(43c) Simulation and Application of Blast Wave-Target Interactions

In the paper, a Blast Wave-Target Interaction (BWTI) simulation package and its applications in chemical and petrochemical industries would be presented.

BWTI is an integrated three-dimensional (3D) CFD (computation fluid dynamics) code and visualization system. BakerRisk developed BWTI to provide the capability to simulate the generation and propagation of blast and shock waves along with the interaction of such waves with structures (e.g., buildings, blast walls, etc.). BWTI is capable of modeling and visualizing blast waves resulting from vapor cloud explosions (VCEs), bursting pressure vessels (BPV), and high explosive (HE) detonations. BWTI is purposely developed to run on PC (personal computer) with a short run time and obtain reasonable evaluation of blast loads on buildings or structures, where blast shielding and focusing phenomena occur. The main objective of this tool is to find a way to evaluate blast loads with CFD code at an engineering level. Fig. 1 shows typical vented VCE blast wave on surrounding buildings.

Some special and even abnormal phenomena of blast-target interactions have been simulated and evaluated with BWTI, including: 1) Mach reflection during blast clearing process; 2) Enhancement of blast loads behind blast shielding wall; 3) Dominate effect of the negative phase of blast waves on building damage. All of these phenomena have been found important for industrial accident investigation, loss prevention, and blast design.