Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines

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ISSN: 1539-7734 (Print) 1539-7742 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/lmbd20

Experimental and numerical study on dynamic

response of V-shaped hull subjected to mine blast

Atil Erdik

To cite this article: Atil Erdik (2020): Experimental and numerical study on dynamic response of
V-shaped hull subjected to mine blast, Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines, DOI:
10.1080/15397734.2020.1726775

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15397734.2020.1726775

Published online: 19 Feb 2020.

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MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES
https://doi.org/10.1080/15397734.2020.1726775

Experimental and numerical study on dynamic response

of V-shaped hull subjected to mine blast
Atil Erdik
Computer Aided Engineering Department, Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi A.S, Arifiye, Sakarya, Turkey

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Detonation of an anti-tank (AT) mine or improvised explosive device (IED) Received 18 June 2019
yields a shock wave, which can result in a severe damage to a vehicle and Accepted 4 February 2020
its personnel. Blast mitigation techniques play important role in dissipating
KEYWORDS
and reflecting incoming blast waves as well as decreasing damage poten-
Land mine blast; numerical
tial. This study set out to investigate the blast mitigation performance of simulation; LS-DYNA; blast
V-shaped hull design of a military vehicle, both from numerical and experi- mitigation; V-shaped hull;
mental viewpoint. LS-DYNA was used in numerical studies. Results show blast loading
that numerical simulation is in accord with blast experiment and maximum
deviation percentage between measured and calculated displacements
is 15%.

1. Introduction
When an explosive charge is detonated, energy accumulated in high explosive is transferred to
the vehicle through shockfront, which induces structural deformation and accelerates the vehicle
upward. Global movement of vehicle at vertical direction can create larger accelerations on the
hull, which could potentially result in injuries to crewmembers. In addition, rupture of thick
underbelly plates causes severe injuries arising from secondary effects of explosion such as mov-
ing fragments, fire, and gases along with blast overpressure inside the personnel cabinet.
Metallic materials have been extensively used for armor protection systems. Dynamic responses
of metallic materials under blast loads came into prominence during World War II with the
intense use of combat tanks and personnel carriers, which were severely affected by anti-tank
(AT) mines (Krehl 2008). The mine protection level and survivability of combat tanks were
increased by lowering the height of the vehicle and by increasing the thickness of armor steel
during postwar period. However, these attempts made armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) much
heavier that resulted in losing mobility and payload for those vehicles.
One way of attenuation of blast wave effects on vehicle hull is to position underbelly plate at
an angle to the direction of explosion, since the maximal reflected pressure and impulse are
developed only when the direction of blast is at a 90
angle to the plate. Center-folded underbelly
plates, namely V-shaped hulls have been successfully adopted in the protection of armored
vehicles against landmines for decades. With advances in computation power of machines, it
could be possible to use numerical calculation techniques in predicting propagation of blast waves
and behavior of materials at intermediate and high strain rates (Jablonski et al. 2013). Therefore,
numerous studies have attempted to analyze the accuracy and precision of various numerical

CONTACT Atil Erdik aerdik@otokar.com.tr Computer Aided Engineering Department, Otokar Otomotiv ve Savunma
Sanayi A.S, Arifiye, Sakarya, Turkey.
Communicated by Prof. Corina Sandu.
ß 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
2 A. ERDIK

