Structural Safety and Reliability
Blast wave propagation in city
streets}an overview
Peter D Smith and Timothy A Rose
Cranfield University, Shrivenham, SN6 8LA, UK
Summary
This paper presents an overview of research
conducted by the authors and others both
experimentally and analytically in the area of
blast wave interactions with buildings and
structures in an urban landscape. Empirical tools
for the assessment of blast wave resultants for
simple-geometry situations are first presented
before the confining effects of buildings along
a street are discussed. Street layouts such a
T-junctions and crossroads are then introduced
and the way that blast wave characteristics are
affected by street width and the height of
buildings along the street is assessed. The
influence of the location of the explosive charge
within the street layout on the blast load
experienced by buildings is also reviewed. It is
likely that building facades closest to the
explosion will fail and the effect on the loading
experienced further from the detonation is
therefore assessed. A complementary study of
the loads developed inside a building whose
Key words: blast; explosion; building; facade; street; shielding; channelling
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628
Published online 22 December 2005 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pse.209
Introduction
When a single isolated building is loaded by the blast
wave produced by the detonation of a quantity of
high explosive, calculation of the pressuretime
history experienced by the building is generally
relatively straightforward, particularly for the side of
the building directly facing the blast. Loading
information can be obtained from graphs of blast
resultants plotted against scaled distance contained in
manuals such as TM5-1300[1] or TM5-855-1[2] and texts
such as Baker et al.[3], Smith & Hetherington[4] or Mays
& Smith[5]. Software such as ConWep[6] and PSADS[7],
which have user-friendly interfaces, automate the
process of blast load assessment for simple
geometries. An example of the variation of incident
and reflected pressure with range from a
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
facade has failed is also discussed. Apart from the
blast loads on buildings in a street in which there
is an explosion, buildings in adjacent streets will
also experience blast loading. Studies concerned
with the phenomena of channelling and
shielding are presented and the extent to which
both processes occur in any given situation
discussed. The various studies reported
throughout the paper indicate that simple tools
are often inappropriate and the development of
empirical rules for more complex geometries
may not be reliable. This view is supported by
studying blast wave propagation in a realistic
cityscape comprising streets of different widths
with several layout features all bounded by
buildings of different size, shape and height. Such
studies conclude that computational fluid dynamics
analyses may sometimes be the only satisfactory
approach for the engineer seeking a reliable
assessment of blast loads experienced by
buildings in an urban landscape.
hemispherical charge comprising 200 kg TNT derived
from the use of Ref.[6] is shown in Fig. 1.
Remennikov[8] presents a review of methods for
predicting bomb blast effects on buildings that are
essentially isolated, while von Rosen et al.[9] present
the results of an experimental and numerical
investigation of the loading developed on the rear face
of a simple rectangular structure when a blast wave
impinges on the face of the building.
However, if the geometry of the scenario becomes
more complex (e.g. when an explosive device is
detonated in an urban environment where there
are many buildings), assessment of the loading
experienced by a particular building becomes more
difficult. Such assessment becomes even more
complicated should the facades of some buildings
partly or completely fail, allowing the blast to enter
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628
 BLAST WAVE PROPAGATION IN CITY STREETS 17

Pressure vs. Range

Hemispherical Surface Burst
1000

500 Incident Pressure, MPa

300 Reflected Pressure, MPa
200

100

50
30
20

10

5
Pressure, MPa

3
2

0.5
0.3
0.2

0.1

0.05
0.03
0.02 Charge weight 200 kilograms TNT

0.01

0.005
0.003
0.002
0.2 0.3 0.5 0.7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8910 20 30 40 50 70 100 200 300 500
Range, meters

