Experimental Study of the Compressive Performance of Life Jacket Use Polyurethane Foam for Blast Wave Protection

Abstract

Underwater blast injury is a common war injury during combat around islands or fighting for beachhead, and is also ordinary in underwater engineering construction blast. Adding an extra underwater blast wave protection layer and Integration with life jacket is a reasonable protection measure. Four different low mass density closed cell polyurethane foams used in life jacket have been tested by quasi-static material testing machine, and the dynamic mechanical behavior at strain rates of 10-3～10-1s-1 has been analyzed. The yield strength has been tested with Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar. Experimental results show that the compressive performance of the polyurethane foam is sensitive to the strain rates. The polyurethane foams’ yield strength shows rising trend along with strain rates increase. Under the condition of the plateau yield strength below human’s allowable pressure, the energy absorption performance of the polyurethane foams has been analyzed and in contrast.