Influence of aluminum foam lining on deformation of steel cylinders subjected to internal blast loading

In order to improve the anti-explosion ability of steel cylinders subjected to internal blast loading, the effect of aluminum foam lining on the deformation of the steel cylinders was explored. First of all, contrast experiments displayed that under the experimental conditions in this paper, the steel cylinders deformed more greatly due to foam aluminum lining, and some were even seriously damaged. Then the finite element models were established to study the change mechanism and law of the deformation of the steel cylinders with the equivalent of explosion and the thickness of aluminum foam lining. The results show that the aluminum foam lining with enough thickness will reduce the deformation of the steel cylinders, however, if the thickness of the aluminum foam lining is insufficient, there may be an opposite effect. For the aluminum-foam lined steel cylinder with a fixed size, the effect of aluminum foam lining on the plastic deformation of the steel cylinder mainly includes three modes as the explosive equivalent increases. In mode 1, the aluminum foam will absorb explosive loading through plastic deformation, thus reducing the deformation of the steel cylinder. In mode 2, the steel cylinder endures higher load and suffers larger plastic deformation due to adding the foam aluminum lining. For mode 3, the effect of the aluminum foam on the explosive loading can be ignored, and the aluminum foam decreases the plastic deformation of the steel cylinder by increasing the total mass of the structure.