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Design and build of an anti-explosive composite shield

Maziar Arjomandi

Andres Michael Byrne, William Michael M. Fuller and David George Gilbert

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(Commenced: 01-Jan-2007,Concluded: 12-Dec-2007)

Maziar Arjomandi Andres Michael Byrne William Michael M. Fuller David George Gilbert

The aim of this project is to design and manufacture a shield constructed from composite materials that can be used to cover potential explosive devices that may be left in unattended bags and boxes in the streets, in airports or in other populated areas. The intention is to make the area safe by damping the effects of the blast load in the case of an explosion. The shield should be of a weight that enables it to be easily transported by two people to the potential explosive and should be able to lessen the damage caused to the surrounding environment by damping the blast load associated with the detonation of 0.5 kg of TNT (or equivalent). The shield should also be able to be stored satisfactorily and be able to be manufactured from readily available composite materials and at a reasonable cost. It is aimed that when the shield is in use, the three primary blast effects (pressure, thermal and fragmentation) are mitigated to a level that is below the level that would be seen had the shield not been used. The shield will be analysed extensively using FEA packages and through physically testing. Although blast mitigation devices already exist, our device is specifically being designed to be compact and light enough to be easily operated by two people without any possible disturbance of the potential threat. Devices currently available differ from our proposal in three significant ways; materials used, level of disturbance of threat and level of blast mitigation. Other options currently available are either made of heavy materials such as steel or concrete or come into contact with the potential threat such as the bomb blanket technique which involves wrapping a safety blanket around the potential explosive and then laying a second bomb blanket on top. In this application, physical contact is twice made with the potential explosive device. This contact substantially elevates the risk of accidental detonation of the device. Our proposal aims to cover the explosive without coming into direct contact with it. Project Deliverables Final report Image Galleries: Movie (105MB, MPG) Photo 1 Photo 2

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