Design and Validation of Blast Non-propagation Wall for Multi-Compartmented Explosive Storage Structure of Capacity 5T NEC per Compartment

Abstract

Conventional magazines for hazard division 1.1 are constructed using bricks and reinforced cement concrete (RCC) for which storage inside quantity distance (SIQD) is 2.4 W^1/3 m, where W is Net Explosive Content in kg. New composite called laced reinforced concrete (LRC) has been developed recently, for which SIQD has been reduced up to 0.5 W^1/3 m. Due to substantial reduction in separation distances, the requirement of land area has been reduced significantly. Although SIQD has been reduced drastically due to development of new composite, the other quantity distances like process inside quantity distance (PIQD) and outside quantity distance (OQD) decreased marginally. To reduce these quantity distances, the solution is multi-compartmented structures based on Unit Risk Principle. The application of unit risk principle enables the separation of explosives into compartments in such a manner that initiation of explosives in one compartment does not result in initiation of the explosives in adjacent compartments. This is achieved by special design of explosive storage buildings incorporating blast non-propagation walls between adjacent compartments storing explosives. Quantity distances are reduced for such magazines, as maximum credible limit corresponds to the quantity of explosive in one compartment. Present paper describes design and full scale testing of blast non-propagation wall between two compartments of a multi-compartmented explosive storage structure with storage capacity of 5 T Net Explosive Content (NEC) of HD 1.1 per compartment. The blast non-propagation wall comprising of sand filling and air gap between LRC walls has been designed for desired attenuation of blast parameters as well as for arresting high velocity fragments/debris. The design has been validated by fully instrumented design validation field trial. The conduct of the trial as well as the results are discussed in this paper.