Fig. 1 Incident and reflected pressure vs range from a 200 kg TNT hemispherical charge

the building. As Remennikov[10] states: Civil

Buildings
engineers today need guidance on how to design

Building A
Building

structural systems to withstand various acts of

terrorism.
This paper presents a review of the work in the area
of blast wave propagation in a complex urban
environment that has been undertaken by the authors
and others at Cranfield University, Defence College of
Management and Technology (formerly the Royal
Military College of Science), Shrivenham since 1998
and also makes reference to complementary work by
other investigators.
The influence of street configuration
One of the earliest investigations was by Feng as
reported by Smith et al.[11]. In this study an
approximately 1/50th scale model of a straight city
street was constructed with buildings (made from
appropriately sized reinforced concrete beams) along
each side. Two separate buildings (made from 6 mm
thick steel plate) were located at each end of the street
and a small charge (replicating a large explosive
device) was detonated in the middle of the street
at different distances along it as illustrated in Fig. 2
where the bomb is shown located approximately
one-third of the way along the street from the
Bomb
Buildings
Pressure measured here
Fig. 2 Effect of confinement produced by surrounding buildings
on blast resultants from a high explosive detonation
left-hand building. Reflected pressuretime histories
were measured on the side of Building A in Fig. 2
facing the street and compared with measurements
when the buildings along the street were removed.
Fig. 3 shows the peak reflected pressure, Pr, measured
by the gauge as the scaled distance, Z ( distance of
the charge from Building A divided by the cube root
of the TNT equivalent charge mass), increases. It was
found that the presence of the street buildings
increased the pressure (and also the impulse)
experienced by the building by a factor of up to about
four, thus clearly demonstrating the blast confining
effects produced by the buildings along a street. The
increase in pressure will be at a maximum here
because of the non-deforming nature of the very
robust model building facades used in this
investigation. In reality, this enhancement would be

Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628
18 STRUCTURAL SAFETY AND RELIABILITY

5,000
With buildings along street
Without buildings

1,000
Pr (kPa)

500

100

50

20
2 5 10
Scaled distance Z (kg/m1/3)

Fig. 3 Peak reflected pressure vs scaled distance on building

facade with and without buildings along the street

somewhat less, because of the likelihood of glazing Fig. 4 Street configurations showing transducer locations
failures in the vicinity of the explosion and further
along the street. Even allowing for some facade
failure, the important point is that this enhancement
could not have been accurately predicted using
simple tools.
The scope of this work was extended by Whalen,
also reported in Ref.[11]. In this study, model street
configurations}a crossroads, a T-intersection, a 908
bend and a cul-de-sac as well as a straight street}were
built from steel plate. Small charges designed to
replicate a large explosive device were detonated at
the centre of the crossroads and the intersection, at the
place where the street turned through 908, at the end
of the cul-de-sac and halfway along the straight street
(marked + in Fig. 4). Along every street the steel
plates, representative of the buildings, were
Fig. 5 Impulse produced by various street configurations
sufficiently tall such that no effects at street level were compared with no confinement vs scaled range from charge
produced as a result of the blast reaching the top of
the building. Pressuretime histories were recorded at
a number of points on the facade of one of the density of blast energy and the larger the resulting
buildings as shown in Fig. 4 where a line adjacent to blast load.
one of the facades in each configuration shows that it This study was complemented by a more detailed
was equipped with an array of pressure transducers. experimental and numerical investigation of straight
The experimental waveforms were analysed using a streets using the blast simulation code Air3d[12]
ray-tracing technique to determine the origin of the by Smith & Rose[13]. In the relatively limited
peaks}sometimes there were several}on the record. experimental study, small-scale straight streets of
Also, from the experimental records, impulses were variable width w were bounded by buildings of
calculated and compared with free field calculations variable height h. The set-up is shown schematically
performed using ConWep. The results of this latter in Fig. 6, which indicates that the model streets were
exercise clearly demonstrated the blast enhancing configured using a combination of concrete beams
effect of different street configurations with the and blocks. The figure also shows a typical charge
cul-de-sac producing the greatest enhancement and the location and the eight places where pressure
crossroads configuration the least as demonstrated in transducers could be installed flush with the model
Fig. 5 which shows the ratio of the reflected impulse building facades. The streets were of sufficient length
ir measured in a confined street location (designated such that any end effects associated with the blast
ir street configuration ) to that which would result with no reaching the end of the street were negligible.
confinement (designated ir UHAB where UHAB stands Experimental and numerical results were in good
for Unconfined Hemispherical Air Burst) plotted agreement (as evidenced by Fig. 7 where Air3d and
against scaled range from the charge. The difference experimental pressuretime histories at transducer
between the various geometries can be explained in location 8 in the wide street configuration are shown)
terms of the volume available for the blast wave to and allowed further configurations to be analysed
expand into}the smaller the volume, the greater the using Air3d. The main conclusions drawn from the

Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628

investigation were that street width and building
height influence the magnitude of the positive phase
impulse. A scaled street width w/W 1/3 4 4.8 m/kg1/3
(where W is TNT equivalent charge mass) is
sufficiently wide such that the loading experienced by
buildings on one side of the street is not affected by
reflections from buildings on the other side. Fig. 8
shows scaled impulse vs scaled distance along streets
Fig. 6 Plan view of straight streets of two different widths
showing charge and transducer locations
Fig. 8 Scaled impulse vs scaled distance along the street for scaled street widths of: (a) 1.6; (b) 2.4; (c) 3.2; (d) 4.8 m/kg1/3
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
BLAST WAVE PROPAGATION IN CITY STREETS 19
bordered by infinitely high buildings for increasing
scaled street width compared with a single infinitely
large reflecting surface (labelled true) and when no
confining buildings are present (labelled side-on).
Figs. 8ad show the results for scaled widths of 1.6,
2.4, 3.2 and 4.8 m/kg1/3, respectively. As street width
Fig. 7 Pressuretime histories at transducer location 8 in
Fig. 6(b) from experiment and Air3d
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628
20
increases, reflections from facades become less
important and when w/W 1/3 4.8 m/kg1/3 street
and true impulses coincide until a scaled distance of
about 7 m/kg1/3. This implies that reflections are too
weak or too late arriving to have a significant effect on
the impulse. Figs. 9ad show scaled positive phase
impulse vs scaled distance along the street for the
same values of scaled street width as Fig. 8. These
graphs show that a scaled building height h/W 1/3
43.2 m/kg1/3 means that the buildings are effectively
infinitely tall and there is little significant
enhancement at street level of the positive phase
impulse that is apparent at h/W 1/3 3.2 m/kg1/3
when the scaled height is increased further. It was also
shown in the same study that the negative phase
impulse is enhanced because of the expansion of the
blast wave when it reaches the top of the building. For
practical purposes, the study showed that a value of
h/W1/3 3.2 m/kg1/3 can be used to define the
situation when the effect is maximized as little change
occurs for greater scaled heights. Finally, beyond a
scaled distance from the charge of Z 2.0 kg/m1/3,
negative phase impulse exceeds the positive phase
impulse for all street widths and all scaled building
Fig. 9 Scaled impulse vs scaled distance along the street for different scaled building heights and scaled street widths of: (a) 1.6; (b) 2.4;
(c) 3.2; (d) 4.8 m/kg1/3
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
STRUCTURAL SAFETY AND RELIABILITY
heights 512.8 m/kg1/3. This observation may go
some way to explaining the anecdotal evidence that
much of the glazing in city streets is drawn into the
street by the passage of a blast wave following an
explosion. Clearly, negative phase impulse cannot be
ignored, since the region beyond Z 2.0 kg/m1/3 is
likely to encompass most of the street.
A further study of the influence of street junctions
on the characteristics of the blast that propagates into
the streets beyond the junction was undertaken by
Rose & Smith[14] that used both a more comprehensive
experimental programme than Whalens[11] as well as
Air3d. The study concentrated on crossroads,
T-intersections and 908 bends with the physical and
numerical models configured in such a way that the
streets could be considered infinitely long and
relatively narrow (scaled width w/W 1/3 1.6 m/
kg1/3). Fig. 10 shows schematic views of the various
configurations. In each of Figs. 10ag, transducer
locations are shown numbered 16 or 18 depending
on the layout. Typical charge locations are marked by
X together with a letter (l for straight-on and r for
right angle configurations) and a number (0 for
centred locations and 1, 2 or 3 for successively
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628

