Effect of Spatial Variation of Blast Loading on Response of Plates

Burying a high explosive in soil is known to confine the detonation products and focuses the blast in the vertical direction. The expanding detonation products and soil particle barrage will therefore impart a highly non-uniform spatial distribution of pressure on a target situated above the surface of the soil. In order to better design vehicles against buried explosives it is important to understand how key parameters of the loading influence target deformation; one such parameter is spatial non-uniformity. This paper presents the results of a detailed numerical study into the effect of spatial distribution of blast pressures on the dynamic deformation of plates subjected to shallow-buried explosive events. A plate model is analysed using LS-DYNA under various configurations of loading magnitude and distribution, where the loading was applied as an assumed initial velocity profile. The numerical deformations are compared to select results from a larger body of experimental work where both the total imparted impulse and deformation of a target plate were recorded after a shallow-buried explosion.