Abstract
The complexity of the explosions makes it difficult to evaluate a munition storage site’s safety. The peak overpressure associated with a blast wave that propagates from a blast is the governing factor that determines the damage to the buildings around the area. Current codes for predicting the blast pressure from an explosion are mostly applicable for a relatively long-range explosion instead of a near-field explosion. This study evaluated the rationale for the current criteria to assess limitations in the different methods and propose an alternative approach based on experimental and numerical results. This study used a small number of explosives and a small-sized ammunition storage magazine specimen to conduct explosion experiments inside an ammunition storage magazine. The ratio of the blast pressure outside the storage magazine to that at the portal of the storage magazine was compared with the empirical equations and experiments from the references, which were more conservative than the experimental values. The optimal exponential equation was proposed after a regression analysis; this equation is applicable to 1 to 653 times the portal diameter outside the ammunition storage magazine. In terms of the effect of a retaining wall on the blast inside the storage magazine, the longitudinal’s extreme value was reduced by 37–42%, while that of the transverse blast was increased by 8–20%. In terms of the numerical simulations, the extreme value of the external blast within one to five times the portal diameter range outside the ammunition storage magazine could be predicted effectively.
Highlights
In response to the requirements for building an army and preparing for war, the storage magazines used for ammunition mostly store ammunition at the maximum storage capacity, which is highly risky.Unsound storage facilities or mismanagement could induce an accidental explosion in the storage magazine, causing grave safety events, such as casualties and building failures
It was observed that the measured value was smaller than the Welch empirical equation when the ratio of the distance from the measuring point to the portal inside the ammunition storage magazine (l) to the portal diameter (d) ranged from 0.067 to 1, and that the relative errors were 184.67%
This study used a small number of explosives and a small-sized ammunition storage magazine specimen to conduct experiments on explosions inside an ammunition storage magazine to measure the peak overpressure
Summary
In response to the requirements for building an army and preparing for war, the storage magazines used for ammunition mostly store ammunition at the maximum storage capacity, which is highly risky. In 2006, Brill et al [10] used a small-sized ammunition storage magazine to implement explosion experiments and study the effects of back-to-front, side-to-side, and front-to-back explosion loads near the magazine. In 2008, Chen et al [12] built a model for an explosion inside an ammunition storage magazine and found that the relatively low indoor explosion blast and impulse simulation values at normal temperatures could be improved by increasing the internal energy of the air. This study further discussed the overpressure distribution in the near-field range of an ammunition storage magazine explosion. The explosion experiment and numerical simulations were validated and compared, and related empirical equations were proposed to evaluate the near-field explosion blasts of ammunition storage magazines
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