Fig. 10 Crossroads, T-junction and bend configurations showing charge and transducer locations
increasing equal increments from the centred
location).
Scaled building height h/W1/3 was kept constant at
3.2 m/kg1/3, a figure identified above as suitable for
maximizing both positive and negative impulse at
street level. Firstly, the results of this study confirmed
the conclusions about the effect of confinement
discussed above. Secondly, it was determined that the
distance of the charge from the junction influences the
extent to which the blast diffracts at the junction (and
enters the other streets leading off the junction). The
larger the distance of the charge from the junction,
then the greater the degree of diffraction that occurs
at the junction, as opposed to reflection and
transmission back down the street in which the charge
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
BLAST WAVE PROPAGATION IN CITY STREETS 21
is located. Finally, it was observed that the intensity of
the blast propagating round a 908 bend was similar to
that which propagates along a straight street. It was
also evident that, even in these relatively simple
geometries the formulation of simple rules to predict
blast resultants at particular locations could not
be done with any confidence for either positive or
negative phase impulses as indicated. Figs 11a
and b show the results for T- junctions. Fig. 11a shows
the variation of scaled positive phase impulse
vs scaled distance along the street for charges
locations r0, r1 and r2 compared with the results
for a straight street. Fig. 11b shows the variation
of the scaled negative phase impulse with scaled
distance.
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628
22
Fig. 11 Variation of: (a) scaled positive impulse; (b) scaled
negative impulse with scaled distance measured along the street
centre-line for T-junctions for various charge locations
These studies were complemented by those of
Remennikov[15] who investigated a scenario involving
a simplified street geometry, producing results in
support of those reported above. Additionally, Dorr
et al.[16] conducted a small-scale experimental study in
which charges representing a terrorist explosive
device were detonated in a street near T-junction and
crossroads configurations. Their findings tended to
support the studies discussed above in that they
commented that blast reflections associated with these
geometries increase the potential hazard of an
explosive device detonated in city streets.
Effects of facade failure
The facade of a building will be the first element to
experience a blast load and it is tempting to consider
preventing severe building damage by provision of a
very robust facade. As Sakula[17] states: The challenge
for building designers in general and facade
engineers in particular is the need to provide clients
with informed and balanced advice on the
appropriate level of protection without creating a
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
STRUCTURAL SAFETY AND RELIABILITY
world of fortress buildings. This issue has been
addressed by, for example, Ettouney et al.[18] who
comment: As the buildings exterior is its first real
defence against the effects of a bomb, how the facade
responds to the (blast) loading will significantly affect
the behaviour of the building.
The damaging effects of a blast wave propagating
along a city street were mentioned above in
connection with the influence of street width and
building height. One question that might be asked is:
how is blast propagation affected if, instead of
presenting a solid surface to the incident blast wave, a
building facade has some holes in it? This situation
could arise if an explosion caused some facade failure
to a building at close range and blast entered the
building through the failed region; less energy would
then be available to propagate along the street.
A study was conducted by Smith et al.[19] using
a 1/50th scale model of a long straight city street
bounded by tall buildings. Both sides of the street
were constructed in such a way as to allow different
amounts of facade failure to be represented. Regular
gaps in the facades (termed porosity) were created
ranging from about 2477% of the facade area and
were chosen following a survey of real buildings to
assess the proportion of the facade that could be
damaged by the impact of a blast. Fig. 12 shows one
side of a 48% porosity street facade constructed from
brick, steel and plywood with pressure transducer
ports at a number of locations. Twelve possible such
locations are available as can be seen in the lower left-
hand side of the model, though only four were ever
used at one time. Experiments and simulations were
also conducted with both sides of the street solid and
compared with results for the porous facades. It was
found that, at a particular location on the porous side
of the street, there was an approximately linear decay
in impulse delivered as the degree of porosity
increased as shown in Fig. 13. This means that energy
from the blast was removed as a consequence of it
entering the building through the failed facade.
The porosity study was complemented by an
experimental and Air3d-based investigation of the
Fig. 12 Model building with facade of 48% porosity
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628

