Influences of material and geometry in the performance of auxetic composite structure under blast loading

This paper aims at investigating the deformation and damage mechanisms of auxetic sandwich panels subjected to localised blast. The ability of self-densifying and adjusting to the loads, typical of auxetic structures, has been evaluated. A numerical model of the auxetic cellular composite panel has been developed to conduct statistical studies on different parameters (core geometry and material) using Taguchi design of experiment (DOE) method combined with general linear model (GLM) for analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimisation has been conducted evaluating different parameters: energy absorption of the entire panel and deformation of the back facet were measured. The analysis of the numerical model of the core suggests the importance of the self-adapting mechanism of the auxetic structure under blast loading.