Composite plates with a layer of fluid-filled, reticulated foam for blast protection of infrastructure

A brief review of the current explosives threat to critical infrastructure and the current state of the art technology to protect against such a threat is presented. A new design for blast mitigation and protection of infrastructure is described, consisting of a steel plate backed by a layer of low-density, reticulated, flexible, fluid-filled foam. Coupling relations for momentum conservation and the dynamic response of fluid-filled foam, a tractable method is developed to analyze the performance of the design. A parametric study is performed to identify designs that minimize the peak stress on the underlying structure, which is a measure of the damage caused by an explosive device. The effects of a number of parameters were studied, including the thickness of each layer, the properties of the fluid, and the aspect ratio of the fluid-filled foam. A configuration is presented which demonstrates the potential to substantially reduce the peak stress on an underlying structure caused by a standard blast load. The reduction is shown to be as much as 90% over a monolithic plate at an areal density less than that of state of the art blast protection devices. This configuration shows promise to outperform current blast protection devices with a greater reduction in the peak stress on the structure for a given blast plate thickness. A brief discussion of the applicability of this blast protection technology and its potential in other high rate, energy absorption applications is also given. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.