The year was 1687. Francesco Morosini, doge of Venice and Captain General of the Venetian expedition in charge of fighting of the Ottomans during the Great Turkish War, ordered the ammunitions commander, Mutoni, to bombard the Acropolis of Athens to harass the enemy.
The day was September 26th. A Venetian mortar penetrated the roof of a 2000 year old temple and ignited a store of gunpowder that the Ottomans had placed inside. More than 300 people died and one of the most emblematic artefacts of the splendour of Athenian history was destroyed: the Parthenon.
Few words…
BLAST focuses on the effect of blast actions on masonry and reinforced concrete structures, with emphasis to those of complex geometry. Based on advanced numerical tools and new experiments, BLAST aims not only at providing simplified high-end tools to the modern structural engineer, but also shedding light on the behavior of monumental structures such as the Parthenon, who was exploded in 1687.
Funding
BLAST is a Connect Talent project (www.connectalent.org, CEEV), funded by Pays de la Loire and Nantes Metropole.
Environment
BLAST research takes place in GeM Laboratory of the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, which gathers nearly 230 people, including 75 researchers, approximately 120 PhD students and Post-Docs and 35 technical and administrative staff, who work in the areas of mechanics and physics of materials, structures and geomaterials, and their applications.
