SCALING OF EXPLOSION-GENERATED BLAST LOADINGS ON WALLS OF ROOM

Scaling exponents originally derived for free air explosions are appli ed to blast loadings generated by explosions in a room via a model. Us ing this model, blast loadings on the solid boundaries of a room from one yield can be scaled to those from another yield in the same room. It is shown that as long as the two yields do not differ by more than a factor of several, the scaled blast loading agrees with the calculat ed or measured loading at the new yield. The agreement in the impulse is within a few percent as long as the point is away from corners. Nea r corners, the scaled and the calculated impulses differ by as much as 24% because of the highly nonlinear nature of the reflections at corn ers. Numerical values of the scaling exponents derived from several ex periments suggest that the impulse is proportional to the yield 2/3.