A new concept for blast hardened bulkheads with attached aluminum foam

The use of blast hardened bulkheads (BHBs) is an effective vulnerability hardening technique for improving the survivability of naval warships when internal explosions occur due to being shot by an anti-surface missile. In this paper, a new concept of BHBs reinforced by aluminum (Al) foam is proposed. The new concept can significantly reduce the blast pressures transferred to bulkheads and, unlike conventional BHBs, can be easily installed to operating naval warships. Chamber model blast tests were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Al-foam BHBs and the results are further supported by numerical simulations. Finally, a practical preliminary is proposed for the Al-foam BHBs.