Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI
Soil-filled gabions can provide effective protection against shock waves resulting from detonation events. Therefore, the group Security of Structures is researching the potential of these structures as protective enclosure in order to design them as a wall system safe and efficient against hazards like blast loads.
At component level, such protective walls with different types of soil are tested on EMI’s own shock-tube facility BlastStar. The soil-specific properties of the backfilled materials are determined in the laboratory.
This allows a detailed evaluation of the structural response under consideration of soil-mechanical and dynamic aspects, respectively. The results are supported by numerical analyses using hydrocode simulations. Thus, the structural behavior of these highly dynamically loaded protective walls can be recorded and evaluated effectively. In the future, research work will enable a faster and more accurate dimensioning of such structures and at the same time serve as part of basic research in the field of soil dynamics.