A particle-based approach to close-range blast loading

A new approach to describe blast loading is suggested, herein referred to as the corpuscular approach. The detonation products are modeled as a set of discrete particles following Maxwell's original kinetic molecular theory. For numerical purposes, the number of molecules has to be greatly reduced compared to what one has in real gases. However, the total molecular mass and temperature dependent velocity distribution are the same as in an ideal gas. Pressure loading on structures is then numerically represented by the momentum transfer as particles impact and rebound from the surface of the structure. The suggested approach has significant advantages compared to today's state-of-the-art continuum-based approaches to fully coupled blast-loading computations. The computational time can be significantly reduced, the method is numerically robust and the approach will easily cope with complex geometries in the fluid–structure interface.