Dynamic response of lightweight wood-based flexible wall panels to blast and impulse loading

Recent research led to the development of lightweight, rapidly erected, structural wall panels constructed from solid sawn 2 × 4 softwood lumber studs and plywood sheathing coated in e-glass reinforcing. The objective of this study was to experimentally and numerically assess the dynamic blast response of these FRP-reinforced wood panels and explore the development of pressure–impulse (PI) diagrams based on a maximum deflection damage criterion. The results of five different field blast tests on the wall panels are reported. Laboratory pseudo-static bending tests of panels under fully reversed loading were performed to determine the panel’s load-deformation properties. A hysteretic load-deformation model was calibrated to the blast and pseudo-static bend data and used in a nonlinear, numerically integrated SDOF dynamic response model. PI diagrams were generated using both linear and nonlinear dynamic analysis. The results of this study indicate that the blast response of the wall panels can be reasonably represented with a nonlinear SDOF dynamic model. However, the model results are sensitive to the parameters of the hysteretic model. The results also indicate that PI diagrams are a potentially valuable tool for assessing damage under a variety of blast loads.