Robustness of Sandwich Panels Subjected to Blast Wave

The paper presents results of a research on robustness of sandwich panels subjected to the accidental load – impact blast wave. The accidental design situation is understood as an unexpected explosion of gas cylinders located in the neighbourhood of the building. Full‐size sandwich panels with lightly profiled, thin‐walled, steel facings and thick softcore were used in the experiments. The conducted field tests allowed for FE model validation in Abaqus/CEA environment. During the experiments, the two high‐speed cameras have been used to record the behavior of the sandwich panel. Furthermore, the failure mechanisms of the sandwich panels and fasteners were also revealed. The research outcomes are based on both field experiments and numerical simulations.