simulation techniques used in adopting new approaches to lighten the armored fighting vehicle
(AFVs) (Denefeld et al. 2014; Makwana, Thakur, and Senthilkumar 2019; French and Wright
2010; Baranowski, Malachowski, and Mazurkiewicz 2016). Mehreganian et al. (2018) carried out
experimental and numerical studies of dynamic response armor steel under localized blast loading
condition. They utilized different methods to predict blast loading acting on the plates. In add-
ition, dimensionless analysis technique was used to assess the numerical simulation results. They
pointed out that coupled numerical method, that is to say Coupled Eulerian Lagrangian approach
provided closer correlation with behaviors of plates recorded through Digital Image Correlation
(DIC) technique in blast testing. Trajkovski, Perenda, and Kunc (2018) conducted numerical sim-
ulations of an armored vehicle exposed to land mine blast with 6 kg of TNT explosive using
Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method in LS-DYNA. They compared blast performance
of a flat plate and a modified center-folded version of floor plate with 90
angle. It was found
that when V-shaped plate was adopted as the floor plate, the result were improved and the global
acceleration, velocity, impulse, and kinetic energy of the vehicle were decreased by 33%, 18%,
72%, and 33%, respectively. Markose and Rao (2017) investigated the performance of V-shaped
plates with varying angles under different loading conditions in ABAQUS finite element software.
They concluded that when eccentric loading was applied to the V-shaped plates, higher values of
displacements arises on the regions having lower stiffness as well as fracture was observed at the
support edges.
Another way of preventing catastrophic deformations on the vehicle hull is to absorb blast
energy by mounting blast mitigation structures, which are generally preferred to be made of
composites and various metallic components, that is to say sandwich structures beneath the
vehicle directly facing the explosive charge. Sandwich structures are lightweight and capable of
absorbing blast energy absorption. These materials are sensitive to damage resulting from explo-
sion, and they absorb kinetic energy through induced large deformation and materials failure.
The majority of impact studies on composite and sandwich structures focused on the following
four aspects: 1. Dynamic response, 2. Contact mechanism of composite and sandwich structures
with foreign objects, 3. Damage and failure modes of composite and sandwich structures under
impact, and 4. Effects of anisotropy and special core structures on impact responses (Uddin
2010). In vehicle design standpoint, energy absorbing structures helps control global acceleration
and velocity of vehicle to reduce lower extremity injury. It is worth noting that the development
phase of mine protection concept necessitates thorough understanding of physics of blast phe-
nomenon, particularly where dynamic behavior of metallic materials at high strain rates are
examined. Most research on blast attenuation techniques has been carried out in an attempt to
examine the effects of anti-tank mines and IEDs on the vehicles (Williams and Poon 2000;
Williams et al. 2002; Showichen 2008; Baranowski and Malachowski 2015). Several studies have
been concentrated specifically on behavior of materials under blast loading (Langdon, Nurick,
and Cantwell 2008; Børvik et al. 2009; Olovsson et al. 2010; Anderson, Behner, and Weiss 2011;
Spranghers et al. 2013; Qin et al. 2014; Babaei and Darvizeh 2011; Gharababaei and Darvizeh
2010; Argod et al. 2010; Wen, Yu, and Reddy 1995). The influence of material type under blast
loading was investigated by Langdon, Lee, and Louca (2015). They performed a serial of blast
experiments on several type of materials from mild steel to armor steel to aluminum alloy with
different thicknesses. They concluded that ductility and energy absorption capacity are good
indicators of blast performance of materials subjected to explosion. Recent developments in the
field of advanced metallic materials and composites have led to a renewed interest in energy
absorption capability of sandwich structures under blast loading. Wang et al. (2018) proposed
that a newly-developed three-dimensional Double-V Auxetic (DVA) structure core, which is able
to yield isotropic mechanical behavior, offered better mine protection level and lighter design for
vehicle hull than solid plate, in particular, DVA is superior in lightweight aspect when compared
to square-formed honeycomb sandwich panel. The result of study of Qi et al. (2017) supported
 MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES 3

the idea that utilizing auxetics in sandwich panels for absorbing shock loads from close-in deto-
nations high explosives provides better protection than conventional materials. Zhang et al.
(2018) performed analytical and numerical calculations to interpret mechanical response of dou-
ble-layered rectangular sandwich plates under blast loading. They stated that double-layered sand-
wich structure demonstrated more resistance than that of mono-layered panel for the same
weight against higher impulses.
The purpose of this investigation has been to develop a model for blast mitigation system for
armored vehicles by utilizing both numerical simulation techniques and full-scale blast testing.
This remaining part of the article proceeds as follows: The first section is concerned with the def-
inition of V-shaped sandwich structure. The second section explains the numerical simulation
methodology employed for this blast testing setup. The third section discusses blast mitigation
performances of V-shaped hulls with different angles. The fourth section demonstrates the effect-
iveness of combined V-angled sandwich structure design against flat sandwich structure and flat
plate. The fifth section gives detailed description of numerical model of blast test setup, while the
subsequent section deals with blast testing conditions and measurement techniques. The other
section presents the findings of the research, focusing on the comparison of numerical results
with full-scale blast testing and evaluation of numerical simulation model. The final section dis-
cusses the results and draws a conclusion.

2. V-shaped sandwich structure

Sandwich structures consisting of different type of geometrical shapes e.g., honeycomb, pyramid,
diamond, or corrugated have performed superior ability to attenuate blast energy in comparison
to monolithic structures (Guruprasad and Mukherjee 2000; Dharmasena et al. 2008). For a land-
mine blast, impulsive shock wave caused by detonation of the explosive charge induces the
honeycomb structure to collapse. In this approach, more inelastic strain energy could be dissi-
pated depending on the amount of the collapse of honeycomb cores. Fleck and Deshpande (2004)
found that when sandwich systems are subjected to an intense blast shock, they might yield a
moderate gain in terms of blast resistance in comparison to monolithic structures. This is owing
to the fact that there occurs mismatch between air and face sheet of a sandwich structure in
unobvious way, which is similar to that of a monolithic plate. For this reason, transferred energy
from blast wave to the face sheet is reflected rather than being transmitted to a compaction wave
in the cells. Nonetheless, specific types of sandwich systems are apparently effective for deflec-
tion-controlled vehicle floor designs (Dharmasena et al. 2008).
In this study, when considering the applicability of the mine protection system to the vehicle
designs, it was planned to use a hybrid panel instead of flat sandwich panel, which can benefit
from both the shockwave energy dissipation capability of the V-shape and the energy absorption
capacity of sandwich composite structure during explosion. V-shaped sandwich structure, which
was manufactured as the representative of an underbelly of vehicle hull, is a combination of a
125
V-angled hull and a sandwich structure and it comprises stiff face sheets enveloping thin-
walled honeycomb cores. Sheets were manufactured from Secure 500 steel, which prevents perfor-
ation of the floor from the blast waves, hence reducing the risk of damage to the occupants
caused by blast overpressure and fragment penetration into the cabinet. Inner core was made of
aluminum honeycombs, which have highly energy absorption capability by being crushed between
two steel plates during explosion. Detailed technical drawing of the V-angled sandwich structure
is illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. The floor plate is made of Secure 500 steel while the all other bulk
structures are manufactured from mild steel.
Additional information on the test setup is given in the test part, Section 7.2.
4 A. ERDIK

