Dynamic Response of a Clamped Circular Sandwich Plate Subject to Shock Loading

Abstract

An analytical model is developed for the deformation response of clamped circular sandwich plates subjected to shock loading in air and in water. The deformation history is divided into three sequential stages and analytical expressions are derived for the deflection, degree of core compression, and for the overall structural response time. An explicit finite element method is employed to assess the accuracy of the analytical formulas for the simplified case where the effects of fluid-structure interaction are neglected. The sandwich panel response has only a low sensitivity to the magnitude of the core compressive strength and to the degree of strain hardening in the face-sheets. The finite element results confirm the accuracy of the analytical predictions for the rigid ideally plastic sandwich plates. The analytical formulas are employed to determine optimal geometries of the sandwich plates that maximize the shock resistance of the plates for a given mass. The optimization reveals that sandwich plates have a superior shock resistance relative to monolithic plates of the same mass.