The Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics
SECED promotes the study and practice of earthquake and civil engineering dynamics, including blast, impact, and other vibration problems.
- Date
- 24 April 2024
- Time
This event has now ended
Overview
This lecture will be preceded by the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) AGM and the Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics (SECED) AGM.
Following the Beirut Port explosion on 04 August 2020, over 200 people lost their lives, upwards of $15B in property damage was caused, and an estimated 300,000 people were displaced. As a result, a global response emerged to spatially delineate and understand the cause of the resultant injuries and damage caused by the blast.
When a blast wave propagates in the presence of obstacles, the loading differs substantially from that of a free-air blast due to highly non-linear physical processes such as reflection, diffraction, coalescence of multiple shock fronts, shadowing, and confining effects.
While Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations can be used to capture the required event complexity, uncertainties persist due to scarce experimental validation data. Replicating large-scale events is often challenging and costly, and so leveraging blast scaling laws to gather empirical data from gram-scale charges provides a useful alternative.
Throughout this talk, the speakers will discuss how small-scale explosions can be used to develop insights into city-scale explosive events. Key findings are then used to critically interrogate the suitability of existing numerical solvers for assessing urban blast. This is presented alongside the development of Fast Running Engineering Models (FREMs) that will benefit from the findings made in both aspects of this work.
Speakers
Adam Dennis
University of Sheffield
computational modelling research associate
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Adam Dennis
Dr Adam Dennis completed his PhD in the Blast and Impact Dynamics research group at the University of Sheffield in early 2024. His project, titled “Machine Learning Tools for Blast Load Prediction in Obstructed Environments”, explored a range of methods for developing rapid analysis tools that can assist with human injury prediction and structural damage estimations. He is now continuing this work within the group, whilst also acting as numerical modelling lead for commercial and academic research projects.
Dain George Farrimond
University of Sheffield
research associate in blast protection engineering
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Dain George Farrimond
Dr Dain George Farrimond is a research associate in Blast Protection Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Building on from his PhD, titled "Characterisation of Blast Loading from Ideal and Non-ideal Explosives” he focuses primarily on the development of novel experimental capabilities to continue this research. Particular interests consider the mechanisms behind detonation procedures, with an increasing focus on the complexity of shock wave dynamics within urban environments.
