Investigation of Supersonic Shock Wave Loading on Thin Metallic Sheets

Abstract

Shock tube experiments were carried out to investigate dynamic behavior of Ultra-high hardness (UHH) steel and Aluminium (Al) sheets of 0.8 mm thickness at 0.55, 0.9 and 1.18 MPa peak-over pressure. Experimental results showed that center point deflection increases with an increase in peak-over pressure for Al sheets. However, UHH steel sheets showed negligible deformation when loaded at low peak-over pressures and showed sudden brittle failure at high peak-over pressures. Similar results were obtained by quasi-static testing, UHH steel failed abruptly while Al showed ductile behavior. Results from literature indicate that to protect structures against shock loading it is necessary that they dissipate energy via plastic deformation. The Al sheets were shown to deform plastically both in quasi-static and shock loading. Thus, hardness along with ductility is required to dissipate supersonic shock waves.

Keywords

• Shock tube
• Peak-over pressure
• Shock wave
• Blast mitigation
• Plastic deformation