Blast wave assessment in a compound survival container: Small-scale testing

Propagation of shock waves in partially- or fully-confined environments is a complex phenomenon due to the possibility of multiple reflections, diffractions and superposition of waves. In a military context, the study of such phenomena is of extreme relevance to the evaluation of protection systems, such as survival containers, for personnel and equipment. True scale testing of such structures is costly and time consuming but small-scale models in combination with the Hopkinson-Cranz scaling laws are a viable alternative. This paper combines the use of a small-scale model of a compound survival container with finite element analysis (with LS-DYNA) to develop and validate a numerical model of the blast wave propagation. The first part of the study details the experimental set-up, consisting of a small-scale model of a survival container, which is loaded by the detonation of a scaled explosive charge. The pressure-time histories are recorded in several locations of the model. The second part of the study presents the numerical results and a comparison with the experimental data.