We congratulate Paul Warnstedt on his doctorate

13 November 2020

Paul Warnstedt, a former research associate at our institute, successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on November 13, 2020. We congratulate him most sincerely!

The title of his dissertation is:

"Experimentelle und numerische Untersuchungen der explosionshemmenden Wirkung von Heckenpflanzen"
("Experimental and numerical investigations of the explosion-inhibiting effect of hedge plants")

The following experts participated: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Ex.z Em. Norbert Gebbeken, Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Michael Kaliske and Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Schneider.

This dissertation deals with the experimental investigation and numerical simulation of the explosion-inhibiting effect of hedgerow plants. Based on fundamental requirements for explosion-protection plants, potentially suitable plants were identified. Practical methods for the experimental determination of material and structural properties, as well as for capturing plant geometry, were tested. Building on this, two methods for determining the volume of hedge plants were developed, which serve to calculate growth densities and biomass volume fractions. Their pronounced influence on the explosion-inhibiting effect was demonstrated based on the results of extensive experimental studies. These studies were able to prove and quantify the attenuation of explosion-induced air shock waves for a broad anatomical spectrum of hedge plants.

Detailed numerical models of individual branches were developed for fundamental investigations into the behavior of plants under explosion conditions. These models demonstrated the rapid structural response to the stress and its influence on the propagation of air blast waves. To efficiently capture these effects across entire hedgerows, abstract numerical models were developed that represent deformation behavior, growth densities, and biomass volume fractions. This abstraction approach could not be fully validated based on the experimental results, so the reliable numerical estimation of the explosion-inhibiting effect of hedgerow plants remains an open research topic. This research was initiated for the first time worldwide within the framework of the BauProtect Research Group.