DNV Spadeadam carries out crucial major hazards testing to improve safety across a wide range of industries, including energy and infrastructure. One common form of testing is Explosive Depth Hardening (EDH), in which plastic explosives up to 10 kg TNT are used to harden pre-cast railway crossings which support national transport infrastructure. The operations produce extremely high intensity noise and may be carried out up to 10 times per day.
Furthermore, the source characteristics of the explosion are not well understood and vary significantly with operational demands.
The noise produced from these blasts can have detrimental effects on both the workers, as well as locals around the site. It is important to be able to quantify the characteristics from these explosions to be able to appropriately protect workers with correct hearing protection. Moreover, for the purpose of managing environmental noise impacts on local communities, the uncertainties around source directivity and strength make long-range blast noise prediction difficult.
This talk presents the current research on novel techniques to control the noise from explosions undertaken in the laboratory at Salford. Experimental water curtains, water sprays, and metamaterial designs have been tested. It is proposed to implement these methods for use during EDH shots at full-scale, with the potential improvements to occupational and environmental noise impacts will be discussed.
This event will not be recorded, and is open to members and non members.