The Mechanics department is proud to announce that on 21 September Pierrette Atikpo joined our team. She will be working on the project “Near-field pollutant dispersion due to explosions”. In this project, we will measure particle concentrations around the explosions from the covered earth detonations performed by our EOD service in Poelkapelle. This will help us to first quantify the exposure of personnel and the environment to fine particles thrown up by the explosions. Next, we will use the rich experimental dataset to develop dispersion models for the “near field”, i.e. close to the explosion itself. This will improve our ability to predict the dispersion and effects close to the detonation of a dirty bomb, for example, as well as provide better initial conditions for larger-scale dispersion modelling.
The project is naturally a collaboration with the EOD service, who will provide the explosions, but also with our own Military & Protective Engineering research unit, who has extensive experience with experimental data collection around explosions. Furthermore, we will cooperate closely with the von Karman Institute, where they have previously done research into the explosion-driven dispersion of particles.