Tearing of blast loaded plates with clamped boundary conditions

Extensive experimental results for the prediction of the onset of thinning (necking) and hence subsequent tearing at the boundary of clamped circular plates subjected to uniformly loaded air blasts are presented. The experiments include: plates of diameter ranging from 60mm to 120mm; different clamped edge conditions;(sharp edge. and radii of 1.5mm and 3.2mm) and an examination of the microstructural behaviour. Observations of thinning at the boundary show similar trends for all plate diameters with sharp edge conditions, and where the boundary edge condition is relaxed the deflections are larger before thinning and tearing occurs. Three phases within Mode I (large inelastic deformation) are identified as; Mode I (no visible necking at the boundary); Mode Ia (necking around part of the boundary); and Mode Ib (necking around the entire boundary). Predictions using the code ABAQUS provide, in particular for Mode I, favourable correlations with the experiments. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.