Underwater explosive loading of curved composite plates: Experimental and computational comparisons

Abstract

The effect of underwater shock loading on an E-G lass / Vinyl-Ester composite material has been studied. The work consists of experimental testing, utilizing a water filled conical shock tube and computational simulations, utilizing the commercially available LS-DYNA finite element code. The plates consist of elliptically curved geometry with 0/90 biaxial laminates. The plates are held with fully clamped boundary conditions and are subjected to underwater explosive (UNDEX) loading. The transient response of the plates is captured in real time through the use of a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) system. The DIC data and computational results show a high level of correlation for both the plate deformation and velocity histories using the Russell error measure. The finite element models are also shown to be able to simulate the onset of delamination mechanisms.