BISRU - Blast Impact and Survivability Research Unit - UCT

BISRU is an accredited research centre hosted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. It is a group with expertise and decades of experience in the field of materials and structural response to blast, impact and high-rate loading. The objective of our research work is to reduce risk of injury and save lives through fundamental principles of science and engineering, using experimental, analytical and computational tools and techniques to understand the mechanics and dynamics of blast and impact loads and their effect on people, materials and structures. We operate a comprehensive suite of experimental facilities and simulation tools within one footprint. This include an operational blast chamber, various drop-mass impact rigs, Hopkinson bar arrangements, gas guns and associated instrumentation (such as pressure measurement, stereo-imaging, DIC, strain gauges). We a regular users of LS-Dyna, programming languages (such as python and matlab) and have experience with Ansys Autodyn.