Breaching of Triple-Brick Walls: Numerical Simulations

Explosive wall breaching will be a key war-fighter capability in future military operations by dismounted soldiers in urban terrain environments where the close proximity of urban structures, possibly occupied by noncombatants, significantly restricts the use of large demolition charges or large caliber direct-fire weapons. Because of this requirement, the US Army has focused considerable attention and resources to optimize breaching activities in urban terrain. As part of the Army's effort, the US Army engineer research and development center (ERDC) is conducting experimental and numerical investigations to improve wall breaching methods. The ongoing experimental and numerical programs will conduct comprehensive breaching research on a full range of urban construction materials. As a first step in this process, the ERDC conducted a successful baseline study of Composition C4 (C-4) breaching effectiveness against steel-reinforced-concrete walls. Recently, the research effort was extended to triple-brick walls. Numerical simulations of two selected experiments were conducted using the coupled Eulerian- Lagrangian code Zapotec. In these simulations, the brick and mortar were modeled as Lagrangian materials, and the C-4 was modeled as an Eulerian material.