The improvement of blast resistance of supporting elements by application of protective cover is the main goal of this paper. Developed sandwich panel is very effective in blast protection, however, such solutions are sensitive to the design parameters including thickness of components, stiffness and strength of materials and panel lay-up. Therefore, a numerical optimization based on computational mechanics was implemented to reduce deformations of protected supporting structure caused by blast loading. Optimization was based on the simplified FE model which consisted of laminate parts, metallic foam, steel external cover and I-beam pillar. The model was automatically generated depending on the optimization variables using a developed pre-processor script. The delamination process was also taken into consideration. Dynamic response of structural components subjected to the blast wave in different cases was analysed. Obtained results clearly showed that application of the optimized blast panel reduces the plastic deformation of the structure and significantly increases the blast resistance. Moreover, the obtained parameters were verified using fully 3D FE model of protective panel with pillar with FSI interface. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.