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posted by CoolHand on Monday December 12 2016, @10:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the mr-sandman dept.

A study led by Assistant Professor Darren Chian Siau Chen from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Engineering has found that when a projectile is fired at a sand block at high speed, it absorbs more than 85 per cent of the energy exerted against it. This ability to resist the impact increases with the speed of the projectile, even at high velocities.

While sand has been used traditionally for military fortification, very little is known about the unique energy absorption capability of the material. In a recent study, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Faculty of Engineering found that sand can absorb more than 85 per cent of the energy exerted against it, and its ability to resist the impact increases with the speed of the projectile, even at high velocities. In contrast, steel plates have poorer energy absorption capacity against high speed projectiles. This novel finding suggests that sand can potentially be used as a cheaper, lighter and more environmentally friendly alternative to enhance protection of critical infrastructure as well as armour systems.

[Editor's note: We've previously discussed an impending shortage of sand..]


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 13 2016, @01:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 13 2016, @01:05AM (#440634)

    > This is also why nuclear weapons are designed to explode before impact.

    Also exploding in the sky vastly reduces fallout. That's because most fallout is actually radioactive dust. Which is why people can still live in nagasaki and hiroshima today.