55
50
45
Impulse (kPa-msec)
40
35
30
25
20
15
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Porosity (%)
Fig. 13 Impulse vs porosity at a representative location along the
street from a high explosive detonation
Fig. 14 Model building with facade removed showing transducer
locations in core
loading developed inside a building in a straight
street once a facade failure had allowed the blast to
enter[19]. A 1/50th scale building, 10 storeys high, was
constructed with a frangible facade and incorporated
in the street. The other side of the street was solid.
Pressure transducers were fitted flush with the
surface of the material used to model the building
core (representing, say, a lift shaft in a real building)
facing the street. The building (with porous facade
removed) and transducer locations are shown
pictorially in Fig. 14. The results of both the
experimental and numerical investigations indicated
that, if the blast has been allowed to enter the
building, the resultant internal loading could be of
sufficient magnitude to cause damage both to the
building fabric and the buildings occupants.
It is possible to express the results of these
investigations in another way: all buildings that are
potential targets should have facades that are as
robust as possible. Some, close to the explosion, will
undoubtedly fail but, beyond what is likely to be a
relatively small distance from the explosion, if facade
integrity can be maintained (and the building frame is
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
BLAST WAVE PROPAGATION IN CITY STREETS 23
sufficiently robust to accept the resulting increase in
transmitted load), the resulting level of individual
building damage will be reduced; this must be a
desirable outcome.
Shielding and channelling
Prediction of blast wave characteristics becomes more
complicated as the number of buildings in the urban
(or suburban) environment interacting with the
80 90 100 propagating blast increases. Intuitively, it might be
expected that, when an explosive device is detonated
in the heart of an urban environment, buildings close
to the explosion would shield buildings in adjacent
streets running parallel to the one in which the
detonation occurred. Conversely, the presence of
many streets in the vicinity of the explosion could,
depending on their orientation, provide channels
for the blast to run along and become enhanced
as a result.
It has been acknowledged that to address these
scenarios, there is a requirement for tools more
sophisticated than ConWep. Tools that are available
include AT Planner[20] which, although it addresses
the problem of complex geometries and provides an
assessment of building damage, does not
comprehensively account for the shielding effect of
buildings between the explosive source and the
target structure. The program EBlast[21] is an expert
software system that provides damage and injury
distances for a wide variety of explosive devices in
urban environments. The program uses enhancement
factors (obtained by numerical modelling) to account
for the effect of blast wave channelling in urban
environments.
In order to gain a better insight into the phenomena
of shielding and channelling, Smith et al.[22,23]
conducted investigations into blast wave propagation
through arrays of buildings (replicating houses rather
than large city buildings though, suitably scaled, the
investigation could represent a cityscape) by means of
small-scale experiments and Air3d simulations.
In the first of these two studies, several parallel
lines of terraced houses and regular arrays of
detached houses were studied. Streets ran between
the lines of the terraced houses and the rows of the
detached houses. Fig. 15a shows the experimental
arrangement for terraced houses and Fig. 15b shows
the corresponding set-up for an array of detached
houses realized with a combination of concrete
beams and blocks. Experimental and numerical
measurements of blast wave resultants were made at
a number of locations in the different arrays. In both
studies, it was observed that the presence of a
building between the explosion and the target
building produced a shielding effect and the blast
resultants were reduced compared to the situation
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628
24
where there was no intervening building. As an
example of the results obtained, the histograms of
Fig. 16 illustrate the situation for terraced houses. The
numbers below the histograms are the percentage of
Fig. 15 Experimental set-up for investigations of shielding and
channelling by: (a) terraced; (b) detached houses
Fig. 16 Percentage reductions in pressure produced by different rows of different height terraced houses
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
STRUCTURAL SAFETY AND RELIABILITY
the blast pressure loading buildings of different
height h ( 4, 8 and 16 m, representing single, double
and four storey buildings) in different rows (Row 2
being nearer the explosion than Row 4; Row 1 was
adjacent to the explosion) compared to pressures that
would have been produced if no buildings were
located between the charge and the target building.
Similar results were obtained for impulse reduction.
Most effective shielding was evident when the charge
was small and the buildings were tall and close
together. Shielding was least when the charge was
large and the buildings small and widely spaced. It
was consistently observed that the interaction of the
blast with the first row of buildings was the dominant
factor defining the extent of shielding to subsequent
rows of buildings.
The second investigation involved the detonation of
small charges in both regular and random arrays of
buildings with different areal densities Ad. Areal
density was defined as the ratio of the total footprint
area of an array to the total area occupied by the array.
Blast resultants were measured experimentally and
calculated using Air3d along a straight continuous
reflecting surface just beyond the array of buildings.
In some cases there was a direct line of sight from the
charge location to the reflecting surface and in others
a direct line of sight did not exist. Fig. 17 shows
arrays of model buildings on the explosives range at
Shrivenham: Fig. 17a shows a regular array while
Fig. 17b shows a random array. In both illustrations,
pressuretime histories were measured along the
solid reflecting surface outside the arrays. Fig. 18
shows schematically the random array with an areal
density of 28.6%. Firstly, the findings discussed in
Ref.[22] were confirmed; no matter what the
configuration of the buildings, their presence between
a detonation and a measuring location will produce a
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628

