Structural Response Optimization of a Light-Weight Composite Blast Containment Vessel

Abstract

This paper proposes an optimization technique for increasing the structural integrity of a light-weight composite blast containment vessel. The vessel is cylindrical with two hemispherical ends. It has a steel liner that is internally reinforced with throttles and gusset plates and wrapped with a basalt-plastic composite. A computationally-efficient finite element model of the blast containment vessel was proposed and verified in an earlier work. The parameters of the vessel are incorporated within an iterative optimization procedure to decrease the peak strains within the vessel, which are caused by internal blast loading due to an explosive charge placed at the center of the vessel. The results of the proposed procedure are validated for different initial guesses of the design variables.