Strain growth is a phenomenon observed in the elastic response of containment vessels subjected to internal blast loading. The local dynamic response of a containment vessel may become larger in a later stage than its response in the earlier stage. In order to understand the possible mechanisms of the strain growth phenomenon in a cylindrical vessel, dynamic elastic responses of a finite-length cylindrical shell with different boundary conditions subjected to internal pressure pulse are studied by finite-element simulation using LS-DYNA. It is found that the strain growth in a finite-length cylindrical shell with sliding–sliding boundary conditions is caused by nonlinear modal coupling. Strain growth in a finite-length cylindrical shell with free–free or simply supported boundary conditions is primarily caused by the linear modal superposition, possibly enhanced by the nonlinear modal coupling. The understanding of these strain growth mechanisms can guide the design of cylindrical containment vessels.

The dynamic response of composite explosion containment vessels has been widely reported by experimental observations. In this study, we propose an analytical method to predict the dynamic response of open-ended cylindrical composite shells subjected to internal blast loading. The cylindrical composite shell has an out fiber composite shell with an inner steel liner, in which the outer fiber composite shell is simplified as a single elastic layer by an effective modulus in the hoop direction. Considering the impact between two layers during the dynamic response, the analytical solution for response histories of two layers could be obtained. Finite element analysis on the double-layer model is also conducted by ls-dyna. The analytical solution and the simulation result agree well, which demonstrates that the current analytical method can be employed in the design of this composite structure under blast loading.

To address the challenge of balancing the damping performance with mechanical strength in conventional polyurea materials for blast mitigation, this study develops a constrained layer damping coating structure using Q413t viscoelastic polyurea (Q413t) as the damping layer and FPU-1 flexible polyurea (FPU-1) as the constraining layer. The mechanical behaviors of both types of polyurea were characterized through tensile testing at varying loading speeds, while dynamic thermomechanical analysis was utilized to evaluate their damping properties. A 75 g TNT contact explosion test and finite element simulation were employed to explore the protective mechanism. The results show that Q413t demonstrates significant strain-rate sensitivity under intermediate-strain-rate conditions, whereas FPU-1 exhibits minimal variation in mechanical strength. Q413t demonstrates a superior damping performance over a frequency range of 0–10⁴ Hz. FPU-1 achieved a loss factor of 0.3 when the loading frequency reached 10⁴–10⁵ Hz. Under the 75 g TNT contact explosion load, the configuration with a 1 mm damping layer and a 3 mm constraint layer achieved a maximum displacement reduction of 35.26%. In the constrained layer damping coating, the damping layer contributes to blast protection through energy dissipation and load distribution, while the constraining layer reduces structural deformation by limiting displacement. Relative motion between the layers further enhances the overall damping performance. The constrained layer damping coating provides optimal blast protection when the damping-to-constraining layer thickness ratio is 1:3. The constrained layer damping coating enables the synergistic optimization of mechanical strength and energy dissipation, effectively mitigating structural deformation induced by blast loading and demonstrating promising engineering application potential.