Evaluating the Effect of Underground Explosions on Structures

During the last decades, research activity related to underground explosions and their effect on buried structures and structures located on or above ground level have progressively increased. The correct evaluation of the effect of this type of explosion is very important for the design of protection structures. The action of buried explosions on soils and the resulting effect on structures is a strongly complex physical problem. The results are significantly dependent on many parameters that include the amount of explosive, the shape of the load, the explosion depth, soil type and properties, among others. Recent advances in numerical simulation have allowed the modeling of underground explosions. Although there are some papers related to this problem, the knowledge of the effect on buried structures or structures located on the ground is limited to a few numerical results without experimental validation or some isolated experimental observations. The effect of underground explosions on buried structures or structures on or above soil surface is numerically studied in this paper. Numerical simulation is performed with a hydrocode. Different alternatives to model the soil are analyzed. The effect of soil model and parameters on blast wave propagation is particularly studied. In the case of structures located above the ground the capability of different numerical models to reproduce soil ejecta that impacts on structures is also studied. The paper also compares the present numerical results with numerical values obtained by other authors using different hypothesis. Numerical results are contrasted with experimental results available in the specialized literature.

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