HPCCP/CAS Workshop Proceedings 1998

This publication is a collection of extended abstracts of presentations given at the HPCCP/CAS (High Performance Computing and Communications Program/Computational Aerosciences Project) Workshop held on August 24-26, 1998, at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. The objective of the Workshop was to bring together the aerospace high performance computing community, consisting of airframe and propulsion companies, independent software vendors, university researchers, and government scientists and engineers. The Workshop was sponsored by the HPCCP Office at NASA Ames Research Center. The Workshop consisted of over 40 presentations, including an overview of NASA's High Performance Computing and Communications Program and the Computational Aerosciences Project; ten sessions of papers representative of the high performance computing research conducted within the Program by the aerospace industry, academia, NASA, and other government laboratories; two panel sessions; and a special presentation by Mr. James Bailey

Modelling the Effects of Blast Loads in Rail Vehicles

This thesis describes the development of modelling techniques to understand the effects of an Improvised Explosive Device on the passengers and structure of a rail vehicle. The work aims to establish if rail vehicle design could influence the distribution of passenger injuries within a rail vehicle. Finite element models were used to predict the detonation and propagation of the blast pressures, and the structural response of a rail vehicle. Models were developed to allow the prediction of human injury, using validated work from the open literature and from basic principles. After a detailed review of existing work on injury, chest injury from blast pressures and penetrating injuries from high speed projectiles were chosen as the injury modes to be included in the model. To provide data to validate numerical models, experimental blast testing in confined geometry was undertaken. Four configurations of a test cell were used to gain an understanding of the effect of vertical baffles on pressures and cumulative impulse. Excellent correlation was seen between test shots in each arrangement. Baffles were seen to increase the cumulative impulse seen at the wall opposite where they were fixed, although the number and spacing of them was seen to have no significant effect. Numerical modelling of the experimental test arrangements showed good correlation between the experimental pressure time history data and the numerical predictions. Secondary combustion was considered using an energy release function, after which cumulative impulse calculated from experimental data were was predicted by the numerical models. Risk prediction and finite element models were combined to model the effects of an IED blast in a representative rail vehicle. A number of key variables were studied, and it was identified that although rail vehicle design can affect the injury severity, passenger spatial density was the driver for determining the distribution of injuries

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen