accuracy.