Recent developments of the KG software

Explosive loading of a reinforced concrete ammunition magazine may result in break-up and launch of debris. Since debris throw is one of the major hazards in case of an accidental explosion, it is of high importance within risk assessment tools. Within the Klotz Group this phenomenon has been modelled and implemented in the KG Software. The software is based on state of the art knowledge and experimental data from full scale trials. A number of new features are currently being implemented in two projects sponsored by the KG, and conducted by TNO and EMI. This paper describes and illustrates these features with examples.
A number of these new features is related to risk assessment application. The first one is the possibility to define a sloped terrain, to enhance the applicability of the software in various countries. Furthermore, the possibility to calculate the number of hits at user-defined exposed sites, and the possibility to specify barricades have been added.
In addition to these new features, the paper also addresses the improvement of the debris trajectory prediction. Conventional models describing the flight of debris are based on the assumption of individual debris motion. However, the debris cloud originating from a reinforced concrete wall is initially very dense. As a result, debris trajectories can not be
considered independently at these stages. Comparing conventional models with experimental data has shown that small debris requires unrealistic high launch velocities to reach the observed pick-up distances. The developed ‘ballistic filtering’ model gives a more realistic description of the initial stages of debris throw. The model has been implemented in a research version of the KG Software and has been compared to trial data.