Transmission of a Blast Wave Through a Deformable Layer

Abstract

Experiments have been carried out to investigate the transmission of a blast wave through a deformable layer consisting of a variety of different types of foam. The shape of the stress-strain curve for a foam has a strong influence on the pressure wave transmitted through the foam. At low blast wave amplitudes, the transmitted pressure is attenuated because the strains induced in the foam fall within a relatively linear elastic region of the stress-strain curve. For high blast wave amplitudes, the transmitted pressure is strongly amplified because the foam is compressed into the densification region where the foam cells collapse almost completely and the foam material itself is compressed. A nonlinear spring-mass-damper model which incorporates the stress-strain curve as the spring force relation qualitatively reproduces the blast loading behavior observed experimentally for different blast wave amplitudes.