Air blast load generation for simulating structural response

The current research presents a detailed methodology for generating air blast loading for use within a finite element context. Parameters describing blast overpressure loading on a structure are drawn from open literature sources and incorporated within a blast load generation computer code developed for this research. This open literature approach lends transparency to the details of the blast load modeling, as compared with many commonly used approaches to blast load generation, for which the details are not publicly available. As a demonstration, the load generation code is used with the finite element software LS-DYNA to simulate the response of a steel plate and girder subjected to explosions modeled using these parameters as well as blast parameters from other sources.