Applications for blast, weapons and impact effects prediction plus structural and mechanical analysis
Protection Engineering Consultants makes use of a variety of industry-leading tools for the prediction of blast effects, weapons effects, and hazards associated with high-energy transient events and their influence on people, systems and the built environment. Our principals provided support in the development of several of these software applications and extensions, and they are experts in their use.
For more information about each tool, click the boldfaced tool name at the beginning of its description.
- SBEDS (Single-Degree-of-Freedom Blast Effects Design Spreadsheets) is an Excel-based tool for design of structural components subjected to airblast using single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) methodology.
- CEDAW V1.0 (Component Explosive Damage Assessment Workbook)
is an Excel workbook that generates pressure-impulse (P-i) diagrams and charge weight-standoff (CW-S) diagrams defining blast loads causing each of five different blast damage levels to an input structural component. The CEDAW P-i diagrams are intended to replace the FACEDAP P-i diagrams from the late 1980s based on additional blast test data, better P-i curve scaling terms, and their consistency with SDOF analysis results.
- The BICADS V1.0 (Building Injury Calculator And DatabaseS) computer program calculates the percentages of occupants of blast-loaded buildings with each of four different injury levels based on user input defining basic building construction parameters, the percentage of building occupants in perimeter or interior space, and the blast source.
- ConWep V2.1 calculates a range of blast effects from different types of high explosives and weapons, including blast loads, fragment penetration depths into concrete and steel, concrete wall breaching, projectile penetration into rock and soil, cratering, and ground shock.
- HAZL performs a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) analysis to calculate glass response to a blast loading and provides a debris transport model for predicting fragment trajectory.
- BLASTX calculates internal blast pressure histories in single and multi-room buildings considering a wide range of building geometries.
- BIRM3D software enables evaluation of the vulnerability of a barrier and the associated vehicle trajectory for a variety of impact scenarios without conducting costly vehicular crash tests.
- FRANG calculates the quasistatic or gas pressure history in a room considering venting through open and/or covered vent areas.
- SHOCK calculates the average peak pressure and impulse from an internal explosion on a user selected area of the wall of a rectangular room.
- WinGARD PE/WinGARD MP (Window Glazing Analysis Response and Design) is an analytical modeling tool for the response of windows to the effects of an explosion.
Protection Engineering Consultants also makes use of more rigorous and detailed tools for structural and mechanical analysis, including SAP Nonlinear and LS-DYNA to support detailed analysis of blast, impact or other transient loads and hazards.
- SAP2000 V10, Nonlinear advanced analytical techniques allow for step-by-step large deformation analysis, multiple p-delta, eigen and ritz analyses, cable analysis, tension or compression only analysis, buckling analysis, blast analysis, fast nonlinear analysis for dampers, base isolators and support plasticity, energy methods for drift control and segmental construction analysis.
- LS-DYNA is a general-purpose transient dynamic finite element program capable of simulating complex real-world problems involving large deformations. It is optimized for shared and distributed memory Unix, Linux, and Windows-based platforms. LS-DYNA is the industry standard for analyzing structures subjected to short duration loads and significant geometric nonlinearities. Capabilities include fully Eulerian simulations, ALE, coupled Lagrangian-Eulerian and SPH. An extensive library of material models is available.
- CTH is an Eulerian hydrocode developed by Sandia National Laboratories for simulating high-speed impact and penetration phenomena involving a variety of materials. CTH is used for studying weapon effects, armor/anti-armor interactions, warhead design, high-explosive initiation physics and weapon safety issues.