Impact response of steel-PU foam-steel-concrete-steel panel: Experimental, numerical and analytical studies

Abstract A new steel-polyurethane foam-steel-concrete-steel (SPUFSCS) panel, which consists of “soft” and “stiff” layers, was proposed and its impact resistant performance was experimentally, numerically and analytically studied. The front “soft” layer, including a steel plate and polyurethane foam (PUF), was designed for dissipating impact energy and reducing peak force transmitted to the rear “stiff” layer (i.e., SCS panel). The SCS panel with high strength and ductility was employed for resisting the transmitted impact force from PUF. Experimental studies on SPUFSCS panels under impact loading were first conducted by employing an instrumented drop weight impact test system to reveal their failure modes, impact force and displacement responses. The impact energy was found to be dissipated through local indentation and global deformation of the SPUFSCS panel. The Finite Element (FE) models of the tested SPUFSCS panels under impact loading were established and validated against the experimental results. Numerical results indicated that the impact energy dissipated by “soft” layer is higher than that of “stiff” layer, which demonstrated the benefits of employing “soft” layer on improving the impact resistance of the traditional SCS panel. In addition, an analytical model was also presented for predicting the displacement response of the SPUFSCS panel under impact loading. The analytical model was proven to be reasonable in predicting the displacement response by comparing with the experimental results.