You can learn a lot from a blast tube when you couple blast experiments with computer modeling. Sandia National Laboratories researchers are using a blast tube configurable to 120 feet to demonstrate how well nuclear weapons could survive the shock wave of a blast from an enemy weapon and to help validate the modeling.

Sandia recently completed a two-year series of blast tube tests for one nuclear weapon program and started tests for another. Each series requires instrumentation, explosives, high-speed cameras and computer modeling. Tests simulate part of the environment a weapon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere would face if another nuclear weapon went off nearby, said test director Nathan Glenn.

Aircraft corrosion is a multi-faceted issue that requires more than a simple, one-dimensional approach. To enable Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) personnel to arrive at a complete picture and find out how to best protect valuable military assets, a unique solution was required.

Enter the Accelerated Combined-Effects Simulation test apparatus (ACES). This test chamber, custom-designed under the direction of AFRL through a Small Business Innovative Research effort, allows AFRL researchers to recreate the broad range of simultaneous environmental conditions under which military assets operate, including UV radiation, temperature, humidity, and various gaseous environments. Dynamic fixtures allow for test specimens to be pulled and flexed to further simulate the structural stresses aircraft experience during flight conditions.

How much force does it take to shatter a Humvee, a soldier’s body armor, or a submarine?

A new system that uses a wireless implant has been shown to record – for the first time – how brain tissue deforms when subjected to the kind of shock that causes blast-induced trauma commonly seen in combat veterans.