Comparative Analysis of Aluminum Alloy 6061-T6 and Mild Steel Tubes in Sacrificial Protection System under Blast Loading

Abstract

A sacrificial cladding consist of hollow metal tubes and steel sheet, is proposed in this study to protect a square concrete panel subjected to blast loading. Herein, comparative analysis of aluminum alloy 6061-T6 (Al 6061-T6) and mild steel tubes in sacrificial cladding is done using 3-D non-linear Finite Element (FE) software ABAQUS/Explicit^®. Blast load is applied through ConWep program developed by US Army. Simplified Concrete Damage Plasticity (SCDP) model is used to define the material behavior of concrete slabs of thickness 250 mm. Johnson-Cook (J-C) plasticity model is used to model the stress-strain response of Al 6061-T6 and mild steel tubes, reinforcement bars and steel sheet.  Diameter (D) and thickness (t) of circular metal hollow tubes are taken from IS1161:1998. Comparative analysis of Al 6061-T6 and mild steel tubes is carried out for blast loading using TNT with scaled distance of 0.425 m/kg^1/3. It was observed that mild steel tubes perform better than Al 6061-T6 tubes and save concrete panel from degradation under blast loading.