A New Method for Very Fast Simulation of Blast Wave Propagation in Complex Built Environments

The paper is concerned with the development of a fast, accurate, and versatile method of simulating the propagation of a blast wave within complex built environments. An ability to complete a simulation of the propagation of a blast wave within a few seconds or minutes is an essential tool for evaluating its impact on key structures and to find an optimal design for components such as blast barriers. Existing methods of modeling the propagation of a blast wave fail to satisfy all of the above requirements. An alternative method proposed here is to use a simulation approach implemented within a coarse spatial and time framework, where the mesh elements and time steps are orders of magnitude larger than those used in conventional CFD simulations. P reliminary research suggests that the reduced computational load resulting from this method will a llow simulations to be executed several orders of magnitude faster than conventional CFD methods, such that a simulation which would take a day to process could be completed within a few seconds. The paper describes the new approach in detail.