Experimental and Computational Investigation into the Damage Mechanisms in Composite Metal Hybrid Panels Subjected to High Pressure Blast Loading

In this work, a free piston shock tube is utilized to conduct blast experiments on unidirectional glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite-metal hybrid panels. Damage and deflection characteristics are obtained in real time during the blast test using fringe projection methods, and post blast damage is assessed by nondestructive evaluation methods. Finite element models are developed in LS Dyna for the blast apparatus and hybrid composite panel and the results are compared to the experimental blast tests. The delamination in the computational model matched both size and shape to the delamination of the composite C-Scan. Furthermore, both dynamic deflection and permanent deflection of the hybrid panel correlated well between the experimental blast test and the LS Dyna blast simulation.