Preliminary Similarity Analysis on the Deformation Dynamic Response of Thin Plates Subjected to Blast and Impact Loadings

The similarity and conditions for the similarity of deformation dynamic response of thin circular plates subjected to blast and impact loadings under certain conditions were studied by experimental tests and numerical simulation using air explosion and drop hammer impact loadings. The results revealed that the final deformed shapes of thin plates subjected to the two dynamic loadings are similar with less than 2 % difference in deflection and less than 8 % difference in deformed volume. The deformation similarity of plates subjected to blast and impact loadings can be achieved as the shock dimensionless number and the hammer shape satisfying given features. The deformation responses of the thin plates satisfying the constraints to blast and impact loadings are opposite. The key parameters of the blast and impact loading systems were obtained by the dimensional analysis using Buckingham π theorem. Based on these results, a similarity scheme was proposed. The numerical simulation was verified with the experimental results. In all, a novel method was established to study the similitude of analogous systems, which could be extended to other similar physical problems.