Comparison of Numerical and Experimental Results of Small Scale Compressed Gas Blast Experiments Involving a Surrogate Head Form

Author(s):  
Matthew V. Grimm ◽  
Karim H. Muci-Küchler ◽  
Brandon J. Hinz ◽  
Shawn M. Walsh

Exposure to a shock wave from an explosive blast can result in injury to the human body even if external signs of trauma are not present. Gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms contributing to those injuries can result in the design of better personal protective equipment (PPE). Compressed gas blast experiments can be conveniently used to explore the mechanical response of PPE systems and instrumented surrogate head forms to blast loading scenarios in a laboratory environment. Likewise, numerical simulations can be used to study relevant field variables related to the compressed gas blast and its effects on the target. In this regard, experimental data is needed to validate simulation results. This paper presents an experiment that uses a small scale compressed gas blast generator to explore the pressure distribution around a surrogate head form due to blast loading. The compressed gas blast generator is an open-end shock tube which creates a shock wave when the diaphragm that separates the high pressure and low pressure (ambient air) regions ruptures. The overpressures on selected locations of the surrogate head form were measured with piezoelectric pressure sensors and the data was processed to obtain positive phase durations and positive phase impulses. The surrogate head form was positioned off-axis from the exit of the compressed gas blast generator to preclude the discharge flow from affecting the overpressure measurements. A three-dimensional Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) model of the experiment described above was prepared in Abaqus/Explicit. Selected numerical and experimental results were compared and there was good agreement between them.

Author(s):  
Brandon J. Hinz ◽  
Matthew V. Grimm ◽  
Karim H. Muci-Ku¨chler ◽  
Shawn M. Walsh

Understanding the dynamic response of materials under blast and impact loading is of interest for both military and civilian applications. In the case of blast loading, the mitigation characteristics of materials employed in personal protective equipment (PPE) is of particular importance. Without adequate protection, exposure of the head to blast waves may result in or contribute to brain tissue damage leading to traumatic brain injury (TBI). The development of simple but representative laboratory experiments that can be used to study the mechanical response of different materials and/or material combinations to blast loading could be very useful for the design of PPE such as helmets. This paper presents a basic experimental setup that can be conveniently used to perform such studies using small scale compressed gas blasts. An open end shock tube is employed to generate the blasts used to load flat plate samples placed in a special rigid holder. Acceleration time histories at selected locations in the sample are used to generate data to compare the dynamic response and blast mitigation effectiveness of different specimens. High speed schlieren video is used to correlate the arrival of the shock wave and air flow that follows with the motion of the test sample.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Chen ◽  
Siming He ◽  
Dieter Rickenmann

<p>Geophysical granular flows such as rock and snow avalanches, flow-like landslides, debris flows, and pyroclastic flows are driven by gravity and often impact on engineering structures located in gullies and slopes as they flow down, generating dynamic impact pressures and causing a major threat to infrastructures. It is necessary to understand the physical mechanism of such granular flows impacting obstacles to improve the design of protective structures and the hazard assessment related to such structures. In this study, the small-scale laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the dynamic impact caused by granular flow around a circular cylinder with variable radius of curvatures and the dynamic impact against a flat wall. Pressure sensors were used to measure the impact pressure of granular flows at both the upstream cylinder surface and at the bottom of the channel. Accelerometers were mounted on the underside of channel to record the seismic signals generated by the granular flows before and during the impact with the obstacle. Flow velocities and flow depths were determined by using high-precision cameras. The results show that a bow shock wave is generated upstream of the cylinder, causing dynamic pressures on both the obstacle and the bottom of the channel. The dimensionless standoff distance of the granular shock wave decreases nonlinearly or almost exponentially with increasing Froude number (Fr) in the range of 5.5 to 11.0. The dimensionless pinch-off distance and dimensionless run-up height grow linearly with increasing Fr, and they were significantly influenced by the radius of curvature of the structure at the stagnation point (RCSSP). The dimensionless impact pressure on the structure surface is sensitive to the RCSSP, while the differences decrease as Fr increases; Seismic signals generated at the underside of the channel and at the top of the cylinder were also recorded to assist in analyzing the effects of RCSSP.</p>


