The reaction of reinforced-concrete blast chambers to internal explosive loading has been investigated experimentally and numerically. The high resistance of the concrete within the reinforcing cage to shock-wave loading has been demonstrated, together with its substantial contribution to the load-carrying capacity of the chamber. It is noted that the disintegration of the chamber wall begins with the appearance of residual deformation of the inner shell. The loading of the chamber wall in the experiments is shown to be impulsive. A method of estimating the load-carrying capacity of chambers similar to those tested is proposed.

An experimental and numerical investigation was conducted, of the reaction of three-layer explosion chambers to internal explosive loading. It is shown that the use of concrete as an intermediate layer can significantly increase the supporting capacity of the chambers, because of the increase of the inert mass of the structure. Peculiarities of deformation of the concrete layer were recorded, consisting in the formation of blocks with constant thickness, equal to the initial thickness, moving relative to one another. A method is proposed for estimating the supporting capacity of chambers similar to those tested.