Numerical Investigation on the Performance of Compressible Fluid Systems in Mitigating Close-Field Blast Effects on a Fiber Circle

Nanoporous material liquid systems (NMLSs) demonstrate promising potential for blast protection due to their high energy absorption density. This investigation numerically evaluated the use of NMLSs in mitigating blast effects on fiber-composite circular structures. The coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian method was employed to establish the numerical models of fiber alone, water-fiber, and NMLS-fiber, subjected to the internal close-field blast loading. The simulations focused on a widely studied NMLS, nanoporous silica particles immersed in distilled water. Four NMLSs, featuring varying particle-to-water ratios yet identical densities to that of water, were designed to modulate the energy absorption capacity while maintaining identical mass. These NMLSs were modeled by Equation of State (EOS) compaction. The dynamic responses of the fiber circles in the simulations were compared to evaluate the blast mitigation of different liquids. When the explosive mass was relatively small or medium, both the water and NMLSs exhibited blast mitigation. The NMLSs outperformed water because the energy absorption capacity caused a greater attenuation of blast pressure in the NMLSs. In the small-mass explosive cases, all four NMLSs could rapidly reduce the blast pressure to the infiltration pressure but their wave impedances decreased as the particle-to-water ratio increased, resulting in that a NMLS with greater energy absorption capacity, however, had inferior blast mitigation performance. When the explosive mass was relatively large, all the fiber circles experienced significant fiber failure and only the NMLS with the greatest energy absorption capacity exhibited blast mitigation.