2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zengliang Gao ◽  
Tianwen Zhao ◽  
Xiaogui Wang ◽  
Yanyao Jiang

Uniaxial, torsion, and axial-torsion fatigue experiments were conducted on a pressure vessel steel, 16MnR, in ambient air. The uniaxial experiments were conducted using solid cylindrical specimens. Axial-torsion experiments employed thin-walled tubular specimens subjected to proportional and nonproportional loading. The true fracture stress and strain were obtained by testing solid shafts under monotonic torsion. Experimental results reveal that the material under investigation does not display significant nonproportional hardening. The material was found to display shear cracking under pure shear loading but tensile cracking under tension-compression loading. Two critical plane multiaxial fatigue criteria, namely, the Fatemi–Socie criterion and the Jiang criterion, were evaluated based on the experimental results. The Fatemi–Socie criterion combines the maximum shear strain amplitude with a consideration of the normal stress on the critical plane. The Jiang criterion makes use of the plastic strain energy on a material plane as the major contributor to the fatigue damage. Both criteria were found to correlate well with the experiments in terms of fatigue life. The predicted cracking directions by the criteria were less satisfactory when comparing with the experimentally observed cracking behavior under different loading conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-165
Author(s):  
Rajendran Selvamani ◽  
M. Mahaveer Sree Jayan ◽  
Rossana Dimitri ◽  
Francesco Tornabene ◽  
Farzad Ebrahimi

AbstractThe present paper aims at studying the nonlinear ultrasonic waves in a magneto-thermo-elastic armchair single-walled (SW) carbon nanotube (CNT) with mass sensors resting on a polymer substrate. The analytical formulation accounts for small scale effects based on the Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity theory. The mathematical model and its differential equations are solved theoretically in terms of dimensionless frequencies while assuming a nonlinear Winkler-Pasternak-type foundation. The solution is obtained by means of ultrasonic wave dispersion relations. A parametric work is carried out to check for the effect of the nonlocal scaling parameter, together with the magneto-mechanical loadings, the foundation parameters, the attached mass, boundary conditions and geometries, on the dimensionless frequency of nanotubes. The sensitivity of the mechanical response of nanotubes investigated herein, could be of great interest for design purposes in nano-engineering systems and devices.


Author(s):  
Segen F. Estefen ◽  
Paulo Roberto da Costa ◽  
Eliab Ricarte ◽  
Marcelo M. Pinheiro

Wave energy is a renewable and non-polluting source and its use is being studied in different countries. The paper presents an overview on the harnessing of energy from waves and the activities associated with setting up a plant for extracting energy from waves in Port of Pecem, on the coast of Ceara State, Brazil. The technology employed is based on storing water under pressure in a hyperbaric chamber, from which a controlled jet of water drives a standard turbine. The wave resource at the proposed location is presented in terms of statistics data obtained from previous monitoring. The device components are described and small scale model tested under regular waves representatives of the installation region. Based on the experimental results values of prescribed pressures are identified in order to optimize the power generation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 204141962110380
Author(s):  
Senthil Kasilingam ◽  
Muskaan Sethi ◽  
Loizos Pelecanos ◽  
Narinder K Gupta

An evaluation of mitigation strategies of underground tunnels against explosions is important to the society. Therefore, a small scale tunnel was modeled against blast loading using finite element software ABAQUS. The inelastic behavior of concrete and steel bar has been incorporated through concrete damage plasticity model and Johnson-cook models respectively, available in ABAQUS. The Drucker-Prager model as well as acoustic infinite medium have been used to model the damage behavior of soil and tunnel respectively. The simulated results thus obtained from the present study were compared with the experimental results available in the literature and found in good agreement. Further, the simulations were carried to predict the damage intensity in tunnel in terms of acceleration, impulse velocity, displacement, and Mises stresses. There are many parameters which were taken into consideration to assess the mitigation strategies for the underground tunnels. The critical parameters include the influence of tunnel shapes, lining materials, lining thickness, burial depth of the tunnels, inclusion of a barrier in between the blast source-the tunnel and layered configuration of tunnel lining, and were considered to evaluate the mitigation strategy. It was concluded that the square shape of tunnel was most vulnerable as compared to circular and U-shaped tunnels. It was also concluded that plain concrete monolithic lining as well as layered configuration consisting of Dytherm foam layer between Steel Fiber reinforced Concrete layers, was found to be more vulnerable among the chosen lining materials. Also, the thickness of lining and burial depth of the tunnel found to be a significant role against blast loading.


