Linear elastic shock response of plane plates subjected to underwater explosion

Linear elastic shock response of plane plates subjected to underwater explosion is of importance to warship designers. Underwater explosion experiments were carried out with small quantity of explosive charges on air-backed 4 mm high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel circular plates of 290 mm diameter and rectangular plates of 300×250 mm with varying stand off. Strain gauges were fixed at regular intervals from the centre to the edge of the plates and dynamic strains were recorded. Strain distribution function was formed from the experimental data using which semi-analytical models were derived for predicting the elastic strain. The models showed good agreement with the experiments.