Perimeter Defense Design and Analysis
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Blast Wall Example
Perimeter Blast/Penetration Protection
Perimeter Blast/Penetration Protection
Services/Work Provided
- Design Blast Walls
- Designs of Penetration/Detonation Shields
- High-Fidelity Physics-Based (HFPB) Analysis
- Perimeter Protection
Description:
Facilities with little setback in places like Iraq and Afghanistan often need blast walls, which extend over the whole height of the façade and possibly over the roof to protect the facility from blast and incoming projectiles. Perimeter walls, in particular, may have to survive large blast loads, which may be quite near, may need to provide protection from rocket propelled grenades (RPG), and satisfy site and operational constraints.
Penetration/Detonation shields afford protection more focused on small arms fire and mortars/RPG’s, but not much in the way of blast resistance except from the small localized blasts that might be generated by a round from a mortar/RPG.
K&C has designed blast walls using a wide variety of materials often dictated by site constraints, availability, and cost of materials. For example, K&C developed a blast wall for Iraq using ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) panels supplied by VSL. This wall was more than 8 meters in height and required no foundation even though it was only a few meters from a nearby road. In the design of blast walls and detonation shields, HFPB analyses are often used to replicate the behavior of the wall/shield during a blast load so that the appropriate size and type of components for the wall/shield can be selected. For blast walls in particular, it is often necessary to perform a relatively sophisticated CFD analysis to compute the changes in the blast environment due to the wall to select an optimum layout and height for the wall. Such CFD analyses are often a key component of the design because they are needed to ensure that a sufficient reduction of the blast striking the facility is obtained to warrant the construction of the wall. Based on the analysis results, design recommendations and construction drawings are then provided.
