OPTIMUM DESIGN FOR SANDWICH PANELS WITH METALLIC HEXAGONAL HONEYCOMB CORE SUBJECTED TO BLAST LOADS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph. D. Applicant, Syrian Armed Forces.

2 Brig. D, Military Technical College, Egyptian Armed Forces, Egypt.

3 Professor. Director of Construction Research Institute, National Water Research Center, Egypt.

Abstract

In the last decade, design and optimization of structures subjected to blast loads got
the attention of many researchers. The great threaten of terrorizing activates; in
addition to instability in different areas of the world drive these researches. Sandwich
panels give an optimum and proven tools to handle problems related to design and
analysis of such structures. The present work focuses on increasing the blast
resistance of steel sandwich panels. These panels can be applied on defense works,
homeland security, banks and civilian industries intended to minimize the effects of
accidental explosions. Sandwich constructions with metallic hexagonal honeycomb
core are utilized in this research due to its high specific strength and stiffness with
minimum weight. Minimizing the weight of the metallic hexagonal honeycomb core is
regarded as the objective function of the optimization process that was tested under
blast loads resulted from detonating 100 kg of TNT at 5-m stand-off distance. The
strength and stiffness of honeycomb core panels were evaluated based on constraint
condition of strength and deformation. A response surface analysis was performed
on the parameters affecting the allowable global displacement by simplifying the
explosion pattern and developing a response limits adapting TM5 requirements [1].
F.E. technique was utilized to handle the numerical configuration of the studied
cases. ANSYS code [2] proved the environment for processing the analysis and
optimization. The proposed approach suggested to control the parametric
optimization analysis succeeded to provide an optimum configuration for the metallic
hexagonal honeycomb core structure under blasting condition.

Keywords