Analysis of blast mitigation strategies exploiting fluid-structure interaction

Blast attacks have become the most pervasive threat in both civil and military contexts. However, there is currently a limited understanding of the mechanisms of loading, damage and failure of structures, and injury to humans produced by blast. This thesis seeks to advance our current understanding of the mechanisms of blast loading on structures. Towards this end, a comprehensive analytical and numerical study of basic problems in the interaction of blast waves with structures is conducted. The analysis is of interest in the conception of blast mitigation strategies and in the design and optimization of protection systems with improved performance against blast. The approach builds on a classic solution by G. I. Taylor on the interaction of acoustic blast waves with free-standing plates (In G. K. Batchelor, editor, The Scientific Papers of Sir Georey Ingram Taylor, vol. III, p.287-303, Cambridge University Press, 1963). Taylor's analysis demonstrates that the coupled fluid-structure interaction eect can be exploited for the purpose of reducing the impulse transmitted from the blast to the structure. This basic result is not applicable to the case of air blasts due to non-linear compressibility effects. In this thesis, a number of extensions of Taylor's theory is proposed. The case of air blast waves interacting with free-standing plates of variable mass is given special attention. The limiting cases of extremely heavy and extremely light plates are explored analytically for arbitrary blast intensities, from where it is concluded that a modified non-dimensional parameter representing the mass of compressed fluid relative to the mass of the plate governs the fluid-structure interaction.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Kambouchev, Nayden Dimitrov, 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Raúl Radovitzky.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42045

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/42045