A Software Framework for Blast Event Simulation

The development of a Blast Computational Framework (BCF) is proposed that will provide a suite of tools for performing soil bound explosion simulations and their effects on vehicles and on the human occupants of the vehicles. The BCF will provide a virtual test-bed where disparate computational models can seamlessly interact with one another to provide a unified modeling solution for blast-vehicle-occupant scenarios. The BCF will utilize graphical user interfaces to make the simulation capabilities more accessible to the non-expert user. The BCF will use plug-ins that encapsulate the computational models and visualization packages. Supported models will include high-fidelity models such as the MPMICE and ICE-DYNA (from Phase I), reduced order blast models (for rapid turnaround studies), finite element (FE) packages (DYNA3D, LS-DYNA), advanced soil models and human occupant model couplings. The BCF will provide the option to perform the simulations in an un-coupled mode in which the effect of the buried explosive on the ground vehicle is through a pre-determined load-history boundary condition or tightly coupled where the explosion and structural response of the vehicle metal are time-marched together to accurately capture interactions. The improved simulation capability will be demonstrated on selected test problems of interest to the Army.