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A series of one-dimensional studies is presented to reveal basic aspects of momentum and energy transfer to plates in air blasts. Intense air waves are initiated as either an isolated propagating wave or by the sudden release of a highly compressed air layer Wave momentum is determined in terms of the energy characterizing the compressed layer. The interaction of intense waves with freestanding plates is computed with emphasis on the momentum and/or energy transferred to the plate. A simple conjecture, backed by numerical simulations, is put forward related to the momentum transmitted to massive plates. The role of the standoff distance between the compressed air layer and the plate is elucidated. Throughout, dimensionless parameters are selected to highlight the most important groups of parameters and to reduce parametric dependencies to the extent possible. [DOI: 10.1115/1.3129773]

The plastic buckling of columns is explored in a regime where plastic wave propagation and lateral buckling are nonlinearly coupled. Underlying the work is the motivation to understand and quantify the dynamic crushing resistance of truss cores of all-metal sandwich plates where each truss member is a clamped column. Members are typically fairly stocky such that they buckle plastically and their load carrying capacity decreases gradually as they buckle, even at slow loading rates. In the range of elevated loading rates of interest here, the columns are significantly stabilized by lateral inertia, resisting lateral motion and delaying buckling and loss of load carrying capacity to relatively large overall plastic strains. The time scale associated with dynamic axial behavior, wherein deformation spreads along the column as a plastic wave, is comparable to the time scale associated with lateral buckling such that the two phenomena are coupled. Several relevant problems are analyzed using a combination of analytical and numerical procedures. Material strain-rate dependence is also taken into account. Detailed finite element analyses are performed for axially loaded columns with initial imperfections, as well as for inclined columns in a truss core of a sandwich plate, with the aim of determining the resistance of the column to deformation as dependent on the loading rate and the relevant material and geometric parameters. In the range of loading rates of interest, dynamic effects result in substantial increases in the reaction forces exerted by core members on the faces of the sandwich plate with significant elevation in energy absorption. [DOI: 10.1115/1.1825437]

A thin metal film vapor deposited on thick elastomer substrate develops an equi-biaxial compressive stress state when the system is cooled due to the large thermal expansion mismatch between the elastomer and the metal. At a critical stress, the film undergoes buckling into a family of modes with short wavelengths characteristic of a thin plate on a compliant elastic foundation. As the system is further cooled, a highly ordered herringbone pattern has been observed to develop. Here it is shown that the herringbone mode constitutes a minimum energy configuration among a limited set of competing modes.

This paper investigates the robustness against localized impacts of elastic spherical shells pre-loaded under uniform external pressure. We subjected a pre-loaded spherical shell that is clamped at its equator to axisymmetric blast-like impacts applied to its polar region. The resulting axisymmetric dynamic response is computed for increasing amplitudes of the blast. Both perfect shells and shells with axisymmetric geometric imperfections are analyzed. The impact energy threshold causing buckling is identified and compared with the energy barrier that exists between the buckled and unbuckled static equilibrium states of the energy landscape associated with the pre-loaded pressure. The extent to which the impact energy of the threshold blast exceeds the energy barrier depends on the details of its shape and width. Targeted blasts that approximately replicate the size and shape of the energy barrier buckling mode defined in the paper have an energy threshold that is only modestly larger than the energy barrier. An extensive study is carried out for more realistic Gaussian-shaped blasts revealing that the buckling threshold energy for these blasts is typically in the range of at least 10-40% above the energy barrier, depending on the pressure pre-load and the blast width. The energy discrepancy between the buckling threshold and energy barrier is due to elastic waves spreading outward from the impact and dissipation associated with the numerical integration scheme. Buckling is confined to the vicinity of the pole such that, if the shell is not shallow, the buckling thresholds are not strongly dependent on the location of the clamping boundary, as illustrated for a shell clamped halfway between the pole and the equator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drainage channels are essential components of englacial and subglacial hydrologic systems. Here, we use the M integral, a path-independent integral of the equations of continuum mechanics for a class of media, to unify descriptions of creep closure under a variety of stress states surrounding drainage channels. The advantage of this approach is that the M integral around the hydrologic channels is identical to same integral evaluated in the far field. In this way, the creep closure on the channel wall can be determined as a function of the far-field loading, e.g., involving antiplane shear as well as overburden pressure. We start by analyzing the axisymmetric case and show that the Nye solution for the creep closure of the channels is implied by the path independence of the M integral. We then examine the effects of superimposing antiplane shear. We show that the creep closure of the channels acts as a perturbation in the far field, which we explore analytically and numerically. In this way, the creep closure of channels can be succinctly written in terms of the path-independent M integral, and understanding the variation with applied shear is useful for glacial hydrology models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wrinkling modes are determined for a two-layer system comprised of a neo-Hookean film bonded to an infinitely deep neo-Hookean substrate with the entire bilayer undergoing compression. The full range of the film/substrate modulus ratio is considered from the limit of a traction-free homogeneous substrate to very stiff films on compliant substrates. The role of substrate prestretch is considered wherein an unstretched film is bonded to a prestretched substrate with wrinkling arising as the stretch in the substrate is relaxed. An exact bifurcation analysis reveals the critical strain in the film at the onset of wrinkling. Numerical simulations carried out within a finite element framework uncover advanced post-bifurcation modes including period-doubling, folding and a newly identified mountain ridge mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic sandwich panels subject to underwater blast respond in a manner dependent on the relative time scales for core crushing and water cavitation. This article examines the response at impulses representative of an (especially relevant) domain: wherein the water cavitates before the core crushes. Three core topologies (square honeycomb, I-core, and corrugated) have been used to address fundamental issues affecting panel design. Their ranking is based on three performance metrics: the back-face deflection, the tearing susceptibility of the faces, and the loads transmitted to the supports. The results are interpreted by comparing with analytic solutions based on a three-stage response model. In stage I, the wet face acquires its maximum velocity with some water attached. In stage II, the core crushes and all of the constituents (wet and dry face and core) converge onto a common velocity. In stage III, the panel deflects and deforms, dissipating its kinetic energy by plastic bending, stretching, shearing, and indentation. The results provide insight about three aspects of the response. (i) Two inherently different regimes have been elucidated, designated strong (STC) and soft (SOC), differentiated by a stage II/III time scale parameter. The best overall performance has been found for soft-core designs. (ii) The foregoing analytic models are found to underestimate the kinetic energy and, consequently, exaggerate the performance benefits. The discrepancy has been resolved by a more complete model for the fluid/structure interaction. (iii) The kinetic energy acquired at the end of the second stage accounts fully for the plastic dissipation occurring in the third stage, indicating that the additional momentum acquired after the end of the second stage does not affect panel performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]