C.E. Needham has spent more than forty years exploring the field of blast and shock, and this book chronicles the lessons he has learned. Historical in perspective, it focuses on blast waves propagating in fluids or materials than can be treated as fluids.

This book examines blast wavestheir methods of generation, their propagation in several dimensions through the real atmosphere and layered gases, and their interactions with simple structuresthereby providing a broad overview of the field. The intended audience has a basic knowledge of algebra and a good grasp of the concepts of conservation of mass and energy. The text includes an introduction to blast wave terminology and conservation laws, and there is a discussion of units and the importance of consistency.
This new edition of Blast Waves has been thoroughly updated and includes two new chapters that cover numerical hydrodynamics and blast injury. Authored by an expert with over forty years of experience in the field of blast and shock, this book offers many lessons as well as a historical perspective on developments in the field.

Covers a broad area of blast waves ranging from shock tubes and gaseous detonations to high explosives and nuclear blast phenomena Updated new edition includes new chapters on numerical hydrodynamics and blast injury Incorporates modeling techniques and applications as well as historical analysis of the field

Inhalt
Some Basic Air Blast Definitions.- The RankineHugoniot Relations.- Formation of Blast Waves.- Ideal High Explosive Detonation Waves.- Cased Explosives.- Blast Wave Propagation.- Boundary Layers.- Particulate Entrainment and Acceleration.- Instabilities.- Measurement Techniques.- Scaling Blast Parameters.- Blast Wave Reflections.- Height of Burst Effects.- Structure Interactions.- External Detonations.- Internal Detonations.- Simulation Techniques.- Some Notes on Non-ideal Explosives.- Modeling Blast Waves.