ENCLOSED BLAST RESPONSE OF PRE-DAMAGED COMPOSITE PLATES IN BARREL EXPERIMENTS

This study investigates the blast response of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CRFRP) in a closed barrel experiment. The plates are mounted on the side of a cylindrical barrel in which a spherical charge is fused. Both undamaged and plates with drilled holes are studied. Comparisons are made with results from a previous study using the same experimental setup for thin steel plates of equivalent surface weight. It is found that the undamaged carbon fiber plates can withstand blast from high explosive charges of 130 g, significantly higher than the 105 g sufficient for steel plates to fail. Introducing drilled holes into the plates, the CFRP plates failed for 110g of high explosive relative to 60g sufficient to rupture the steel plates.