Evaluation of blast effects on a civilian/industrial structure in the case of a scenario of a terrorist attack involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs)

In recent decades, the risk of attacks within operational and neutral zones has increased considerably. A significant proportion of these attacks are executed using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which are non-conventional weapons that can be assembled with relative ease. There is growing concern about the possibility that a kamikaze might self-detonate when armed forces or law enforcement agencies discover the location where they are preparing their materials or are simply inside a building. To study the possible effects these improvised explosive devices (IEDs) would have on structures, eight tests were conducted with various IED configurations involving bomb vests inside a reinforced concrete building (including walls and roof) specifically built for these tests. These vests were made with different explosives (black powder, ANFO, AN/AL, PG2). To characterize these tests, a high-speed camera and pressure and acceleration sensors were used. The structure performed surprisingly well, as it withstood all of the first seven detonations without apparent structural damage. In the final detonation, located on the ground and with a significant explosive charge, the structural integrity of the roof and some of the walls was compromised. The building simulation was carried out using the LS-DYNA software, with a Lagrangian formulation for the walls, using the LBE module (based on CONWEP) for load application. Despite the difficulty of this simulation, the results obtained, in terms of applied pressures and measured accelerations, are acceptable, with differences of approximately 20%.