reduction in blast loading. Secondly, it was observed
that the differences in the total loading produced on
the whole of the reflecting surface for different values
of Ad and between regular and random and direct
line of sight and no direct line of sight arrays are
small. On average, a reduction of just over 10% in the
load developed on the measuring surface was
observed compared with when no buildings were
present. This result suggests that two processes are
occurring in any given array and the overall effect at
Fig. 17 Experimental set-up for investigations of shielding and
channelling produced by: (a) regular; (b) random arrays of houses
TARGET BUILDING
1 2
8 9
7
14
13
15
20
21
19
Fig. 18 Schematic view of random array of areal density 28.6%
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
BLAST WAVE PROPAGATION IN CITY STREETS 25
the measuring surface is as a result of a combination
of shielding and channelling. This process is
illustrated schematically in Fig. 19. In other words, in
a complex array of identical buildings, the blast
reducing effects of shielding are offset by the blast
enhancing effects of channelling.
Real cityscapes
The results reported above relate to relatively simple
geometries in terms of both building size and shape
and street layouts. For more detailed assessment in
cases where the buildings are not small, identical
units and the street layout is complex, it may be
necessary to carry out a full numerical simulation of a
specific scenario. As discussed above, investigators
have sought to provide guidance by generating
empirical and semi-empirical data based on
dimensions such as street width and building height,
TARGET BUILDING
CHANNELLING EFFECT
SHIELDING
EXPLOSION EFFECT
Fig. 19 Schematic representation of shielding and channelling
3 6
4 5
11 12
10
18
16
17
22 23 24
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628
26
which are significant in describing the blast
environment in urban and suburban settings.
However, these simple rules seem to be of
diminishing usefulness if the actual building
geometry and street layout differs significantly from
the simple arrangements which provide the source
data for the rules.
In order to address this perceived difficulty, Smith
et al.[24] present the results of an experimental and
numerical investigation of a generic cityscape
containing buildings of different size and shape and
streets of different width and orientation and with
charges detonated at a number of locations. Fig. 20
shows the geometry investigated rendered using
ARCon+ software[25], with some of the buildings cut
Fig. 20 Rendering of complex geometry cityscape (some
buildings cut away for clarity)
Fig. 21 Plan view of complex geometry cityscape of Fig. 20 showing charge and gauge location and building heights
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
STRUCTURAL SAFETY AND RELIABILITY
away for clarity and with the charge locations
indicated. A schematic view of the scenario with a
charge at location 1 is shown in Fig. 21. Three complex
pressuretime histories (recorded in three separate
experiments at the Gauge 21) are presented in Fig. 22
where the repeatability of results should be noted.
The experimental investigation was carried out using
buildings at 1/50th scale and the simulation was
conducted with the most recent version of the Air3d
code, Air3d which includes adaptive mesh refinement
as discussed by Rose & Smith[26]. Fig. 23a shows
Air3d-generated pressure (in kPa) and Fig. 23b
impulse (in kPa-ms) contours on the facade of
Building 6 where it will be seen that the loading is, as
expected, non-uniform. However, it should also be
noted that regions of high and low loading do not
necessarily occur where they might intuitively be
expected; hot spots occur where a building surface
might be expected to be shielded and relatively low
loads are evident where a direct line from charge to
target might be expected to produce a higher load.
The results of the study concluded that, to provide the
good level of detail that would be required by the
hazard assessor in complex-geometry urban
environments, the use of computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) techniques is likely to offer the best
way ahead.
Such an approach is endorsed by a number of
investigators including Lohner & Baum[27] who
concluded that survivability assessments for
buildings can nowadays be carried out on PCs in a
reasonable amount of time. Such assessments should
provide substantially better predictions than line of
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628

