Gas mixture detonation load on polyurea-coated aluminum plates

The effect of polyurea coating on the structural response of metallic plates is still a challenge for the industry and scientific community. In this paper, experimental and numerical investigations were carried out to study the influence of polyurea coating as a strengthening layer on the dynamic plastic response and resistance of aluminum plates under gas detonation load. A single-stage Gas Detonation Forming (GDF) apparatus was used to conduct a number of experiments on rectangular aluminum plates with and without polyurea coating sprayed onto the rear side of the metallic plate. The residual deformations of polyurea-coated aluminum (PU–Al) plates were measured and compared with single-layer aluminum plates with the same areal density. It was found that the central permanent deflection of metallic plates decreased significantly with the use of coatings, and PU-Al configurations had superior performance compared to uncoated aluminum plates, which was more pronounced at higher total pre-detonation pressures. Additionally, an empirical equation based on dimensionless numbers was presented to predict the central permanent deflection of PU-Al configurations. Furthermore, the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to establish a relationship between the output response and input independent parameters based on ANOVA results, and to understand the interaction between parameters. Eventually, a single-objective optimization analysis was carried out using the RS equation to find optimum ranges of input variables that can minimize the response. The optimization results were validated by conducting new experiments.