On Eulerian-Lagrangian methods to investigate the blast response of composite plates

The blast-resistant design of engineering structures has recently been supported by numerical approaches. This solution has allowed expanding the design space to complex materials and structures, which could not be properly addressed through available empirical and analytical methods. At the same time, numerical approaches have opened up the possibility of studying in more detail the physics of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) effects, which are particularly relevant in case of lightweight structures. However, reliable simulations accounting for FSI effects on complex structures have not been properly addressed yet in the literature. Hence, leveraging the potentialities of state-of-the-art numerical methods, in this work a framework was set up to describe the response of blast loaded composite plates through high-fidelity coupled and uncoupled simulations. The framework was validated against experimental data, and numerical simulations were used to identify and describe FSI effects. The flexibility of the framework also allowed (i) studying the influence of boundary conditions on the structural dynamics, which was accounted for by explicitly modelling the clamping assembly, and (ii) investigating the influence of explosive charge parameters on blast waves properties. Results showed that FSI effects strongly influence the response of blast loaded composite plates even in scenarios where metal plates would not undergo any FSI effects.