Blast waves and blast loading

As has been described in Chapter 2, chemical or nuclear explosions liberate large amounts of energy which, in heating the surrounding medium, produces very high local pressures. This pressure disturbance, moving outwards, &s;shocks up&s; and develops into a blast wave. When a condensed high explosive material detonates almost 100% of the energy liberated is converted into blast energy. While the nature of blast is similar in a nuclear explosion only about 50% of the energy produces blast; the remainder is in the form of thermal and other types of radiation.