BLADE (Blast Load Assessment and Damage Evaluation) is a software tool that provides an assessment of potential human casualties and damage level of structures and components under blast loading conditions. The tool can analyse both structural elements (e.g., slabs, beams, columns) and building envelope elements (e.g., walls, windows, side panels). It considers a wide range of materials, including various types of concrete, masonry, steel, glass and timber. Moreover, it examines the potential impact of blast waves on human bodies, predicting the likelihood of casualties resulting from exposure to the blast wave, such as eardrum rupture, lung damage, skull fracture and whole-body impact, as well as from exposure to blast fragments generated by the explosion. This report describes the principles behind extending the functionalities of the tool’s previous version. BLADE 4.0 allows to calculate the fatality probability resulting from blast fragmentation and, more specifically, from casing fragments, shrapnel (e.g., nails) included in Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), and other objects that can be propelled by the blast wave. The results of these calculations are presented to the user through intuitive, map-like graphical representations providing a visual overview of the potential casualty patterns. The overlay of the graphical representation of the results onto a map enables the user to associate them with a specific location .
IOANNOU Orestis;
KARLOS Vasileios;
LARCHER Martin;
SCHUMACHER Ralf;
2025-10-09
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC143312
978-92-68-31971-0 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 40464,
OP KJ-01-25-488-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC143312,
10.2760/8285190 (online),
