Dynamic response and optimal design of curved metallic sandwich panels under blast loading

It is important to understand the effect of curvature on the blast response of curved structures so as to seek the optimal configurations of such structures with improved blast resistance. In this study, the dynamic response and protective performance of a type of curved metallic sandwich panel subjected to air blast loading were examined using LS-DYNA. The numerical methods were validated using experimental data in the literature. The curved panel consisted of an aluminum alloy outer face and a rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) steel inner face in addition to a closed-cell aluminum foam core. The results showed that the configuration of a "soft" outer face and a "hard" inner face worked well for the curved sandwich panel against air blast loading in terms of maximum deflection (MaxD) and energy absorption. The panel curvature was found to have a monotonic effect on the specific energy absorption (SEA) and a nonmonotonic effect on the MaxD of the panel. Based on artificial neural network (ANN) metamodels, multiobjective optimization designs of the panel were carried out. The optimization results revealed the trade-off relationships between the blast-resistant and the lightweight objectives and showed the great use of Pareto front in such design circumstances.