Figure 1. Plan view of V-shaped sandwich structure with dimensions.

Figure 2. Front view of V-shaped sandwich structure with dimensions.

3. Numerical simulation methodology

Computational hydrocodes that employ finite difference and finite element techniques have been
widely adopted to simulate interactions between fluid domain and structures by coupling algo-
rithms under blast loading (Drotleff et al. 1996; Chapman, Rose, and Smith 1995). There are two
main methodology to simulate blast loading on structures in LS-DYNA hydrocode. The first one
is Arbitrary Eulerian Lagrangian (ALE) and the other alternative is CONWEP method.

3.1. ALE approach

It has been developed in an attempt to combine the advantages of the Lagrangian and Eulerian
approaches e.g., the ALE method by Hirt (1971).
In the ALE method, the model contains two overlapping meshes: The background mesh model
could move randomly in space domain, while the other is a virtual mesh linked to the material that
flows through the moving mesh. The ALE method utilizes the operator split technique to execute a
cycle, which is developing following three steps: First, a Lagrangian step is performed, and then mesh
is interpolated onto a modified mesh to get a new better localization for the distorted mesh in the
rezoning step. In the final step, namely advection step, state variables of the deformed material con-
figuration are mapped back on to the reference mesh by Do and Day (2005).
The ALE method can be used when attempting to temporarily achieve finer resolution in a
particular part of a mesh, which includes transient and focused behavior, for instance, advance-
ment and expansion of a shock wave. The method makes possible to couple detonation products
 MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES 5

Table 1. Material properties and JWL parameters for TNT.

q0 (kg/m3) D (m/s) PCJ (GPa) E0 /V (GPa) A (GPa) B (GPa) R1 R2 w
1630 6930 21.0 7.0 371.213 3.2306 4.15 0.95 0.30

of high explosive with target via shock waves inside a calculation domain. The equation of states
and material models need to be defined for both the explosive charge and the fluid domain.

3.1.1. High explosive

Jones-Wilkins-Lee (JWL) equation of state is specified for the TNT material to express the pro-
gression of the shock wave within the air domain. The pressure P is given by:



w R1 V w R2 V wE0
P ¼ A 1 e þ BA 1  e þ (1)
R1 V R2 V V
In Eq. (1), A, B, and E0 have dimensions of pressure while R1, R2, and w are dimensionless
parameters. The volumetric ratio is represented by V ¼ vv0 where v0 is the initial volume.
Dobratz and Crawford (1985) provided the JWL input parameters for a variety of high explosive
materials. Material properties and JWL input parameters for TNT used in the numerical simula-
tion are shown in Table 1, where D is the detonation velocity, PCJ is the Chapman-Jouget pres-
sure, and E0 is the initial internal energy.

3.1.2. Fluid domain

In the numerical simulation, explosive charge is detonated in air medium and the expansion of
the blast wave is assumed as an adiabatic process. Linear polynomial equation of state is then
used to express the constitutive relation below:
 
P ¼ C0 þ C1 l þ C2 l2 þ C3 l3 þ C4 þ C5 l þ C6 l2 E (2)
where E is the internal energy, C1 - C6 are constants, and l variable is depending on the volumet-
ric ratio, V. (3) illustrates the relationship between l and V:
l ¼ ð1=VÞ  1 (3)
Coefficients of l2 are set to “0” in expanded elements, hence C2 and C6 will be zero. Gaseous
materials can be modeled using gamma law in linear polynomial equation of state. Assuming C0,
C1, C2, C3, and C6 zero gives the equation below:
C4 ¼ C5 ¼ c  1 (4)
In Eq. (5), c is the ratio of specific heat. The pressure is then attained in Eq. (5):
q
p ¼ ðc  1Þ E (5)
q0
Parameters used in simulation for air domain is presented in Table 2.
Modeling of material failure and characterization is also carried out to obtain accurate flow
stress and damage that might occur on the structure subjected to explosion.

