Experimental and numerical aspects of ship structure failure under airblast loading

Abstract

This work aims at studying experimentally and reproducing numerically the failure mechanisms of a ship structure material when submitted to severe conditions of strain and strain rate. Laboratory tests and airblast experiments were accordingly carried out and a constitutive model has been built describing the salient effects of strain hardening, thermal softening, viscoplasticity and void growth induced damage. Numerical simulations were conducted considering plates subjected to various airblast loading conditions. The numerical results show clearly the influence of the damage and further fracture related model parameters, as well as the limitation of the fluid/structure interaction model used in the present work.