Karlsen, J. orcid.org/0009-0004-1194-8873, Farrimond, D.G. orcid.org/0000-0002-9440-4369, Lodge, T.J. orcid.org/0000-0002-6906-0218 et al. (4 more authors) (2025) Trilateration of blast wave arrival time: an inverse method for determining explosive yield and position. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 383 (2305). 20240040. ISSN: 1364-503X
Abstract
This paper details the development of a rapid inverse approach to determine the yield and location of an explosion through trilateration of empirical laws for blast wave arrival time. A rigorous sensitivity analysis of measurement uncertainty is first performed. From this, a probabilistic framework is proposed that utilizes Monte Carlo sampling of datasets to mitigate the effects of the variability and uncertainties typically present in blast events. Subsequently, the trilateration method is successfully applied to two existing datasets. Analysing well-controlled small-scale laboratory experiments, charge mass is predicted within 6.3% of the true yield, and position within 3.65 charge radii of the true centre. Social media footage of the 2020 Beirut explosion is then used to assess performance against data collected under in-field conditions. The predicted yield of 0.52 ktTNT shows good agreement with the literature, and charge position is predicted to within the radius of the crater. Trilateration is shown to be able to rapidly and reliably determine explosive yield and centre, despite large levels of sensor noise. The sub-second computation time of this approach offers the possibility to better model and predict the damage and injury patterns immediately after an explosion, facilitating more effective disaster response planning.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | Beirut; blast; explosion; arrival time; inverse method; Monte Carlo |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Civil and Structural Engineering (Sheffield) |
Date Deposited: | 29 Sep 2025 13:40 |
Last Modified: | 29 Sep 2025 13:40 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | The Royal Society |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1098/rsta.2024.0040 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:232328 |