3.2. Material modeling

Inertial forces, wave propagation, and transformation of kinetic energy through shockfront
become significant in predicting material behavior within high strain rates region. Derivation of
experimental-based material models is required to accurately build constitutive material behavior
6 A. ERDIK

Table 2. Material model parameters for air domain.

Density (kg/m3) c C4 C5
1.29 1.4 0.4 0.4

considering states of stress, large deformations, intermediate/high rates of strain, and temperature
dependency along with localization of failure of target.

3.2.1. Johnson-Cook constitutive material model

Johnson-Cook (J-C) is one of the widely used constitutive material models, which was primarily
developed for computational hydrocodes, focusing on high-speed impact and penetration prob-
lems at high rates of strain. The model possesses a viscoplastic formulation capability for ductile
metallic materials and counts strain hardening, strain rate hardening, and thermal softening
effects on the calculations of material behavior beyond elastic region along with failure limit
(Johnson and Cook 1983, 1985).
During detonation of an explosive charge, that a chemical reaction occurs inside the explosive
causes the release of a hot gas at high rates that a blast wave is formed in air. Following the igni-
tion, a certain amount of accumulated energy is dissipated by shockfront that strikes underneath
the structure results in dynamic and residual deformation on the bottom plate. Therefore, large
deformation and ductile plastic damage begin to develop in the material. Johnson and Cook
(1983) expresses the equivalent stress as a function of plastic strain, strain rate, and temperature
with an empirical relationship for the flow stress, which is represented as:
"  m #
    T  T
rY ¼ A þ Bep n 1 þ Cln_e p  1 
r
(6)
Tm  Tr

where ep is the equivalent plastic strain, e_ p  is the dimensionless plastic strain rate for e_ 0 , Tr is
the room temperature and Tm is the melting temperature. The five material constants are A, B,
C, n and m. The expression in the first set of brackets gives the stress as a function when e_ p  ¼ 1
and temperature effect is zero. The expressions in the second and third sets of brackets represent
the effects of strain rate and thermal softening, respectively. For strain hardening, strain rate
hardening and temperature phenomena, an independent term is generated. By multiplying these
three independent terms, a flow stress as a function of effective plastic strain, plastic strain rate,
and temperature is obtained. The calibration of material model parameters is relatively easy
because the model allows for isolation of various effects.

3.2.2. J-C damage model

In order to describe ductile fracture, Johnson and Cook (1985) also proposed a model including
the effects of stress, stress-triaxiality, strain hardening, strain rate hardening, and temperature.
The J-C failure model contains a fracture strain model extended with strain rate and temperature
terms to allow for their effects on fracture strain. These terms are already presented in J-C
strength model. The J-C damage model is a cumulative damage - fracture model by considering
the loading history. In other words, the model assumes that damage accumulates in the material
during plastic straining and once the damage reaches a critical value, the material breaks up
immediately. The strain hardening parameters, D1, D2, and D3, are mostly dependent upon the
state of stress and those parameters are particularly predominant for metals compared to strain
rate hardening and thermal softening parameters, D4, D5, respectively (Johnson and Cook 1985;
Skoglund, Nilsson, and Tjernberg 2006). The damage on an element calculated by a cumulative
damage law is shown in Eq. (7):
 MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES 7

De
D¼R (7)
ef
In Eq. (7), De is the increment of the plastic strain during an integration cycle and ef is the
equivalent strain to fracture under the current conditions of stress, strain rate, and temperature.
The damage variable, D takes values between “0” and “1”. D ¼ 0 implies that the material is
intact. Conversely, the failure of the material occurs when D reaches to “1”. Eq. (8) gives the gen-
eral expression for strain at fracture:
 
ef ¼ ½D1 þ D2 expðD3 r Þ 1 þ D4 ln_e p  ½1 þ D5 TH  (8)
The dimensionless pressure/stress ratio (r is the ratio of hydrostatic stress per effective stress)
is a measure of the triaxiality of the state of stress and is explained as:
rH ðrx þ ry þ rz Þ=3
r ¼ ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (9)
reqv ðrx þ ry þ rz  rx ry  ry rz  rz rx þ 3ðs2 þ s2 þ s2 Þ xy yz zx

where rH is the hydrostatic stress and reqv is the effective or equivalent stress. The dimensionless
strain rate e_ p as indicated in the J-C strength model is equal to e_ p =e_0 where e_0 is the reference
strain rate.

3.2.3. J-C material model parameters for secure 500

J-C constitutive and damage model parameters were attained using the Split Hopkinson bar
apparatus at Dynamic Material Lab, IYTE. Uniaxial quasi-static tests were conducted with flat
specimens at strain rates of 0.0001323, 0.013183, and 0.1191 s1 to examine the triaxiality, which
is dominated by state of plane stress. Dynamic tests were carried out on uniaxial compression
specimens at upper intermediate/high strain rates of 420, 780, 1050, and 1250 s1 to investigate
the effect of triaxiality under state of plane strain condition.
J-C constitutive and damage model parameters are provided in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.
Note that in damage model, D3 parameter is assumed to be a theoretical constant based on the
study of Rice and Tracey (1969).

