Numerical study on the influence of boundary conditions on the blast response of composite plates

Blast loading represents a critical dynamic condition for both metal and composite structures. The blast response of metal materials has been extensively dealt with by researchers through experimental, analytical and numerical analyses, while composite materials appear to have been investigated in less detail. In this work, the blast response of a composite plate is numerically investigated employing the pure Lagrangian and the fully coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approaches using the LS-DYNA® software package. The latter methodology is set up to describe the effects determined by close-range explosions, such as the strongly non-uniform pressure distribution on the plate exposed area. Moreover, this work focuses on the characterisation of the influence of the boundary conditions on the plate response. The numerical methodology established in this work is set up and validated according to similar studies present in the literature.