The purpose of this paper is to assess the blast‐mitigation potential and the protection ability of an air‐vacated buffer placed in front of a target structure under realistic combat‐theatre conditions.
The blast‐mitigation efficacy of the air‐vacated buffer concept is investigated computationally using a combined Eulerian‐Lagrangian (CEL) fluid‐structure interaction (FSI) finite‐element analysis.
The two main findings resulting from the present work are: the air‐vacated buffer concept yields significant blast‐mitigation effects; and the buffer geometry and vacated‐air material‐state parameters (e.g. pressure, mass density, etc.) may significantly affect the extent of the blast‐mitigation effect.
The main contribution of the present work is a demonstration of the critical importance of timely deployment of the buffer relative to the arrival of the incident wave in order to fully exploit the air‐vacated buffer concept.