3.3. Mesh sensitivity study

Apart from computational efficiency, mesh size is a decisive factor in the accuracy of numerical
calculations, hence prediction of blast loads on target structures through the ALE method. This
study was carried out to assess the dependency of results to mesh size. Four models with element
lengths of 5.31, 10.63, 21.25, and 42.50 mm in cubical edge direction were developed to model
blast wave propagation, which is acting on the target surface. In each mesh size, element length
ratio between Eulerian and Lagrangian meshes was set to value of “1” to obtain accurate coupling
forces in CONSTRAINED_LAGRANGE_IN_SOLID keyword function. Eulerian mesh in
Cartesian coordinate system was generated through two planes of symmetry, namely quarter

Table 3. J-C strength model parameters for Secure 500.

A (MPa) B (MPa) C m n
741 1630 0.00370 1 0.16

Table 4. J-C damage model parameters for Secure 500.

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 m e_0 (s1)
0.156 1.725 1.5 0.042 0.0 1 1  10-4
8 A. ERDIK

Figure 3. Geometric dimensions (right side) and details of mesh domain for 5.31 mm element size (left side).

Table 5. Finite element details and computation times for each model for mesh
sensitivity study.
Mesh size (mm) Number of elements Runtime (sec)
42.50 16,001 14
21.25 93,313 16
10.63 710,782 107
5.31 5,606,443 1,588

model to reduce the computational cost. It can be seen in Fig. 3, Eulerian domain is composed of
a cubical surrounding volume of air with one edge of 1500 mm and a cubical explosive charge
weighing 1 kg with one edge of 85 mm. In addition, to calculate the reflected overpressure, a rigid
reflecting surface was inserted into the air domain. The target plate was located at 400 mm far
away from the center of the explosive charge. Modeling details Numerical simulations were con-
ducted on a high performance compute cluster with 36 CPUs. Table 5 provides the finite element
modeling details and run times for the mesh size sensitivity.

3.3.1. Comparison of results with CONWEP

Kingery and Bulmash [11] performed a series of blast experiments so as to investigate behavior
of structures under blast loading. Various amounts of TNT explosive with the shape of sphere
and hemisphere were detonated at different standoff distances to the target plate to obtain blast
parameters. These parameters were then used to formulate the linear polynomial equation of
states, which are the basis of CONWEP computer program (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2002,
2008). CONWEP is implemented in LS-DYNA as LOAD_BLAST function. This card defines an
airblast function for the application of pressure loads due to explosives in conventional weapons
and it can be used for airburst of a spherical high explosive, ground detonation of a charge or
surface burst of a hemispherical high explosive. The implementation is based on a report by
Randers-Pehrson and Bannister (1997) where it is mentioned that this model is adequate for use
in engineering studies of vehicle responses due to the blast from landmines. The accuracy of
LOAD_BLAST has been assessed in the study of Rigby et al. (2014). The authors found out in
their study that the blast parameters obtained in the experimental measurements are generally
predicted to a high degree of accuracy by the CONWEP method. The maximum deviation
between the experimental measurements and CONWEP predictions is about 7%. The authors
also concluded that the method is very accurate and can be utilized with confidence as a first-
order approach for quantifying the blast load acting on a structure through drawing comparison
among other blast simulation techniques. For this reason, mesh sensitivity study has been carried
out on the basis of CONWEP model.
 MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES 9

Figure 4. Comparison of reflected overpressure.

The reflected overpressure - time variation for ALE models are illustrated in Fig. 4. The results
were compared to CONWEP calculations. LS-DYNA shows consistent overpressure results with
increasing the mesh size. Notably, the difference between results were prominent by changing the
mesh size. Considering the run times, as shown in Table 5, computation time nonlinearly
increases by reducing the mesh. In Fig. 4, it was also observed that 5.31 mm offers almost the
same result with the CONWEP method.

4. Blast mitigation performances of V-shaped hulls

A further numerical investigation in LS-DYNA was performed to examine performance of the exist-
ing sandwich structure by modifying bending angle of face sheet exposed to blast loading of 6 kg
TNT explosive charge in a steel pot. Therefore, the bending angle of the v-shaped sandwich compos-
ite structure was changed ranging from 100
to 160
, and the blast energy absorbed by the structure
and the maximum global floor velocity values on the floor plate were determined to gain an insight
into human tolerance to injury. Figure 5 illustrates the schematic of the V-hull with different angles
with the standoff distances from the explosive. Note that in order to compare the changes of the floor
velocities with each other, the position of floor plate has been fixed in space domain. Hence, the
standoff distances of the end-point of the face sheet to the floor plate have changed.
Figure 6 demonstrates the maximum amount of energy accumulated by the V-shaped sand-
wich hull as well as maximum displacement and global velocity values on the floor plate. In Fig.
6a, as expected, maximum displacement increases with the increased angle value. Interestingly,
the displacement on the floor plate increases more than 2 times when the folding angle is raised
from 100 degrees to 160 degrees. When the global velocity values on the floor plate in Fig. 6b are
evaluated according to the injury criteria, it is seen that the probability of the human tibia to
injury is in the critical condition for all cases. As seen in Fig. 6c, energy absorption capacities of
angles of 140
and 150
are rather better than other alternatives.

