Dr Sam Rigby
MEng, PhD
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering
Senior Lecturer in Blast and Impact Engineering
RAEng Industrial Fellow in Machine Learning Applications for Blast Protection Engineering
sam.rigby@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5724
+44 114 222 5724
Room D121, Sir Frederick Mappin Building (Broad Lane Building)
Full contact details
Dr Sam Rigby
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering
Room D121
Sir Frederick Mappin Building (Broad Lane Building)
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering
Room D121
Sir Frederick Mappin Building (Broad Lane Building)
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
- Profile
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My work in blast and impact engineering helps to protect people, buildings and vehicles from explosions.
Dr Sam Rigby
Dr Sam Rigby completed his MEng and PhD in our Department in 2010 and 2014 respectively. He took up his position as a lecturer in Blast & Impact Engineering in 2016.
Sam’s research centres on blast and impact engineering, with a focus on protecting people, buildings and vehicles from explosions. This branch of structural engineering explores what happens to materials when they are subjected to extreme loading from explosions.
Sam’s work on the quantification of blast loading in extreme environments, such as buried explosives, or explosives located very close to a target structure, enables a better understanding of near-field explosions and their effects.
This research can help to save lives by improving the design of protection systems, ranging from applications in war zones to anti-terrorism legislation.
Sam has strong links with numerical modelling experts and industry practitioners in the UK and abroad, and is particularly focused on developing approximate engineering tools for rapid quantification of blast effects.
In September 2023, Dr Rigby began a 2 year Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellowship, working with Arup Resilience, Security and Risk to develop novel machine learning applications for blast protection engineering.
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Research Themes
- Research interests
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Sam’s particular area of research focuses on the impact of blast waves on buildings and how they influence loadings on structures.
Traditional far-field engineering models cannot be used for this work as they are not suitable to apply to explosions in urban areas, where there are many complex interactions.
Consequently, much of his work consists of numerical modelling, supported by experimental testing at our Buxton site.
Sam’s research highlights the fact that traditional impact protection methods need improvement, and his work is now aimed at developing safer and more efficient designs.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Rigid-plastic membrane response of thin plates under impulsive blast loads using the extended Hamilton principle. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 178, 104624-104624.
- Numerical modelling of blast mitigation of pre-fractal obstacles. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Non-parametric characterization of blast loads. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Adaptive topology optimization of fail-safe truss structures. Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 66(7). View this article in WRRO
- The Direction-encoded Neural Network: A machine learning approach to rapidly predict blast loading in obstructed environments. International Journal of Protective Structures, 204141962311773-204141962311773. View this article in WRRO
- The effect of soil mineralogy and particle breakage on the impulse generated from shallow buried charges. Applied Sciences, 13(9). View this article in WRRO
- A review of blast loading in the urban environment. Applied Sciences, 13(9).
- An approach to quantifying the influence of particle size distribution on buried blast loading. Eng, 4(1), 319-340. View this article in WRRO
- Temporally and spatially resolved reflected overpressure measurements in the extreme near field. Sensors, 23(2), 964-964. View this article in WRRO
- Far-field positive phase blast parameter characterisation of RDX and PETN based explosives. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Experimental investigation of blast mitigation of pre-fractal obstacles. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- On the blast-wave shielding effect of porous buildings. Journal of Fluids and Structures, 115, 103787-103787.
- A numerical investigation of blast-structure interaction effects on primary blast injury risk and the suitability of existing injury prediction methods. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Blast wave interaction with structures – an overview. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Mitigation of blast loading through blast–obstacle interaction. International Journal of Protective Structures.
- Energetic output of the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcanic eruption from pressure measurements. Shock Waves, 32(6), 553-561.
- Blast wave kinematics: theory, experiments, and applications. Shock Waves, 32(5), 405-415.
