An Experimental Investigation of Water-Filled Tank Subjected to Horizontal High Speed Impact

In recent years, vulnerability against high-speed impact loadings has become an increasingly critical issue in the design of fluid-filled structures. The initial shock waves caused by high-speed impacts were investigated experimentally in this paper. The 600 × 310 × 310 mm water-filled tank with aluminum targets were subjected to impact by projectiles at impact velocity 50 ~ 350 m/s. Five different nosed projectiles and targets with different thicknesses were considered to study how the strength and decayed characteristics of the initial shock waves were influenced by those factors. In order to compare the pressure time history which was recorded by the pressure transducers positioned in the tank with different distributions, the visualized propagation of shock waves was monitored by a new technique. The failure modes of the targets were investigated to provide the assessment on the shock resistance of metal tanks by comparing with air-back impact tests. This work presents the results of these tests.