It is a fact that terrorist attacks, including bombings, have taken place in Europe and continue to do so at an escalating rate. The 15 worst terrorist attacks have occurred since 1982, 80% in the last 10 years. Apart from the direct impact of the blast, there are the devastating consequences of broken glass, debris and building collapse, which act as lethal missiles and which claim more lives than those caused by the direct effects of the blast. With this in mind, the Consortium behind this proposal have devised an innovative building response system to bomb blasts which enables the building fabric to absorb and spread blast forces, thereby minimising the amount and velocity of glass and structural debris and manages the blast forces to avoid building collapse. Our proposed innovative concept can be economically retrofitted to existing buildings.
The concept is based around developing a new form of ductile shatterproof glass and a unique method of tying the glass to the structure of the building, designed to absorb the blast impact in a ductile manner, thus avoiding building collapse and debris. The system also checks that the specified alterations do not compromise the integrity of the structural framework, as this could lead to the building's collapse. Furthermore, the low weight of the Blastwall solution does not cause any further structural issues when retrofitted.