Dynamic behavior of metallic sandwich panels subject to air-blast explosion

Abstract

Honeycomb sandwich structures have been investigated for a variety of applications, particularly as blast resistant structures because of their excellent strength to mass ratio. The current study investigates the response of a stainless-steel sandwich panel, with hollow core, foam filled core, and gel filled core under air blast load using Finite Element (FE) analysis. Johnson-Cook (J-C) material model is used to estimate the plastic failure characteristics of steel under air-blast explosion of 1, 2 and 3 kg of trinitrotoluene at a stand-off distance of 100 mm. The air-blast simulation is achieved using the Conventional Weapons Effect Program (CONWEP) code developed by US army corps. A parametric study for the gel filled model is carried out by varying the core thicknesses and the blast-point stand-off distances (SoD) with respect to the front plate deflection (FPD), back plate deflection (BPD), and energy absorption. A strain rate analysis of sandwich structure is conducted for the hollow core and foam core models, wherein the strain rate for the hollow core panel is varied from 0.1/s - low strain rate (LSR) to 3500/s - high strain rate (HSR), and for the foam core model, it is varied from 0.004/s (LSR) to 12,000/s (HSR). It is found that the back plate deflection obtained from the HSR model in both cases is significantly smaller compared to the LSR model.

Keywords

air-blast explosion finite element analysis foam filled honeycomb gel filled honeycomb sandwich panel strain rate

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Derseh

Mohammed

Urgessa

. Numerical study on structured sandwich panels exposed to spherical air explosions. J Sandw Struct Mater 2024; 26(8): 1532–1568. https://doi.org/10.1177/10996362241282863

Patel

. The efficient design of hybrid and metallic sandwich structures under air blast loading. J Sandw Struct Mater 2022; 24(3): 1706–1725. https://doi.org/10.1177/10996362211065748

Sahoo

Kumar Swain

Sawant

. Computational analysis and optimization of foam-filled honeycomb core sandwich structure under air blast loading. J Sandw Struct Mater 2025; 27(5): 962–996. https://doi.org/10.1177/10996362251317109

Patel

. Novel design of honeycomb hybrid sandwich structures under air-blast. J Sandw Struct Mater 2022; 24(8): 2105–2123. https://doi.org/10.1177/10996362221127967

Dharmasena

Ng Wadley

Xue

, et al. Mechanical response of metallic honeycomb sandwich panel structures to high-intensity dynamic loading. Int J Impact Eng 2008; 35(9): 1063–1074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2007.06.008

Sawant

Patel

. High-performance sandwich panels with Inconel-718 cores for extreme blast loading. J Sandw Struct Mater 2026; 28(3): 495–512. https://doi.org/10.1177/10996362251386534

Chen

Liu

Zhou

, et al. Blast resistant performance of novel foam-filled hybrid cellular sandwich structures: experimental, numerical, and theoretical studies. Eng Struct 2026; 354: 122375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2026.122375

Nakhikar

Babaei

Haghgoo

. Experimental and numerical investigation of sandwich panels reinforced with horizontally arranged tubular cores under blast loading. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part E J Process Mech Eng. 2026; 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/09544089251410347

Fíla

Falta

Krčmářová

, et al. Effects of shear thickening fluid filling in additively manufactured sandwich panels during intermediate and high strain rate penetration. Int J Impact Eng 2025; 206: 105430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2025.105430

10.

Zong

Changcheng

Zihao

, et al. Dynamic response of shear thickening gel-filled honeycomb sandwich panels under blast loading: experimental research. Chin J High Press Phys. 2025; 39(9): 094101.

11.

Ehinger

Krüger

Martin

, et al. Strain rate effect on material behavior of TRIP‐Steel/Zirconia honeycomb structures. Steel Res Int 2011; 82(9): 1048–1056. https://doi.org/10.1002/srin.201100076

12.

Tao

Chen

Pei

, et al. Strain rate effect on mechanical behavior of metallic honeycombs under out-of-plane dynamic compression. J Appl Mech 2015; 82(2): 021007. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4029471

13.

Aziz

Abdouli

Kakur

, et al. The effects of high strain-rate and temperature on tensile properties of UHMWPE composite laminates. Composites Part C: Open Access 2025; 16: 100549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomc.2024.100549

14.

Riaz

MAB

Güden

. A review of the experimental and numerical studies on the compression behavior of the additively produced metallic lattice structures at high and low strain rates. Def Technol 2025; 49: 1–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2025.01.003

15.

Khalili

SMR

Maher

Mahajan

. Investigation on high strain rate response of lightweight sandwich panel with aluminum corrugated core and smart composite facesheets. J Braz Soc Mech Sci Eng 2024; 46(2): 89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-023-04669-x

16.

Song

Feng

, et al. Dynamic mechanical behavior of additively manufactured bio-inspired metallic lattice structure subjected to high strain rate impact loading. Int J Impact Eng 2023; 181: 104752. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2023.104752

17.

Bahabadi

Amin

Rahimi

. Investigation of debonding growth between composite skins and corrugated foam-composite core in sandwich panels under bending loading. Eng Fract Mech 2020; 230: 106987. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2020.106987

18.

Novak

Vesenjak

Duarte

, et al. Compressive behaviour of closed-cell aluminium foam at different strain rates. Materials 2019; 12(24): 4108. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12244108

19.

Shalchy

Carlsson

Deshpande

, et al. Pinching of gel-filled honeycomb. Int J Solid Struct 2022; 257: 111728. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2022.111728

20.

Nemat-Nasser

Guo

W-G

Kihl

. Thermomechanical response of AL-6XN stainless steel over a wide range of strain rates and temperatures. J Mech Phys Solid 2001; 49(8): 1823–1846. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-5096(00)00069-7

21.

Chen

Ruan

Wang

, et al. The influence of strain rate on the microstructure transition of 304 stainless steel. Acta Mater 2011; 59(9): 3697–3709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2011.03.005

22.

Wan

, et al. Effect of strain rate on microstructures and mechanical properties of Fe–18Cr–8Ni steel. Mater Sci Technol 2019; 35(2): 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/02670836.2018.1548113

23.

Armstrong

Walley

. High strain rate properties of metals and alloys. Int Mater Rev 2008; 53(3): 105–128. https://doi.org/10.1179/174328008x277795