Author(s):  
Adam G. Pautsch ◽  
Arun Gowda ◽  
Ljubisa Stevanovic ◽  
Rich Beaupre

In the continuing effort to alleviate the increasing thermal loads for power electronics devices, numerous aggressive solutions have been developed, such as small-scale micro-channel heat exchangers. Although these methods can improve overall surface heat transfer to the order of 500 W cm−2, they are limited to single-sided cooling due to the typical wire-bonded electrical connections of the devices. Power overlay (POL) technology provides a stable planar structure for electrical connection, as well as attachment of an additional top-side heat exchanger. This study presents an analysis of double-sided microchannel cooling of a power electronics module. Two optimized, integral micro-channel heat sinks were attached above and below silicon power devices, with more traditional attachment on one side and a POL interface on the other. A compliant TIM was selected for low thermal resistance and good mechanical response, which allowed top-side connection to the POL surface. A theoretical model is presented that predicts the benefit of double-sided cooling based on the known performance of a single-sided heat sink and given addition thermal contact resistance for the top side. For microchannels with water, an enhancement of 26% was predicted. An experiment was also carried out to measure the actual performance benefit seen with double-sided cooling. An enhancement of over 30% was measured for a particular design. As the theory predicts, the benefit of double-sided cooling is limited for high performance designs. However, double-sided cooling could lead to high levels of thermal performance using low-performance technology.


Géotechnique ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (9) ◽  
pp. 753-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Jommi ◽  
Stefano Muraro ◽  
Edoardo Trivellato ◽  
Cor Zwanenburg

Author(s):  
Payam Soltani ◽  
Christophe Pinna ◽  
David J Wagg ◽  
Roly Whear

Hydraulic engine mounts are key elements in an automotive vehicle suspension system that typically experience a change of their designed function during their working lifetime due to progressive material ageing, primarily from the elastomeric component. Ageing of the engine mount, resulting from severe and continuous mechanical and thermal loads, can have a detrimental impact on the ride and comfort and long-term customer satisfaction. This paper introduces a new practical methodology for simulating the ageing behaviour of engine mounts resulting from the change in properties of their elastomeric main spring component. To achieve this, a set of dynamic mechanical thermal analysis tests were conducted on elastomeric coupons taken from a set of engine mounts with different service and ageing conditions. These experimental results were used to characterise the change in mechanical response of the elastomer and to build up an empirical elastomer ageing model. Then a finite element model of the main spring was developed that used the elastomer ageing model so that the ageing behaviour of the engine mount could be simulated. The resulting ageing model was verified by using experimental results from a second batch of ex-service engine mounts. The results show an increasing trend of the vertical static stiffness of the engine mounts with distance travelled (or age) up to a certain distance (approximately 95,000 km). The trend is then reversed and a softening effect is observed. Moreover, the results reveal that both the maximum stiffness value and the distance travelled at the peak stiffness decrease as the temperature increases.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Mohd Zaid Othman ◽  
Qasim H. Shah ◽  
Muhammad Akram Muhammad Khan ◽  
Tan Kean Sheng ◽  
M. A. Yahaya ◽  
...  

A series of numerical simulations utilizing LS-DYNA was performed to determine the mid-point deformations of V-shaped plates due to blast loading. The numerical simulation results were then compared with experimental results from published literature. The V-shaped plate is made of DOMEX 700 and is used underneath an armour personal carrier vehicle as an anti-tank mine to mitigate the effects of explosion from landmines in a battlefield. The performed numerical simulations of blast loading of V-shaped plates consisted of various angles i.e. 60°, 90°, 120°, 150° and 180°; variable mass of explosives located at the central mid-point of the V-shaped vertex with various stand-off distances. It could be seen that the numerical simulations produced good agreement with the experimental results where the average difference was about 26.6%.


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