Effect of Blast Mitigation from Multiple Fluid Containers

Abstract

A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the protection provided by multiple water-filled containers in a range of geometric configurations, by assessing the deformation of a steel target plate. The configurations evaluated varied the number of containers as well as the gap widths between the containers, and included a comparison to an equivalent areal density of steel. In addition, the effect of placing the charge between two containers was assessed. The study found the water-filled containers out-performed their steel counterparts for all cases. As the number of water-filled containers increased, the overall deformation of the target plate was reduced, with the highest mass efficiency achieved by the case with the most water coverage. Introducing gaps between the containers reduced their blast protection capability, especially when the charge is placed in-between the containers. However, there was no arrangement of water-filled containers in this series of experiments that did not provide some level of blast mitigation. It was observed that the blast mitigating mechanisms specific to a water-filled container were enhanced as the amount of water was increased.