Car bombs and building dynamics Seminar

In 1983 simultaneous car bombings of the US and French barracks in Beirut led to the death of some 300 service personnel and to the withdrawal of peacekeeping forces. By changing the foreign policy of the USA the event was instrumental in affirming the effectiveness of the car bomb, which has become  the weapon of choice amongst insurgents and terrorists alike. This talk will review the basic physics of explosives and blast effects on buildings. A review of interesting car bomb attacks will provide a layman's perspective of blast effects and some of the challenges of modelling structural response to extremely short duration loads will be considered.