5. Comparison of V-shaped sandwich system with flat sandwich structure and

flat plate
In order to evaluate the structural response of the V-shaped sandwich protective structure, which
combines the advantages of V-shaped plate and sandwich structure, a comparative study has been
10 A. ERDIK

Figure 5. Standoff distances for the various angles (lengths in mm).

Figure 6. Sandwich structures with different angles: (a) Maximum displacements on floor plate (b) Maximum global velocities
on floor plate (c) Maximum internal energies of face sheet.
 MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES 11

Figure 7. Maximum elastic displacement values of (a) V-shaped sandwich structure (b) flat sandwich structure (c) flat plate.

Figure 8. Model details.

performed. Using CONWEP air blast technique, a TNT explosive with a mass of 6 kg was deto-
nated at a distance of 400 mm away from the V-shaped sandwich structure, flat sandwich struc-
ture, and flat plate, which are the same width and length of 1400  1600 mm and equal mass of
366 kg. As seen in Fig. 7, (a) is designated as V-shaped sandwich structure, (b) is designated as
the flat form of sandwich structure of (a) with the same properties, and (c) is the flat plate having
the same mass of (a) and (b).
The maximum elastic displacement values are compared. The minimum elastic displacement
value was obtained on the V-shaped sandwich structure. Similarly, when the maximum global
velocity values were compared, velocity of 13.5, 22, and 26 m/s were obtained in the structures of
(a), (b) and (c), respectively. When considering maximum displacement values, it is observed that
the V-shaped sandwich structure makes a gain of 16% over the flat plate and 11% over the flat
sandwich structure.

6. Numerical model description of blast testing setup

The model used in the present study is a representative version of V-shaped underbelly of a gen-
eric Lightweight Fighting Vehicle (LFV) as shown in Fig. 8. To be more precise, the upper part
of hull geometry and interior bulkheads have been removed from the setup since those parts
have a negligible influence on the response of vehicle hull in the first milliseconds of the blast
phenomenon, which is the duration of interest hereby. Instead, 7000 kg was added to the fixture
of blast setup as a representative of total weight of a generic LFV including the power pack, tur-
ret, interior parts, and their attachments. Even though those components are exposed to small
deformations, they contribute to the total stiffness and inertia of underbelly hull.
12 A. ERDIK

Table 6. Details of finite element model.

Number of nodes 715,353
Number of shell elements 223,989
Number of solid elements 467,908
Number of rigid Elements 55,591
Number of deformable Elements 636,306
Number of spotwelds 924

Table 7. Material properties of bulk parts.

Mass density (kg/m3) Elastic modulus (MPa) Poisson ratio Yield stress (MPa)
7860 210,000 0.3 355

Table 8. Details of numerical simulation model.

LS-DYNA Material Model Equation of state Element type Components
MAT_JOHNSON_COOK — Lagrangian Belytscho_Tsay shell Armor
MAT_SPOTWELD — Rigid Beam Weld
MAT_PLASTIC_KINEMATIC EOS_LINEAR_POLYNOMIAL Lagrangian hexahedron Steel pot/mild steel
MAT_NULL EOS_LINEAR_POLYNOMIAL ALE hexahedron Air
MAT_HIGH_EXPLOSIVE_BURN EOS_JWL ALE hexahedron Explosive

Hypermesh software package was used as the preprocessor to build finite element mesh model
of the test setup. The vehicle hull, support legs and I-beam reinforcements were meshed
with Belytschko-Tsay shell elements. Bolts were modeled with beam elements with appropriate
formulation. Upper parts of hull, power pack, and other bulk masses were represented through
simplified block structure meshes with constant stress solid elements. Eulerian type of elements,
surrounding volume of air, explosive charge, and steel casing of explosive were modeled as ALE
type of solid elements. The details of finite element mesh model of blast testing setup is presented
in Table 6. MAT_JOHNSON_COOK material model was used for the V-angled underbelly com-
ponents. MAT_PLASTIC_KINEMATIC was used for bulk materials. Mechanical properties of
bulk parts are given in Table 7. The contact algorithm between Lagrangian surfaces was charac-
terized using the Penalty-based method. The method utilizes linear compression spring forces act-
ing on contact interfaces. Fluid-structure interaction between Eulerian and Lagrangian elements
was described by a coupling algorithm, CONSTRAINED_LAGRANGE_IN_SOLID keyword.
Table 8 gives valuable insight into building numerical simulation model of a structure exposed
to landmine blast in LS-DYNA hydrocode by pointing out material models, equation of states as
well as ALE and Lagrangian element types used in typical blast simulation covering fluid struc-
ture algorithm (FSI).
The contact algorithm between Lagrangian surfaces is defined using the Penalty-based method.
The method utilizes linear compression spring forces acting on contact interfaces. FSI between
Eulerian and Lagrangian parts is adopted through a coupling algorithm, CONSTRAINED_
LAGRANGIAN_IN_SOLID keyword.

