Experimental analysis of blast mitigation associated with water sheets

Abstract

An explosion yielding a blast wave can cause catastrophic damage to a building and its personnel. This threat defines an immediate importance for understanding blast mitigation techniques via readily available materials. An unconfined mass of water in the form of a free flowing sheet has been experimentally tested and analyzed as a readily available mitigant. A single water sheet, with an approximate sheet thickness of 3 mm, was experimentally tested with an explosively driven shock tube at three different standoff distances. At the strongest shock strength considered, the water sheet decreased the peak overpressure of the blast wave by 80% and the impulse by 60%. Additionally, the peak overpressure transmitted through the water sheet was roughly constant regardless of standoff distance and explosive strength. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.