To determine the impact of blast events — explosions and fireballs — on structures, a team from the University of Sheffield in the U.K. has developed a non-contact infrared radiation thermometer.

To obtain new data about the early stages of fireballs and explosions, the new temperature measurement device was designed to analyze the characteristics of an explosion in the microseconds following its ignition, thereby enabling the protection of future structures against explosions.

Source: University of Sheffield

According to the researchers, the non-contact temperature measurement instrument can be used in the microseconds immediately following an explosion, along with traditional pressure gauges, to analyze and subsequently lead to insights about blast events and thus how to protect future infrastructure against threats like targeted attacks.

Previously, such high-quality data for characterizing blast events was limited thanks to lack of an appropriate measurement instrument.

"By working closely together, we were able to develop instrumentation capable of measuring the temperature of a confined blast event. Such research would not have been possible without the mutual expertise of the two research groups; we were able to apply our novel research within temperature measurements in their novel application of blast load characterization," explained the researchers.

The device is detailed in the article, “High-Speed Infrared Radiation Thermometer for the Investigation of Early Stage Explosive Development and Fireball Expansion,” which appears in the journal Sensors.