Understanding the Effects of Fragment-Generated Concrete Dust on Agent Defeat

The fragments from weapons detonated inside a structure fly out and impact the surrounding walls, where they generate debris and dust plumes. Understanding the amount, size, velocity, mixing, and thermal properties of the fragment-generated dust is crucial for determining its effects. However, the available data sets are limited or biased, which prevents the development of well-characterized models that cover the range of physics encountered for such scenarios. Furthermore, current diagnostics are not well-suited for use in full-scale weapon detonation tests due to their spatial size, measurement mechanics, and fragility. There are multiple opportunities for improvements in data collection, diagnostic techniques, experimental approaches, and model development to overcome these challenges. Protection Engineering Consultants (PEC) has teamed with Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Applied Research Associates (ARA) to address the dust measurement and modeling challenges. There are many aspects to be considered, such as turbulent mixing, thermal effects, and combustion dynamics. Our solution will advance the state-of-the-art in dust formation and characterization testing and modeling through the development of lab-level experimental techniques and novel measurement diagnostics that can be extended to full-scale field testing of cased munitions. Data from these tests will be used to enhance model prediction capabilities for both high-fidelity and fast-running model codes.