Jay Karlsen

Research Project Title: A fast running inverse minimisation algorithm for blast forensics in complex environments.

Blast wave propagation in free-air scenarios is relatively well understood, so the aftermath of an explosion in these environments tends to be quick to model. However, this is immediately complicated by the presence of obstacles and, as such, cityscapes - for which the consequences of a blast are often the most dire - become tremendously difficult to robustly and efficiently design for because blast protection engineers have to rely on costly, time consuming computational fluid dynamics software.

This research aims to investigate improvements in CFD-based analytical techniques by analysing blast forensics problems and it is hoped that the learnings will contribute meaningfully in the pursuit of a "fast running engineering model".