Using a shock tube to predict the response of polymeric foam to a blast loading

Abstract
Understanding the behaviour of polymeric foam materials under blast wave loading is of great importance for the design of efficient personnel protective equipment against explosive devices. Material response to a shock wave generated from a shock tube is quite different from the real blast wave response. However, shock tube experiments are more practicable and efficient than free-field blast trials when it comes to the characterization of high-rate material behaviour. The objective of this study is to find a correlation in the responses of polymeric foams to these two different wave shapes. Shock tube experiments as well as free-field blast trials have been conducted on three polymeric foams of varying thickness and density. Using shock impulse, a correlation between the two responses was found. Regimes of overpressure amplification and attenuation caused by the foam material were clearly identified in the case of a blast loading.