Comparative study of the influence of charge shapes on the distribution of blast pressure on a structural unit

Abstract

Since limited research results are available in the area of blast wave interactions with structural surfaces, a comparative study is undertaken to ascertain the interaction effects of blast waves generated by exploding spherical and cylindrical charges on the surface of a concrete structural unit. The effective blast pressure experienced by a concrete unit is evaluated and its distribution across the front face is studied here for two distinct charge shapes, namely spherical and cylindrical. The finite element analysis is carried out for nine different scaled distances. Random forests algorithm was utilized to analyze the 450 observations to evaluate the results and build predictive models. The best models were selected based on standard performance indicators. For cylindrical charges, the aspect ratio was also factored in the analysis. The distribution of effective pressure indicates unique patterns for the two different charge shapes in the graphical comparison. The effective pressures caused by the cylindrical charge shape for the specific aspect ratios considered here are lower by 84 % on average compared to the effect caused by a spherical charge, which results from the distinct characteristics of blast waves generated by the explosion of cylindrical charges.