A Comparison between Three Air Blast Simulation Techniques in LS-DYNA

When simulating structures subjected to the effects of blast loading, one might resort to three different methods of simulation. These methods are the empirical blast method, also known as Load Blast Enhanced (LBE), the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method, and a coupling method that allows the application of empirical blast loads on air domain simulated with the ALE formulation. Furthermore, for the ALE method, both a mapping technique, that allows the mapping of data from 2D ALE simulations to 2D and 3D ALE meshes, and a complete 3D ALE simulation could be performed. In order to verify and compare the efficiency and accuracy of these air blast methods, an air blast loading on a reinforced concrete slab is modelled. Additionally, mesh convergence studies of 2D and 3D ALE simulations are performed.