- Recent advances in video analytics for rail network surveillance for security, trespass and suicide prevention— a survey. Sensors, 22(12). View this article in WRRO
- Physics-informed regularisation procedure in neural networks : an application in blast protection engineering. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Optical flow tracking velocimetry of near-field explosions. Measurement Science and Technology, 33(4). View this article in WRRO
- Time of arrival as a diagnostic for far-field high explosive blast waves. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Probabilistic analysis of blast-obstacle interaction in a crowded internal environment. Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics. View this article in WRRO
- Structural engineering from an inverse problems perspective. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 478(2257).
- Prediction of blast loading in an internal environment using artificial neural networks. International Journal of Protective Structures, 12(3), 287-314. View this article in WRRO
- TNT equivalency analysis of specific impulse distribution from close-in detonations. International Journal of Protective Structures, 12(3), 315-330. View this article in WRRO
- Near-field spatial and temporal blast pressure distributions from non-spherical charges: Horizontally-aligned cylinders. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Spherical equivalence of cylindrical explosives: Effect of charge shape on deflection of blast-loaded plates. International Journal of Impact Engineering. View this article in WRRO
- Predicting specific impulse distributions for spherical explosives in the extreme near-field using a Gaussian function. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- Preliminary yield estimation of the 2020 Beirut explosion using video footage from social media. Shock Waves, 30(6), 671-675. View this article in WRRO
- Reflected near-field blast pressure measurements using high speed video. Experimental Mechanics, 60(7), 875-888. View this article in WRRO
- Predicting crater formation from failure of pressurized water mains through analogy with buried explosive events. Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice, 11(2). View this article in WRRO
- Correction of higher mode Pochhammer-Chree dispersion in experimental blast loading measurements. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 139. View this article in WRRO
- Predicting the response of plates subjected to near-field explosions using an energy equivalent impulse. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 128, 24-36. View this article in WRRO
- Experimental Measurement of Specific Impulse Distribution and Transient Deformation of Plates Subjected to Near-Field Explosive Blasts. Experimental Mechanics, 59(2), 163-178. View this article in WRRO
- Influence of particle size distribution on the blast pressure profile from explosives buried in saturated soils. Shock Waves, 28(3), 613-626. View this article in WRRO
- A review of Pochhammer-Chree dispersion in the Hopkinson bar. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Engineering and Computational Mechanics. View this article in WRRO
- Predicting the role of geotechnical parameters on the output from shallow buried explosives. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 102, 117-128. View this article in WRRO
- Approach to Developing Design Charts for Quantifying the Influence of Blast Wave Clearing on Target Deformation. Journal of Structural Engineering, 143(1). View this article in WRRO
- Numerical investigation into the influence of cubicle positioning in large-scale explosive arena trials. International Journal of Protective Structures, 7(4), 547-560. View this article in WRRO
- Measuring spatial pressure distribution from explosives buried in dry Leighton Buzzard sand. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 96, 89-104. View this article in WRRO
- Geotechnical causes for variations in output measured from shallow buried charges. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 86, 274-283. View this article in WRRO
- A large scale experimental approach to the measurement of spatially and temporally localised loading from the detonation of shallow-buried explosives. Measurement Science and Technology, 26. View this article in WRRO
- A Numerical Investigation of Blast Loading and Clearing on Small Targets. International Journal of Protective Structures, 5(3), 253-274. View this article in WRRO
- Elastic-plastic response of plates subjected to cleared blast loads. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 66, 37-47. View this article in WRRO
- The negative phase of the blast load. International Journal of Protective Structures, 5(1), 1-19. View this article in WRRO
- Clearing effects on plates subjected to blast loads. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Engineering and Computational Mechanics, 166(3), 140-148. View this article in WRRO
- Single-Degree-of-Freedom response of finite targets subjected to blast loading - The influence of clearing. Engineering Structures, 45, 396-404. View this article in WRRO
