Using LS-DYNA MM-ALE capabilities to help design a wall mitigating accidental blast effects

A solution had to be found in order to protect buildings neighboring an industrial site from the blast effects of possible accidental explosions on the site. One of the main issues was that the point of detonation would occur relatively close to the endangered buildings. A possible answer was to build a blast-mitigating wall between the buildings and possible blasts. The MM-ALE features of LS-DYNA provided a way to evaluate the effects of the wall on the pressure waves around the building. As the amount of explosive was rather small when compared to the distances involved, the new 2D to 3D and 3D to 3D re-mapping methods came in handy to avoid the use of an impractically large numerical model. After a first series of computation showed that the proposed solution was indeed promising, a series of simulation runs enabled the design of a wall tall enough to achieve the desired mitigation effect on the pressure waves experienced by the building’s walls and roof.