Understanding the effects of blast loads on open spaces and enclosed structures in simulations and experiments

Abstract

When a high explosive detonates, a large amount of energy is released within a short time, creating a high-temperature and high-pressure environment accompanied by a blast wave. When the blast wave interacts with field obstacles such as building structures and ground soil, it produces a reflected wave. The complexity of the pressure field created by blast waves depends on the spatial characteristics of the explosion domain. To understand the blast wave characteristics in various environmental constraints, this study develops a large-scale hydrodynamic solver of shock wave propagation in complex spatial domains of two kinds. First, the propagation of a blast wave in large open spaces (20 m × 10 m area) was simulated using an adaptive mesh refinement technique programmed to capture the details of moving blast waves and multiple reflections. Second, a point source explosion in a two-room concrete structure (5 m × 7 m × 3 m) was simulated which makes use of the optimal merging of two equations of state, while a spherical detonation wave is stabilized before spreading into multiple rooms. The experimental data in both tests are used to validate the computational results presented.