NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF AIRBLAST

PHENOMENON IN A BARE PLATE

PROBLEM DEFINITION
A standard rectangular plate of dimensions 2.30.5 m2 and thickness 7.56 mm is
considered for the analysis. This plate is subjected to 100kg TNT blast at a stand-off distance
of 10m. The permanent deformation of the plate is measured. Patran is used as the modeler
and post-processor & Dytran is used as the FSI solver.
PLATE MODELLING
Following are the material properties assigned to plate:
Youngs modulus
= 210 GPa
Poissons ratio
= 0.3
Density
= 7800 kg/m3
Constitutive model = Elasto-plastic (DMATEP)
Mesh type
= Uniform

Fig.1 Plate meshed with quad element in Patran

Plate is modeled as a surface and meshed with quad element as shown in Fig1. All four edges
of the plate are fixed against rotation and translation.
MODELLING OF EXPLOSIVE AND FLUID DOMAIN
. Air domain is meshed with hexahedron 8 noded element. Uniform meshing technique is
used for meshing the fluid domain. Out flow boundary condition is given to fluid domain as
the blast wave has to move away from the point of explosion. Explosive is modeled as a
sphere of radius 0.25 m at a stand-off distance of 10 m from the plate. A simple formula
4
volume= r 3
is used for finding the radius of the sphere. Where, volume =
3

mass of explosive /density of explosive .

NUMERICAL RESULTS
The contour for maximum reflected pressure is shown in Fig. 2. Reflected pressure
time histories for 100 kg TNT at 10 m stand-off distance is shown in Fig. 3. Maximum
displacement contour and displacement time history at the plate centre are shown in Fig. 4
and Fig. 5 respectively. It is observed that the permanent deformation due to 100 kg TNT at
10 m stand-off distance is around 2.15 mm.

Fig 2. Contour for maximum pressure in the plate

600000
500000
400000

Reflected pressure (Pa)

300000
200000
100000
0
0

0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.05

Time (Sec)

Fig 3. Reflected pressure time history at the centre of the plate

Fig 4. Contour for maximum plate displacement

0.01
0.01
0
0
0
Displacement (m)

0.01

0.01

0.02

0.02

0.03

0.03

0.04

0.04

0
-0.01
-0.01
-0.01
-0.01
Time (Sec)

Fig 5. Displacement time history at the centre of the plate

The permanent deformation is found to be 2.15 mm from the numerical simulation

which is less than the allowable permanent deformation of 1.5 times the thickness of plate
(shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5).

The same analysis is carried out with different plate thicknesses to investigate the change in
displacement of the plate. The results thus obtained are minutely scrutinized with a view to
confirming the plate thickness required for elastic deformation of the plate for the said
conditions. The result for 9.5mm thick plate, being the optimal result, is given below.

Fig 6. Contour for maximum pressure in the plate of 9.5mm thickness

600000
500000
400000

Reflected Pressure (Pa)

300000
200000
100000
0
0

0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.05

Time(sec)

Fig 7. Reflected pressure time history at the centre of the plate of 9.5mm thickness
The max pressure is obtained at the centre and its magnitude exactly matches with the
empirical value.

Fig 8. Contour for maximum displacement for plate of thickness 9.5mm

0.01

Displacement (m)

0
0

0.01

0.01

0.02

0.02

0.03

0.03

0.04

0.04

0.05

-0.01

Time(sec)

Fig 8. Displacement time history at the centre of the plate of thickness 9.5 mm
It can be observed that permanent displacement has a negligibly small value of 0.76mm
(shown in dotted line). As the displacement tends to zero, it can be conferred that there is no
permanent displacement and the plate exhibits elastic behavior at 9.5mm thickness under
specified conditions.
Permanent displacement for 10mm plate at zero atm pressure is 0.56mm (Refer Fig. 8).

0.01

0
0

0.01

0.01

0.02

0.02

0.03

0.03

0.04

0.04

0.05

-0.01

-0.01

Fig 8. Displacement time history at the centre of the plate of thickness 10 mm(zero atm
pressure)

600000

500000

400000

300000

200000

100000

0
0

0.01

0.01

0.02

0.02

0.03

0.03

0.04

0.04

0.05

Fig 8. Pressure time history at the centre of the plate of thickness 10 mm