Experimental and Numerical Investigations into Polymeric Coatings for Blast Protection

Experimental and numerical investigations were conducted to assess the effectiveness of polymeric coatings to enhance the blast protection of steel structures. During the experiments test plates were allowed to deform under close-in blast loading and the final deformations of coated and uncoated plates were compared. The coatings were found to reduce the deformation of the plates when applied to the surface facing away from the blast and generally a good agreement was achieved between the numerical and experimental results.