Analysis of steel-with-composite material substitution in military vehicle hull floors subjected to shallow-buried landmine-detonation loads
Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures
ISSN: 1573-6105
Article publication date: 7 October 2014
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of substitution of steel with fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composite in military-vehicle hull-floors, and identifies and quantifies the associated main benefits and shortcomings.
Design/methodology/approach
The problem is investigated using a combined finite-element/discrete-particle computational analysis. Within this analysis, soil (in which a landmine is buried), gaseous detonation products and air are modeled as assemblies of discrete, interacting particles while the hull-floor is treated as a Lagrangian-type continuum structure. Considerable effort has been invested in deriving the discrete-material properties from the available experimental data. Special attention has been given to the derivation of the contact properties since these, in the cases involving discrete particles, contain a majority of the information pertaining to the constitutive response of the associated materials. The potential ramifications associated with the aforementioned material substitution are investigated under a large number of mine-detonation scenarios involving physically realistic ranges of the landmine mass, its depth of burial in the soil, and the soil-surface/floor-plate distances.
Findings
The results obtained clearly revealed both the benefits and the shortcomings associated with the examined material substitution, suggesting that they should be properly weighted in each specific case of hull-floor design.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, the present work is the first public-domain report of the findings concerning the complexity of steel substitution with composite-material in military-vehicle hull-floors.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The material presented in this paper is based on work supported by three Army Research Office sponsored grants entitled “Multi-length Scale Material Model Development for Armor-grade Composites” (Contract No. W911NF-09-1-0513), “Friction Stir Welding Behavior of Selected 2000-series and 5000-series Aluminum Alloys” (Contract No. W911NF-11-1-0207), and “Concept Validation and Optimization for a Vent-based Mine-blast Mitigation System” (Contract No. W911NF-11-1-0518).
Citation
Grujicic, M., Snipes, J.S., Ramaswami, S., Yavari, R., Yen, C.-.-F. and Cheeseman, B.A. (2014), "Analysis of steel-with-composite material substitution in military vehicle hull floors subjected to shallow-buried landmine-detonation loads", Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 416-448. https://doi.org/10.1108/MMMS-01-2014-0001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited