People blast damage

An explosion occurring in a confined vessel or structure can rupture the vessel or structure, resulting in the projection of debris over a wide area. This debris, or missiles, can cause appreciable injury to people and damage to structures and process equipment. Unconfined explosions also create missiles by blast wave impact and subsequent translation of structures. 

Consequence analysis Once hazards and specific incident scenarios through which those hazards might impact people, the environment, or property have been identified, methods exist for analyzing their consequences (size of vapor cloud, blast damage radius, overpressure expected, etc.). This is independent of frequency or probability. 

Sheffield, UK 1973 Gas works 4 people died, 24 injured. Blast damaged buildings within a wide radius and blew in hundreds of windows. Cars were showered with debris and crushed by huge pieces of concrete CVE... 

The neutrons are the worst problem of radiation. The human body contains a high percentage of HjO, which absorbs neutrons very efficiently.The neutron bomb produces massive amounts of neutrons and so Is effective against people, but it does not produce the long-lasting radiation or blast damage of the fission atomic bomb. 

Response to Blast Waves The effect of blast waves upon eqmp-ment and people is difficult to assess because there is no single blast wave parameter which can fully describe the damage potenti of the... 

After a period of 30 to 90 seconds following release, the flammable cloud was ignited. The time was then about 4 53 p.m. The explosion caused extensive damage and started numerous fires. The blast shattered control room windows and caused the collapse of its roof. It demolished the main office block, only 25 m from the explosion center. Twenty-eight people died, and thirty-six were injured. The plant was totally destroyed (Figures 2.4 and 2.5), and 1821 houses and 167 shops and factories in the vicinity of the plant were damaged. 

A blast produces a peak overpressure of 47,000 N/m2. What fraction of structures will be damaged by exposure to this overpressure What fraction of people exposed will die as a result of lung hemorrhage What fraction will have eardrums ruptured What conclusions about the effects of this blast can be drawn ... 

People can be injured by explosions from direct blast effects (including overpressure and thermal radiation) or indirect blast effects (mostly missile damage). 

Response to Blast Waves The effect of blast waves upon equipment and people is difficult to assess because there is no single blast wave parameter which can fully describe the damage potential of the blast. Some targets respond more strongly to the peak incident overpressure and others to the impulse (J p dt) of the blast. The blast parameters are usually based on the conservative assumption that the... 

Table 3.5 summarizes the effects of explosion overpressure on structures. With respect to human casualties, heavy building damage usually is equated to a fatal effect, as the people inside the buildings probably would be crushed. People outside of buildings or structures are susceptible to direct blast injury (blast overpressure) and indirect blast injury (missiles or whole body translation). 

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