In recent years, industrial concerns for safety and protection against
high-explosive loadings have increased Industries that manufacture ex
plosive devices or use processes with the potential for explosions use
concrete barricades to protect workers from exposure to accidental bl
ast and fragmentation. Other industries we concrete barricades as prot
ection against terrorist attacks that might include blast or fragmenta
tion. Reinforced concrete barricades can provide effective protection
against high-explosive devices; however; the high-intensity loadings f
rom close-in explosions or fragment impact can create large magnitude,
transient stress waves in concrete barricades that result in the gene
ration of concrete spall on the back side of the barricade, even thoug
h the barricade itself does not suffer general failure. Concrete fragm
ents generated by concrete spallation can be hazardous to personnel an
d equipment, depending on the size and velocity of the fragments. In t
his study, a numerical model was developed to predict spall damage to
concrete walls from close-in explosions in air for cased and uncased m
unitions. The model was used to develop guidelines for designing concr
ete walls to prevent spallation.