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BLAST SOLUTIONS
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Blast management solutions generally fall into one of two categories: hardening or mitigation.
Hardening is a method of blast mitigation by which an object is placed around an explosive material to contain the blast, and is generally accomplished through the use of armor, mass or both. Armor is used primarily for its ballistic properties, with enhanced protection levels achieved by increasing mass (thickness and/or weight). Hardening solutions include steel armor plate, various synthetic fibers (Kevlarä, Spectraä, etc.) and fiber-reinforced composites. Most blast containment systems employ hardening. Although some energy is absorbed through deformation, hardening systems have the negative effect of reflecting blast, which by the laws of physics actually magnifies blast effect up to eight times. This is because the shock waves reflecting off a solid surface add to the incident one, which creates a destructive synergism of much greater gas density, temperature, pressure, and overpressure duration--which all contribute to impulse (the "piston"). Reflected energy is a significant problem, particularly in confined spaces. Hardening, which essentially is trying to overmatch or resist a blast, has been widely practiced throughout the years even though it is limited in its capabilities.
Mitigation (or attenuation) of blast effects is the dissipation of blast energy so that acoustic and shock waves, peak overpressure, reflected peak overpressure, impulse and after-burn (the rapid burning of combustible materials in the "hot zone", including soot, occurring so fast that it adds to blast effect from the original explosive) are reduced. This reduction is accomplished through physical and chemical processes, the proportion of each determined by the explosive material and circumstances of a particular blast. The remaining energy is transmitted at a slower, more sustainable level. The amount of reflected energy is significantly reduced with mitigation. Unlike hardening systems, the performance of the Company's products is not related directly to material thickness and therefore has a greater range of uses producing the same or better effectiveness against blast effects.
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