Research on the Explosion Resistance of Hollow Microspheres/Al Layered Composite Panels

Hollow microspheres-reinforced Al-based composite materials have received extensive attention from researchers due to the enhancement effect and designability of hollow microspheres. In this study, non-contact and contact explosion experiments were conducted on three sandwich composite panels, including hollow microspheres/Al, regular foam Al, and honeycomb Al. According to the experimental results, the anti-explosion performance of the three sandwich composite panels was compared from the perspectives of damage/failure morphology, front-panel pit depth, and back plate deflection. Simultaneously, the deformation data of the cenosphere/Al composite panel were nonlinearly fitted. The study shows that in the non-contact explosion, the cenosphere/Al panel has better integrality and better anti-explosion performance than the foam Al and honeycomb Al sandwich composite panels, and the excellent anti-explosion performance becomes more prominent as the proportion distance decreases. In the contact explosion, serious damage/failure occurs in all three composite panels, and the anti-explosion performance is poor, making them unsuitable as anti-sticking explosion-resistant materials. In the experimental data fitting, it was found that the front-panel pit depth of the cenosphere/Al panel decreases exponentially with the proportion distance, and the pit depth will increase rapidly as the proportion distance decreases, and a specific empirical formula is given.