Attenuation of blast waves from an intense explosion in dusty gases: a case study

An intense explosion in dusty gas is analyzed considering the Beirut ammonium nitrate explosion of 2020 as a case study. The data available from various sources for the Beirut explosion are used to determine the energy released and the possible reduction in damage radius if there were additional dust particles in the atmosphere. The relationship derived in our previous article ( Proc. R. Soc. A 476 , 2020) between the blast radius and the time of arrival of the shock seems quite accurate, and here the energy released by the explosion and the mass of trinitrotoluene (TNT) equivalent based on energy considerations and blast damage are estimated for dusty gases. These estimates depend on Γ , the ratio of specific heats of the dusty gas mixture. The hydrostatic overpressure and dynamic pressure are calculated from previous results by using the data available. The variation of the three dust parameters in the atmosphere, i.e. (i) mass concentration of dust particles ( k p ) , (ii) specific heat ratio ( β ) , and (iii) density ratio ( G ) , gives the estimated TNT equivalence as ≈ 0.1 kt to 2.5 kt up to a distance of 500 m. Enhanced decay and reduced pressure is evident for dusty gases with appropriate dust parameters.