Numerical procedure to determine the performance and structural response of passive shock wave safety valves under blast loading

Traditional protective structures are usually equipped with ventilation systems. Main components of the latter are passive air blast safety valves. Their purpose in case of an explosive event outside the structure is to significantly reduce the blast pressure leakage into the structure in order to protect human individuals as well as technical installations. Until now, the performance determination of such valves is mostly realized by means of experimental tests in a shock tube. Considering industrial and modern civil protection applications with their practical implementation, additional methods are required to gain further insights into the behaviour of different valve closing mechanisms and to support novel developments as well as error analysis. For this reason, a practice-oriented procedure is presented, with the aim to extend the assessment of the closing behaviour and blast pressure leakage of passive air blast safety valves and the structural behaviour by numerical simulations. In a first preliminary step, potential software solutions have been evaluated based on literature research and expert knowledge. After evaluation of the obtained results, two different software pairs (fluid dynamic as well as structural dynamic tools) have been tested by carrying out indirectly coupled numerical simulations. The software pair APOLLO Blastsimulator & LS-DYNA achieved satisfactory results with the indirect coupling, so that direct fully coupled FSI simulations were additionally performed. To cover a broad range of blast safety valve applications, two different suitable test cases have been considered. In comparison to the experimental results, good agreement was achieved when analysing the pressure–time history of the blast pressure leakage and the closing time of the safety valve. Furthermore, the latter was confirmed by high-speed camera registrations during blast loading.