7. Blast test
7.1. Test conditions
NATO AEP-55 (NATO 2006) describes the test conditions in determining protection levels of
logistic and light armored vehicles subjected to grenade and blast mine threats defined by NATO
STANAG 4569. Landmine are either buried in saturated sandy gravel or placed in a steel pot in
accordance with the same standard. In this study, in order to decrease deviation among multiple
blast experiments and to increase repeatability of experiments, the steel pot was selected as the
 MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES 13

Figure 9. Dimensions of explosive charge and steel pot.

Figure 10. Blast test setup.

confinement. 6 kg of cylindrical TNT charge was positioned in the steel pot. The geometric
dimensions of the 6 kg cylindrical TNT explosive and the steel pot according to the NATO AEP-
55 (NATO 2006) are given in Fig. 9.

7.2. Test rig

The test rig comprises the hull of vehicle, support legs, test rig frame, and bulkheads/mass blocks.
The hull, which is bolted to the test rig, consists of two sections: V-shaped sandwich structure
with 125
angle of bend and floor plate. The mass blocks represent the total weight of a generic
IFV. The support legs, rig frame, and representative mass blocks are manufactured from St52
steel, while the hull and inner flat plate are made of Secure 500 steel. The standoff distance, that
is to say, from the center of the explosive charge in steel pot to the nearest point of the V-shaped
plate, is 400 mm. Figure 10 shows the entire blast test setup.

7.3. Selection of measurement locations and instrumentation

Mine protection systems can dissipate shock waves outward the vehicle by taking advantage of its
geometry and also mitigate certain amount of kinetic energy arising from detonation of high
explosive. For instance, V-shaped sandwich kit mounted underneath vehicle could protect hull by
absorbing blast energy and scattering blast waves across the vehicle. Since both vehicle hull and
14 A. ERDIK

Figure 11. Position of the lead pipes (plan view).

Figure 12. Position of the lead pipes (front view).

seat mounting locations are important in terms of vehicle integrity and survivability of manne-
quins, respectively, the edge of hull and the regions where three seats are bolted to the floor plate
were selected as deformation measurement points.
Crushable thin-walled lead hollow tubes, which are insensitive to the high strain rates, were
mounted to measure elastic and plastic deformations on the floor plate during explosion. Figures
11 and 12 show the locations of the thin-walled tubes. In order to precisely measure deformations
with small tolerances, the tubes are positioned just over the floor plate, on which they gently
touch. The position of the measuring tubes on the floor plate was determined by considering the
maximum deformation areas resulting from the preliminary analysis. This analysis can also play
an important role in specifying the mounting points where the seats will be positioned. Since the
accelerations in the maximum deformation zones during the explosion will be very high, the seats
should not be placed in these areas.
Folding or bending edge of hull could also be a further measurement point. In order to retain
integrity of vehicle, it is expected that the hull shall resist against blast loads and subsequently
rapture on the floor plate should not take place on the hull under those loads. Investigation of
deformation patterns on hull structure offers valuable information on dynamic response of mater-
ial under blast loads. Therefore, bulging deformations on V-shaped hull plate after explosion
were measured using a rope perpendicular to the center of the bulge on the hull, where max-
imum deformation exists.
 MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES 15

Figure 13. Schematic representation of deformation measurement.

Table 9. Maximum elastic and plastic deformations measured on floor plate in field test and blast simulation.
Deviation Deviation
Measured Measured Calculated Calculated percentage of percentage of
maximum maximum maximum maximum maximum maximum
elastic plastic elastic plastic elastic plastic
deformation deformation deformation deformation deformation deformation
Location (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (%) (%)
#1 82 25 71 24 13.4 4
#2 72 26 65 22 9.7 15
#3 42 15 36 13 14.3 13

The measuring device comprise two parts; the first part consists of the connection apparatus
of measuring mechanism to the lead pipe and the second part is the lead pipe itself. While the
total length of the lead pipe and the connection apparatus before and after the test is expressed
by did and dfd, the length of the lead pipe before and after the explosion is denoted by di and df.
The difference between the first and the last length of the lead pipe (did - dfd) gives maximum
elastic deformation and the difference between did and dfd results in plastic deformation on the
floor plate. Graphical description of the deformation calculation is illustrated in Fig. 13.

