Numerical investigation on active isolation of ground shock by soft porous layers

The mitigation and reduction of blast-induced ground shock in near field is an interesting topic worth considering for the protection of buried structures. Soft porous materials are usually used to form an isolation layer around the buried structures. However, the interaction of soft porous layer and surrounding geomedia as well as buried structures is not well understood.In this paper, the effects of soft porous layer barriers on the reduction of buried blast-induced ground shock are numerically studied. Based on the prototype dimensions of a centrifuge test, a numerical model is set up with two steel boxes symmetrically buried at two sides of the charge. One box is directly located in soil mass without protection (unprotected) and the other is located behind a soft porous layer barrier (protected). The soft porous layer barriers studied here include an open trench, an inundated water trench, three in-filled geofoam walls with different densities, and a concrete wall. The numerical responses of the two boxes are evaluated when subjected to the protection of different soft porous layer barriers. These numerical simulations show that both open trench and geofoam barriers can effectively reduce blast-induced stress waves. However, inundated water trench and concrete wall have almost no effect on the reduction of ground shock. Therefore, a geofoam barrier is more practicable in soil mass.