A delegation of eight researchers, from professors to PhD students, attended and presented at the 19th International Symposium on Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures (ISIEMS) conference in December last year, showcasing research on topics spanning ground shock to confined explosions.
Held at the Gustav-Stresemann-Institut in Bonn, Germany, ISIEMS is an internationally renowned conference that focuses on the latest research into the effects of munitions on structures. Leading experts from around the globe convene to discuss and present their findings, with the overarching aim of the recent conference being to gather experts in resilience and protection of national infrastructure from across Europe, to identify emerging challenges and to initiate collaborations.
Sheffield’s Blast & Impact Engineering Group, who have been participating in ISIEMS for 40 years, shared their expertise on a variety of areas - from blast testing of explosive charges buried in frozen soil, to computational methods that predict the heat and pressure generated when plastic explosives detonate inside enclosed spaces, to analysing interesting features of blast loading.
Talks were well-attended and of high quality, sparking engagement and interest from community members. PhD students, presenting at a major conference for the first time, made valuable connections and started to build the foundations for future collaborations. The group plans to showcase their work at future international symposia.
Professor Andy Tyas, Dstl/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Blast Protection Engineering, organized and led a full-day session in tribute to the memory of the group’s long-time collaborator, Professor Dan Pope, from Dstl (The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) who had served as a visiting professor at the University of Sheffield. The session was designed for colleagues who had worked alongside Professor Pope throughout his career and focused on a broad array of topics related to numerical modelling tools, effects on structures and urban environments, and experimental techniques in blast protection.
Professor Tyas said: “A highlight for me was undoubtedly giving the eulogy speech and chairing the special memorial session for Dan Pope. Dan was a Sheffield alumnus who rose to head the MOD computational modelling capability. He was renowned as a world leader in blast protection, a genuine force of nature as a person, and someone hugely respected and admired around the world - as evidenced by the number of presenters and the audience size at the session.”
Ross Waddoups, PhD Civil Engineering student, said: “It was my pleasure to present our work on explosive ground shock propagation DIC experiments and their use to validate numerical models with huge experimental datasets. It was a wonderful opportunity to network with and see the work of the top experts in the field - with discussions of future collaborations blossoming already!”
Lewis Tetlow, PhD Civil Engineering student, said: “It was great to present my own PhD work and see it be received with great interest as well as be posed challenging questions from new perspectives. The conference was a chance to see the “Big” questions that the blast protection research community is trying to solve as well as the impact this research can have. Viewing others’ research also yielded many ideas and potential areas of new research that I can undertake or use to extend my current work.”
Dr Adam Dennis, Research Associate in Blast Engineering, said: “Travelling by train rather than through the air was good to limit our carbon footprint, but it was also a great team bonding experience. I also enjoyed seeing how far reaching all of our work is, we fit into every conversation about blast protection engineering, and we showed why our group is one of the best in the world.”
