LAUSR

THE DYNAMIC RESPONSE AND FAILURE MECHANISM OF CLAMPED THIN ALUMI-NUM ALLOY PLATES SUBJECTED TO UNDERWATER IMPULSIVE LOADING ARE INVES-TIGATED BY LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND FINITE ELEMENT (FE) SIMULATIONS. THE EFFECTS OF PLATE THICKNESS, IMPULSIVE LOADING AND FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION ON FAILURE MODE IN CLAMPED THIN ALUMINUM PLATES ARE COM-PREHENSIVELY ASSESSED IN THIS STUDY. THE UNDERWATER EXPLOSIVE SHOCK LOADING EXPERIMENTS WERE PERFORMED BY UNDERWATER NON-CONTACT EXPLOSIVE SIMULATOR TO IDENTIFY FAILURE MODES OF TARGET PLATES UNDER LOADS WITH DIFFERENT INTENSITIES. THE 3D DIGITAL IMAGE CORRELATION WAS APPLIED TO MEASURE THE REAL-TIME DEFORMATION OF THE SPECIMENS THROUGHOUT THE IMPULSIVE EVENT. DEPENDING ON LOADING INTENSITY, THE FAILURE MODES OF THIN ALUMINUM PLATES WERE SUBDIVIDED INTO THREE MODES. SCANNING ELECTRON MICROGRAPHS OF THE FRACTURE SURFACES SHOW THAT THE LOCAL FAILURE MECHANISM WAS TENSILE NECKING IN ALL CASES. A CALIBRATED FE MODEL WAS ADOPTED TO PREDICT THE OVERALL DYNAMIC BE-HAVIOR OF PLATES. THE RESULTS INDICATE THAT THE THICKNESS OF PLATES HAS NO SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON THE DEFORMATION MODES. IN ADDITION, THE QUANTITA-TIVE RELATIONS OF THE PLATE THICKNESS, THE EFFECT OF FLUID-STRUCTURE INTER-ACTION AND FAILURE OF PLATE SUBJECTED TO UNDERWATER SHOCK LOADING WERE REVEALED BY THE COMBINATION OF EXPERIMENT AND SIMULATION RESULTS. THE RESULTS OBTAINED IN THIS INVESTIGATION PROVIDE A POTENTIAL GUIDANCE TO ENHANCE THE IMPULSIVE RESISTANCE OF UNDERWATER STRUCTURE.