Experimental investigation of blast resistance of steel structures with different elastomeric coatings subjected to underwater explosive loading

Elastomeric material is used as blast-resistant structure because of its good mechanical properties.A series of underwater near-field explosive tests at different standoff distances were conducted to investigate the anti-explosion performance of steel structures covered with rubber and polyurea coatings. The experimental results demonstrated that both rubber and polyurea could enhance the blast resistance of test plates, and the polyurea coating performed better in reducing the deformation of steel plate and damage of steel structure. Compared with rubber, the polyurea has excellent mechanisms of energy absorption and dissipation, its mechanical behavior and molecular structure of elastomeric material determines the different ways of energy absorption and dissipation.