Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Engineering Structures journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct Numerical study of blast mitigation effect of innovative barriers using woven wire mesh Weifang Xiao ⁎ , Matthias Andrae, Norbert Gebbeken University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Institute of Engineering Mechanics and Structural Analysis, RISK Research Center, Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, 85577 Neubiberg, Germany ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Woven wire mesh Blast mitigation Innovative barrier Multi-material Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian Fluid-Structure-Interaction ABSTRACT Protective barriers are regarded as a useful means to enhance the safety level of buildings and residents in cases of air blast and impact scenarios. However, only limited research exists concerning the properties and effec- tiveness in mitigating the blast loads of air-permeable metallic barriers, which requires far fewer materials than ordinary solid walls. This paper explores the blast mitigation effect of an innovative barrier type using woven wire mesh. Numerical models were developed and validated against the experimental values of both peak overpressures and maximum impulses, which were published by the authors in a previous study. The influence of the Mach stem formation, which is attributed to the small elevation of the explosive charge above the ground surface, on the blast loads is also examined. It is found that the Mach stem formation significantly affects the peak overpressure at gauge ps1 (1 m ahead of the barriers), whereas its effects on the peak overpressures at the remaining gauges and on the maximum impulses at all gauges are negligibly small. This indicates that the validated numerical models can be used to assess the blast mitigation effect behind the barriers. Based on the numerical results at the employed gauges, the barriers using woven wire mesh can achieve an overpressure (impulse) reduction as high as 31.6% (41.6%) with respect to the free field scenario, in which no obstacles exist in the path of the shock wave propagation. Furthermore, the validated numerical models are used to shed light on the barrier behaviour against air blast by analysing the overpressure-time histories and by visualizing the shock wave propagation. This assists in pointing out the underlying reasons for the noticeable phenomena ob- served in the experiments. Moreover, two parametric studies are conducted in order to discuss the impact of the gabion wall thickness and the opening span between the gabion walls on the blast mitigation effect of barriers. 1. Introduction Protective barriers serve often as the perimeter protection for buildings and residents against conceivable explosions since they are effective in mitigating the blast loads. In the past decades, multiple studies have explored the potential to mitigate blast loads by metallic barriers, e.g. column arrays [1–4], perforated plates [5–7], and wire meshes [8]. Several researchers had concluded that steel wire mesh could reinforce the concrete slabs subjected to different air blast and impact scenarios. Examples include high dynamic blast loadings in the shock tube [9], close-in detonations [10–13], contact detonations [14], and projectile impacts [15–20]. Furthermore, Kondraivendhan and Pradhan [21] and Kaish et al. [22] used steel wire mesh (ferrocement) as external confinement to the concrete specimen aiming to enhance the compressive strength and failure strain. Moreover, Kemper and Feldmann [23] conducted both tests in wind tunnel and experiments in the field to estimate the realistic wind loads on the wire mesh, taking into account the flow resistance and arrangement type (single- or double-layer) of the wire mesh. In recent years, innovative solutions for barriers have attracted in- creasingly more attention [24–28]. However, there is only little re- search exists concerning the properties and effectiveness in mitigating the blast loads of air-permeable metallic barriers. Further research is required in this field. Gebbeken et al. [24] suggested that modern protective structures should follow two basic guidelines, i.e. enough protection against air blast and impact, and satisfactory architectonical attractiveness. The authors detected an observable amount of blast load mitigation behind the barriers combining a stainless-steel ring mesh with a flowing water curtain. More recently, Xiao et al. [28] presented experimental results on the blast mitigation effect of the barriers using woven wire mesh. This paper follows up the previous experimental study by conducting numerical investigations, which aims to get a deep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2020.110574 Received 28 October 2019; Received in revised form 21 February 2020; Accepted 24 March 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: weifang.xiao@unibw.de (W. Xiao). Engineering Structures 213 (2020) 110574 0141-0296/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T