Dr Andrew Barr
MEng, PhD
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Research Fellow in Structural and Material Blast Characterisation
Full contact details
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
D121
Sir Frederick Mappin Building (Broad Lane Building)
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
- Profile
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My research aims to characterise blast loading and dynamic material behaviour, enabling the development of effective systems to protect lives and infrastructure
Dr Andrew Barr
Andrew graduated from the University of Sheffield with an MEng (Hons) in Structural Engineering and Architecture in 2012. He then joined the Geotechnical Engineering Group and completed his PhD in 2016, studying the behaviour of sandy soils at high strain rates. During his PhD he also worked as an engineer at university spin-out company Blastech, which provides commercial blast and impact testing services.
As a Research Fellow in the Blast and Impact Dynamics group, much of Andrew’s research to date has focused on the effect of strain rate on material behaviour. How quickly a load is applied to a material (the strain rate) can greatly affect properties such as stiffness and strength, and this effect is particularly important when investigating very rapid loadings such as explosions. His research on strain rate effects in soils is vital for understanding how to defend against buried explosive devices such as mines and IEDs, and has aided the development of soil-filled structures to protect people and infrastructure from ballistic threats.
The destructive nature of explosions makes them inherently difficult to measure and characterise, but a full understanding of their effects is vital to improve the life-saving ability of next-generation blast protection systems. Andrew’s research on the Mechanisms and Characterisation of Explosions (MaCE) project aims to develop a comprehensive model of the loading from explosions by investigating the pressure, temperature and chemical reactions in the blast wave as it develops.
Andrew maintains an interest in architecture from his undergraduate degree, and is Module Leader on CIV3207: IDP Part 2 for Architectural Engineering. This individual stage of the third-year Integrated Design Project involves the detailed design of a low-carbon building to a challenging brief, and requires the Architectural Engineering students to integrate the structural, mechanical and architectural aspects of building design.
Our Centenary. Our Research
- Qualifications
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- MEng, Structural Engineering and Architecture, The University of Sheffield, 2012
- PhD, The University of Sheffield, 2016
- Research interests
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- Strain rate effects in soils
- High strain-rate material behaviour
- High pressure material behaviour
- Hopkinson pressure bars for blast measurement
- Dispersion effects in pressure bar measurements
- Publications
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Journal articles
- High strain rate behaviour of cohesive soils. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 105189-105189.
- Experimental studies of confined detonations of plasticized high explosives in inert and reactive atmospheres. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 480(2294). View this article in WRRO
- Temporally and spatially resolved reflected overpressure measurements in the extreme near field. Sensors, 23(2).
- Far-field positive phase blast parameter characterisation of RDX and PETN based explosives. International Journal of Protective Structures.
- High-speed infrared radiation thermometer for the investigation of early stage explosive development and fireball expansion. Sensors, 22(16). View this article in WRRO
- Deformation of Armox 440T plates subject to buried explosive charge detonations: A benchmark for appliqué systems. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 150. View this article in WRRO
- Preliminary yield estimation of the 2020 Beirut explosion using video footage from social media. Shock Waves. View this article in WRRO
- Correction of higher mode Pochhammer-Chree dispersion in experimental blast loading measurements. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 139. View this article in WRRO
- Characterisation of buried blast loading. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 476(2236). View this article in WRRO
- Predicting Crater Formation from Failure of Pressurized Water Mains through Analogy with Buried Explosive Events. Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice, 11(2), 04020013-04020013. View this article in WRRO
- High-pressure compressibility and shear strength data for soils. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 56(7), 1042-1048. View this article in WRRO
- Effect of moisture content on high strain rate compressibility and particle breakage in loose sand. Experimental Mechanics. View this article in WRRO
- Local Variations in Gabion Structures. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- A review of Pochhammer-Chree dispersion in the Hopkinson bar. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Engineering and Computational Mechanics. View this article in WRRO
- Electromagnetic Interference in Measurements of Radial Stress During Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar Experiments. Experimental Mechanics. View this article in WRRO
- Effects of strain rate and moisture content on the behaviour of sand under one-dimensional compression. Experimental Mechanics, 56(9), 1625-1639. View this article in WRRO
- Design of a split Hopkinson pressure bar with partial lateral confinement. Measurement Science and Technology, 27. View this article in WRRO
Conference proceedings papers
- Particle breakage in partially-saturated sand under dynamic loading. 17th International Symposium on the Interation of the Effects of Munitions with Structures (ISIEMS)
- Investigating high strain rate shear in soils using a split Hopkinson pressure bar. 3rd UK Defence Seminar on the High Strain Rate Properties of Soils and Granular Media. Dstl, Porton Down
- Enhancement of Hesco Bastion wall models to better predict magnitudes of response under far field loading conditions
Theses / Dissertations
- Strain-rate effects in quartz sand.
- High strain rate behaviour of cohesive soils. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 105189-105189.
- Research group
- Grants