How to... Defuse a Bomb

Nicolas Newell explains how the Royal British Legion for Blast Injury Studies are using simulations to monitor the different effects of a bomb blast.

Engineering and Technology Magazine reports on the work of the Royal British Legion centre for Blast Injury Studies.

With the use of IEDs and landmines increasing in modern warfare, bomb disposal specialists are turning to cutting-edge technology. Nicolas Newell of CBIS explains how the Centre are using simulations to monitor the different effects of a bomb blast.

"When a vehicle is struck by a mine, the floor tends to rupture and occupants with their feet resting on the floor experience an impact so severe that frequently it leaves them with terrible injuries to their legs and lower bodies.

The Royal British Legion Centre For Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London has carried out tests on post-mortem human limbs to better understand the effect of these blasts, and how new technologies might protect combatants against them.

The Centre's injury simulator replicates anti-vehicle mine blast loading. A pneumatic test rig capable of accelerating a 42 kg steel plate to 20m per second and back to rest within 20ms, simulates the effect of a typical mine blast on a person's leg, through a vehicle floor.

The simulator uses a pressure sensor, an accelerometer and an acoustic sensor to monitor the explosion. Scientists fix strain gauges to various bony cadaver parts and sample all of the synchronised sensors at a 25kHz frequency. They manually trigger data acquisition with a push button, moments after the rig fires.

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