Fig. 22 Repeated experimental pressure-time histories at Gauge 21 in Fig. 21
Fig. 23 Contours of: (a) pressure; (b) impulse on the facade of
Building 6 in Fig. 21
sight calculations, in particular for the more complex
geometries that may entail shock focusing and
reflections. Fairlie et al.[28] also advocate the use of a
three-dimensional CFD code}in this case
AUTODYN3D}for blast loading on buildings in
more complex geometries typical of a modern urban
environment. In the paper noted above,
Remennikov[15] indicated that the use of both
analytical techniques and sophisticated numerical
simulations can provide an effective approach to
determining blast loads in an urban environment.
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
BLAST WAVE PROPAGATION IN CITY STREETS 27
It is reasonable to suggest that well-resolved, three-
dimensional CFD analyses of blast wave propagation
in complex urban environments will be commonplace
among the structural engineering community within a
few years.
Conclusions
The overview presented above leads to the following
conclusions.
* For simple geometries, simple tools could be
acceptable.
* For blast propagation along relatively simple-
geometry city streets, rules can be formulated to
predict blast resultants on building facades.
* For more complex city street layouts, such rules
become difficult to develop.
* When buildings bounding streets respond and
facades fail, any such rules must be altered.
* When blast propagates through arrays of simple
buildings, both shielding and channelling effects
occur.
* For real cityscapes, reasonably accurate prediction
of blast resultants may require numerical
simulation.
Finally, the readers attention is drawn to Smith &
Rose[29] that contains a more fundamental review of
interaction of a blast wave with a building structure
together with an introduction to ways of developing
building robustness and other techniques to improve
their chances of surviving the blast loading generated
by the detonation of a high explosive charge.
Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628
28
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Dr Peter D Smith MA, MSc, PhD, CEng, FICE
Reader in Protective Structures,
Engineering Systems Department,
Cranfield University,
Defence College of Management and Technology,
Defence Academy of the United Kingdom,
Shrivenham SN6 8LA, UK
E-mail: P.D.Smith@cranfield.ac.uk
Dr Timothy A Rose BSc, PhD
Research Officer
Engineering Systems Department,
Cranfield University,
Defence College of Management and Technology,
Defence Academy of the United Kingdom,
Shrivenham SN6 8LA, UK
Copyright & 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
STRUCTURAL SAFETY AND RELIABILITY
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Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 2006; 8:1628