The objective of this paper is to provide useful information to both military and law enforcement dynamic entry teams for estimating the level of protection provided by their standard protective equipment and procedures. The procedures investigated include: the K-Equation for predicting safe standoff, the effects of stack spacing, and the effect of the orientation of the stack within the blast field on the breachers’ blast exposure. This investigation leveraged both experimental data gathered during explosive breaching training exercises (Breacher Consortium, 2011 - draft) and numerical simulations using the shock physics code CTH (McGlaun, 1990).
The analysis revealed that the presence of objects within the blast range, including the other team members, significantly affected the individual’s exposure to the point that it sometimes exceeds current exposure recommendations. When each team member’s exposure was compared to the current limit of 4 psi (28 kPa), the average pressure from the gauges on the breacher helmets exceeded that level 43% of the time, and the averaged pressure at the shoulders exceeded the limit 50% of the time. In a comparison of the measured incident impulse energy to the maximum impulse energy predicted based on 4 psi peak pressure, the helmet impulse energy was exceeded 79% of the time and 64% of the time at the shoulders. Because the K-Equation was shown to be accurate in predicting the free-field pressure, these results and the output from the numerical simulations suggest that the stack and blanket do not provide the level of protection anticipated and that reducing the standoff distance, as prescribed by some protocols, is not justified.
Ultimately, the operational impact of these results will depend on efforts to identify blast exposure injury thresholds. Since there is a direct relationship between the peak overpressure and total impulse to which the breaching team members in the stack are exposed, injury thresholds must reveal which component, pressure, impulse or a combination is more injurious. Based on whether pressure or impulse must be minimized, the ideal stack configuration can be calculated using the developed numerical model.
