January 30, 2002
 

As part of a company-funded study to investigate the capabilities of the new HEXDAM 6.0 software EAI has developed a three-dimensional model of the blast effects of an explosion aboard a commercial aircraft when the explosive is stored in the shoe of a passenger.  In this representation the model includes a 29-foot section of the passenger compartment of the aircraft with ten rows of seats, seven passengers per row.  The passenger with the explosive is seated in the sixth row from the front on the left side in a window seat.  The model includes damage predictions for both the interior and exterior of the passenger compartment as well as injury predictions for each passenger.  For security reasons the physical properties of the aircraft have been purposely adjusted to produce results which do not match the real world.

Five sets of figures are included.  In each set five views of the passenger compartment are presented as follows:

       View #                                                        Description                                           .
           1                Looking at left side of compartment at an angle of 90°
           2                Looking at left side of compartment at an angle of 45° (from the front)
           3                Looking at front of compartment
           4                Looking at right side of compartment at an angle of 45° (from the front)
           5                Looking at compartment at an angle of 45° (from above)

In Set #1 the undamaged compartment is shown.  In Set #2 the undamaged compartment is shown with blast overpressures contours plotted in a vertical plane perpendicular to the axis of the aircraft.  In Set #3 the undamaged compartment is shown with blast overpressure contours plotted in a horizontal plane parallel to the axis of the aircraft.  In Set #4 the compartment with color-coded damage and injury is shown with overpressure contours plotted in the same vertical plane as in Set #2.  In Set #5 the compartment with color-coded damage and injury is shown with overpressure contours plotted in the same horizontal plane as in Set #3.