Improvements of the damage responses and failure modes of an RC vehicle over pass bridge under contact explosion using FEM-SPH coupled computational frameworks

Winds, earthquakes, and blasts are unpredictable and most challenging dynamic loads. However, the blast is relatively new, and its protection over infrastructure is a vital concern. Conversely, bridges play a critical role in the transport system, and their loss may affect the Nation’s growth. However, the literature says that experimental and numerical simulation is an excellent option to predict the blast impacts. Most of the data from the experiments are collected by photos or videography at high temperatures. Therefore, the reliability of those data is a genuine concern, particularly for bridges. Conversely, if correctly explored, numerical simulation is an option to get into the blast field with high accuracy. A mesh-based method like Finite Element Method (FEM) is excellent for numerical simulation up to a specific temperature. Beyond that, it starts a mesh tangling. Element erosion and remeshing processes may overcome this issue if the mesh-free method simulates. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a mesh-free particle method that can naturally handle massive deformation due to adaptive features. Finally, the current study has coupled two discretisation systems to avoid instability and increase run time. Therefore, FEM-SPH coupling has been adopted to explore the direct damage-reduction, complete damage-time response, damaged contours of the shock wave propagations, damaged contours of particle formation, the effective plastic strain (EPS) and different failure modes of the Vehicle Over Pass typed bridge without and with the protective layer of non-Explosive Reactive Armour (nERA). Finally, the improvement of the bridge is eye-catching as the nERA effectively reduces the deformation, damage, particle formation, EPS, and failure modes.