Extensive shock and highly localised blast waves generated by detonation of near field explosives (such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs)) are catastrophic to structures and humans, resulting in injury or death, progressive damage, or perforation through the structure and collapse. Mitigating the effects of such waves is paramount in various aspects of design engineering. A theoretical model is presented here to predict the large inelastic deformation of ductile thin square membranes induced by a generic, short pulse pressure load, comprising a piecewise function of spatial and temporal parts. Using the constitutive framework of limit analysis and incorporating the influence of finite displacements, two patterns of kinematically admissible, time dependent velocity profiles were investigated. These patterns included stationery and moving plastic hinges. The results were investigated in two cases: once with the interaction between bending moment and membrane forces retained in the analyses, and then when the response was solely governed by membrane forces.

For blast loads of high magnitude, the pressure was replaced by an impulsive velocity and the results were expressed in terms of dimensionless form of initial kinetic energy. The effects of boundary conditions and visco-plasticity have also been investigated. The theoretical results corroborated well with various experimental results in the literature, on ductile metallic plates such as high strength ARMOX steel and mild steel.