- Application of transfer learning for the prediction of blast impulse. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
- A branching algorithm to reduce computational time of batch models: application for blast analyses. International Journal of Protective Structures. View this article in WRRO
Conference proceedings papers
- The response of plates under non-uniform impulsive loads. Proceedings of the 2019 Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics. Greenwich, London, UK, 9 September 2019 - 10 September 2019. View this article in WRRO
- Near-field blast loading and transient target response: A collaboration between Sheffield and Cape Town (pp 749-754)
- Validation of Near-Field Blast Loading in LS-DYNA. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Protective Structures. Poznan, Poland, 20 August 2018 - 23 August 2018. View this article in WRRO
- Characterisation of reflected blast loads in the very near-field from non-spherical explosive charges. Proceedings of The 17th International Symposium on the Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures (17th ISIEMS). Bad Neuenahr, Germany, 16 October 2017 - 20 October 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Initial velocity and impulse distribution of blast loaded plates. Proceedings of The 17th International Symposium on the Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures (17th ISIEMS). Bad Neuenahr, Germany, 16 October 2017 - 20 October 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Large-scale validation of Hudson clearing predictions. Proceedings of The 17th International Symposium on the Interaction of the Effects of Munitions with Structures (17th ISIEMS). Bad Neuenahr, Germany, 16 October 2017 - 20 October 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Reflected Secondary Shocks: Some Observations using Afterburning. Proceedings of the 11th European LS-DYNA Conference. Salzburg, Austria, 9 May 2017 - 11 May 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Finite element simulation of plates under non-uniform blast loads using a point-load method: Buried explosives. 11th International Conference on Shock & Impact Loads on Structures. Ottawa, Canada, 14 May 2015 - 15 May 2015. View this article in WRRO
- Finite element simulation of plates under non-uniform blast loads using a point-load method: Blast wave clearing. 11th International Conference on Shock & Impact Loads on Structures. Ottawa, Canada, 14 May 2015 - 15 May 2015. View this article in WRRO
- Validation of Semi-Empirical Blast Pressure Predictions for Far Field Explosions - Is There Inherent Variability in Blast Wave Parameters?. 6th International Conference on Protection of Structures against Hazards. Tianjin, China, 16 October 2014 - 17 October 2014. View this article in WRRO
- Testing Apparatus for the Spatial and Temporal Pressure Measurements from Near-Field Free Air Explosions. 6th International Conference on Protection of Structures against Hazards. Tianjin, China, 16 October 2014 - 17 October 2014. View this article in WRRO
- Repeatability of Buried Charge Testing. Military Aspects of Blast and Shock 23. Oxford, UK, 7 September 2014 - 12 September 2014. View this article in WRRO
- Measuring the Spatial and Temporal Pressure Variation from Buried Charges. Military Aspects of Blast and Shock 23. Oxford, UK, 7 September 2014 - 12 September 2014. View this article in WRRO
Theses / Dissertations
- Blast Wave Clearing Effects on Finite-Sized Targets Subjected to Explosive Loads.
- Rigid-plastic membrane response of thin plates under impulsive blast loads using the extended Hamilton principle. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 178, 104624-104624.
- Research group
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Blast & Impact
- Grants
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Mechanisms & Characterisation of Explosions
The overall aim of MaCE is to develop a comprehensive conceptual model of blast loading which will serve to underpin accurate predictive models for protection engineers.
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Referee for International Journal of Protective Structures, Engineering Structures, International Journal of Impact Engineering, and Shock Waves.
- Guest Editor for special edition on blast load characterisation in International Journal of Protective Structures
- Member of The International Association of Protective Structures
- Member of The Institute of Explosives Engineers
- PhD opportunities
Predicting The Impulse From Buried Charges
It is well known by terrorists around the world that the process of burying an explosive device acts to direct and enhance the destructive capability of the device. Over the last decade thousands of tests have been conducted in various soil types to attempt to try to better understand this problem.
If you're interested in one of these projects, or would like to self-propose a project, please contact Sam at the above email. Current PhD opportunities in the department can be viewed here.