Experimental investigation of deflectors angle influence on energy absorption

Numerical simulations without preliminary validation and model verification are vulnerable to errors. Best results are obtained when full experimental research is provided. Such tests are expensive and may be dangerous. Due to cost control and personnel safety, studies are often done in scale. Scale can affect both construction dimensions and applied load. In this paper four different vehicle's bottoms are examined: flat bottom and 3 types of deflectors. The paper presents four different vehicle's bottom shapes in order to examine deflector angle influence on energy absorption. The test included 4 cases: flat bottom broken-shaped deflector and deflectors with different apex angles 124 centigrade and 144 centigrade. For all cases the distance between explosive and panel was approximately 400 mm. The charge used was 100 g TNT. Flat bottom and deflectors were made of St3 steel with 2 mm thickness. For the purpose of the research a special test stand to examine effects of detonation wave was used. The force measurement system was designed in Department of Mechanics and Applied Computer Science. As a result, force versus time plots were obtained. The use of any deflector decreases maximum force affecting vehicle's hull.