News | Design & Engineering

Blast Test Shows Efficacy of Blast-Resistant Steel Buildings

December 11th, 2020   |  3 min. read
Blast Test Shows Efficacy of Blast-Resistant Steel Buildings Blog Feature

This press release, announcing the company's latest blast test, was sent on December 10, 2020 on behalf of RedGuard. 

RedGuard, the leading producer of blast-resistant buildings to the oil and gas industry, announces the successful completion of their latest blast test. The company believes that this test demonstrates the largest explosion for a blast test of its kind.

The main goals of the field test, which was completed by a third-party testing facility, were to validate four key points. Those items were: the engineering of the blast-resistant structures, the human response, the effect on the interior or nonstructural finishes of the building, and the effect of anchoring and sliding in a large-scale blast event.

2020BlastTestExplosionReleaseThe company staged a large-scale explosion, using a 6,000-pound mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO). Four structures were placed in the path of the explosion’s blast wave, at stand-off distances of 173 feet and 193 feet. Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATD), known more commonly as crash test dummies, were used in the tests to determine what injuries human bodies may sustain during a blast of this magnitude while inside one of RedGuard’s blast-resistant steel buildings.

Omega-Risk, a third-party engineering firm founded by Dr. Ali Sari, one of the foremost authorities on blast engineering, is thoroughly reviewing the blast test results. “The blast test program by RedGuard has been the most extensive test program regarding blast resistant modular buildings, or BRMs. It was very successful and demonstrated that these buildings’ nonstructural components can be properly designed to prevent injuries in these buildings, even for very high blast loads,” said Dr. Sari.

“We were able to test and prove many different blast-resistant concepts during these field tests. Using a third-party engineering firm is perhaps one of the most important aspects of our tests. We can say, with affirmation from an outside source, that our structures performed flawlessly. We came away from that test with a wealth of information and even great ideas for future design concepts,” said Phillip Lange, technical sales manager for RedGuard.

The company expects to release video demonstrations and other educational content around their field test by mid-January. See our preview, below! 

About RedGuard

RedGuard is the leading authority in blast protection, providing safe, customizable and scalable modular buildings that save lives. Driven by a passion for safety, RedGuard’s product innovation has driven the development of turnkey solutions that raise the bar in both personalization and protection for customers across industries and worldwide. The company’s dedication to meet its customers’ unique needs—from initial design to installation and beyond—combined with unsurpassed standards for quality and overall safety makes it the go-to manufacturer in the industry. RedGuard’s product lines excel in the area of modular safe structures and threat mitigation.

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Carreen Gibbons

Carreen Gibbons

Carreen Gibbons is the Communications Specialist at RedGuard. With a natural curiosity toward technical subjects and a love of learning new things, she writes content for the SiteBox Storage and RedGuard websites and spends her days learning new things about the industries that the companies serve.

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