Shock tube is used to simulate blast loading conditions on materials for studying the failure behavior of different materials under blast pressures on smaller scale. This paper describes CAE method developed for simulating shock tube experiment in LS-DYNA3D environment. The objective of shock tube simulation is to characterize material failure parameters so as to predict risk of material failure in full vehicle blast simulations while developing vehicle for blast protection applications.
The paper describes modeling of shock wave and its interaction with test specimen in shock tube environment. Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) techniques are applied to simulate shock tube experiment in LS-DYNA3D and simulation predictions are compared with experimental test data. CAE correlation studies were carried out with respect to incident and reflected pressures in shock tube, deformation and plastic strains on test specimen, shock wave velocity etc. It is observed that simulation captured overall shock tube phenomenon reasonably well.
Material failure criteria under blast loading conditions are different than that used for conventional impact loading applications like crashworthiness. This shock tube experiment simulation capability will add significant value in terms of designing shock tube experiments for material failure testing and characterizing materials e.g. metals, composites etc. for failure modeling under pressure loading conditions.