8. Comparison of numerical and experimental results

Deformation comparisons were obtained for two cases, i.e., floor plate and folding edge of V-
shaped hull from full-scale blast test campaigns. The cases included elastic and permanent defor-
mations. In addition to the experimental data, it is provided a numerical deformation results to
perform future calibration study. Therefore, the attempt was made to quantify the association
between numerical simulation and field test for deformation values on floor plate and folding
edge of sandwich panel.
In Table 9, elastic and plastic deformation values of the floor plate, which are both measured
in the blast test and calculated in the numerical analysis, were compared and deviation percen-
tages of numerical results with regard to test measurements were also provided.
As can be seen from Fig. 14a, the permanent deformation calculated in numerical simulation
in the outer face sheet of the V-shaped sandwich structure at global z-axis is 37 mm, while the
deformation obtained in this region in the test is 40 mm. Fig. 14b gives the plastic deformation
values of 64 mm and 62 mm at the normal direction to the outer face sheet of the V-shaped hull
obtained from numerical simulation and blast test, respectively. Similarly, Fig. 14c illustrates the
deformation values of 340 mm and 348 mm on the inner face sheet of the sandwich panel at glo-
bal z-axis obtained in the numerical simulation and experiment, respectively. It is underlined that
16 A. ERDIK

Figure 14. Comparison of plastic deformations between numerical simulation and blast test: (a) vertical plastic deformation at
the edge of hull, (b) resultant plastic deformation perpendicular to V-shape face, (c) peak plastic deformation on cover plate.

the deformation contours on the face sheets obtained from the numerical simulation are very
similar to those of formed by field test.

9. Conclusion
Development of a mine protection system can be highly challenging engineering problem, given
all the influencing factors such as gross weight, mobility, and different type of variations of arm-
ored vehicles arising from diverse operational conditions. Even though novel techniques in com-
posite manufacturing industry make possible to use high-end composite fibers made of carbon,
epoxy glass, s-glass, etc. in the field of impact/blast-induced phenomena, metallic materials can
still ensure vigorous alternative solutions in mitigating systems. The combination of blast testing,
numerical solutions, and material characterization under dynamic conditions could be an effective
approach to accurately design mine protection system mounted underneath the hull of vehicle.
 MECHANICS BASED DESIGN OF STRUCTURES AND MACHINES 17

With the rapid development and adoption of numerical techniques to simulate blast phenom-
enon in computer environment recently, the need for engineers to know whether the newest tech-
niques offer adequate or better results compared to the existing ones have arisen. Such a question
can be answered with a comparison study. In this article, it was intended to provide information
on how to do so. At very least, it is aimed that researchers, in the light of the information
obtained from this study, to be able to interpret the findings in comparative studies encountered
in the literature. For this purpose, the author discussed and illustrated with two cases, the design,
analysis, and interpretation of a comparative study. The cases using partial data from a full-scale
blast experiments conducted by Test and Validation Department at OTOKAR.
In the first case, by measuring on the flat plate, the magnitude of the blast loads acting on that
area were estimated and an input was provided to the numerical analysis validation study, and the
positioning of the seats was carried out. When the results were examined, one interesting finding
was that the amount of elastic deformation was about 3 times greater than the plastic deformation.
Perhaps the most compelling finding was the maximum elastic deformations calculated in blast
simulation underestimate the experimentally measured values about 10%. Similarly, plastic deforma-
tions obtained in numerical simulations deviate between 5-15% from experimental measurements.
In the latter case, deformation patterns and values obtained on the bending edge of the hull
are well-matched with the measurements in the field test (Fig. 10a–c). Deformation contours, val-
ues of dent depth and diameter in the numerical simulation are quite similar to that of the
experiment. In addition, the shape of the inward indentation formed at the folding edge and the
shape of the bulge formed on the outer face sheet are quite similar to those of the blast test. If
numerical simulation results are evaluated in terms of the adequacy of the mesh size, numerical
results are in accord with experimental measurements with small deviation and it can be reported
that 5 mm of element size achieves reasonable result with regards to deformation.
When the correlation of the numerical simulation with blast test is evaluated, the deformation
contours obtained in the numerical analysis indicate that the constitutive relationship between
stresses and strains at high strain rates is accurately described for material behavior of armor steel
and that the interaction algorithm in the Euler and Lagrangian domains is fulfilled correctly. It is
evidently clear from the these findings that the applied method used in this study is an influential
tool in modeling propagation of shock waves through air domain and interaction between shock
waves and target to assess effects of detonation of explosive charge on structures.

Funding
The author would like to thank “Technology and Innovation Funding Programs Directorate” and “OTOKAR
Otomotiv ve Savunma Sanayi A.S” for their financial support of the research project TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific
and Technological Research Council) TEYDEB for the grant no. [3060493] that forms the basis of this work
and support.

ORCID
Atil Erdik http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2085-5474

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