Effectiveness of Banana Trunk as Protection Wall from High Velocity Shrapnel During Detonation of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)

This paper is to investigate banana trunk fibre to be constructed alternatively for the sand bag and high energy absorption. The aim of this study also for enhancing method of absorption velocity shrapnel during detonated of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) and Improvise Explosive Device (IED). The study involved blast test which is providing high energy impact based on the amount of explosive used. Type of explosive were used are Emulex 180 with velocity of detonation 4500m/s to 5700m/s, Explosive energy 4.17 MJ/kg, density 1.13g/cc to 1.21g/cc and initiation were used are No. 8 Detonator. The structure of specimen is analysed using Stereo Microscope Image Analyser (35x zoom) which is an optical instrument that can observe the structure of the fragments (banana fibre) after blast test. Results shows that banana trunk can become a protection wall as it can absorb the impact of blast from explosion.

Impact of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) on Rural Communities' Livelihoods in Xiengkhouang Province, Lao PDR

<p>For over 30 years since the end of the Second Indochina War, UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) contamination in Laos has been a major issue. Laos is considered the most heavily bombed country in the world in terms of quantity of ammunition per capita. Approximately 25 percent of the villages are contaminated with UXO, and a third of the country’s total area is covered by UXO contamination, comprising around 87 thousand square kilometres. This severely limits the expansion of agricultural production, which leads to scarcity of food supplies, and limits local people’s ability to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Thus, UXO is both a significant challenge to community development and national social and economic development. UXOs are also the cause of many accidents in Laos, the casualties are often farmers who are involved in agricultural activities. Between 1999 and 2012, 934 casualties which was divided into 655 injuries and 279 deaths. This study was conducted in Xienkhouang province, Lao PDR, a region heavily affected by UXO. The aim of this thesis is to explore the policies and institutions working on UXO in this province, the major difficulties rural communities face in their livelihoods in relation to UXO and the strategies they are using to cope with these difficulties, and to provide a reflection on how to improve support for these communities. Applying the sustainable livelihood framework as its conceptual framework, this research followed a qualitative approach involving the conduction of 24 semi-structured interviews, including 15 villagers and 9 interviews from organisations working on the UXO domain. Understanding of the impact of UXO on rural communities' livelihoods an their coping mechanism is crucial to expand debates within development studies in post-conflict settings, as well as for both practitioners and policy makers.</p>

Impact of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) on Rural Communities' Livelihoods in Xiengkhouang Province, Lao PDR

<p>For over 30 years since the end of the Second Indochina War, UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) contamination in Laos has been a major issue. Laos is considered the most heavily bombed country in the world in terms of quantity of ammunition per capita. Approximately 25 percent of the villages are contaminated with UXO, and a third of the country’s total area is covered by UXO contamination, comprising around 87 thousand square kilometres. This severely limits the expansion of agricultural production, which leads to scarcity of food supplies, and limits local people’s ability to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Thus, UXO is both a significant challenge to community development and national social and economic development. UXOs are also the cause of many accidents in Laos, the casualties are often farmers who are involved in agricultural activities. Between 1999 and 2012, 934 casualties which was divided into 655 injuries and 279 deaths. This study was conducted in Xienkhouang province, Lao PDR, a region heavily affected by UXO. The aim of this thesis is to explore the policies and institutions working on UXO in this province, the major difficulties rural communities face in their livelihoods in relation to UXO and the strategies they are using to cope with these difficulties, and to provide a reflection on how to improve support for these communities. Applying the sustainable livelihood framework as its conceptual framework, this research followed a qualitative approach involving the conduction of 24 semi-structured interviews, including 15 villagers and 9 interviews from organisations working on the UXO domain. Understanding of the impact of UXO on rural communities' livelihoods an their coping mechanism is crucial to expand debates within development studies in post-conflict settings, as well as for both practitioners and policy makers.</p>

Real magnetic stripping method in unexploded ordnance detection and remediation – a case study from Rohožník military training range in SW Slovakia

In this contribution we present results from a case-study, which was performed in collaboration between geophysicists and explosive ordnance disposal technicians at the Rohožník military training range in SW Slovakia. The aim of this study was to locate a deep-penetrated unexploded Mk-82 aerial bomb using high-definition digital magnetometry. The location where this bomb had entered the ground was known but its final position needed to be determined so that a safe excavation and disposal could be conducted. However, the detection of this unexploded ordnance object was complicated by the presence of intense magnetic interference from a number of near surface ferrous items including non-explosive test bombs, fragmentation and other iron junk. These items contributed a localised, high amplitude of magnetic clutter masking any deeper source. Our strategy was to approach the problem in three stages. First, we used magnetic data to locate the near surface items. After the detection and before the excavation of the searched objects, two quantitative interpretation methods were used. These involved an optimised modelling of source bodies and the application of a 3D Euler deconvolution. Both methods yielded acceptable results, but the former was found to be more accurate. After the interpretation phase, many of the items were then safely excavated and removed individually. A second magnetic mapping was then performed and from this data which was now significantly less cluttered, we were able to identify but not quantify, two deep source items and to confirm that all remaining near surface items were significantly smaller in size than a Mk-82 bomb. As the remaining near surface sources were interpreted as being contained within the surface one metre of soil and being small they could be assured to be non-explosive, it was considered most practical to mechanically excavate and remove this soil and the remaining objects contained.

Synthetic Case Study: Discrimination of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) and non-UXO Sources with varying Remanent Magnetization Strength using Magnetic Data

Summary We investigate if it is theoretically possible to discriminate between unexploded ordnance (UXO) and non-UXO sources by modelling the magnetic dipole moment for ferrous objects of different shapes and sizes. This is carried out by approximating the volumetric demagnetization factors of rectangular prisms, representing shapes similar to a long rod or flat steel plate. By modelling different UXO as prolate spheroids the demagnetization factors can be determined which can be compared with the magnetic response of a prism. The inversion is carried out in a probabilistic framework, where the UXO forward model and the non-UXO forward model are assigned individual prior models in terms of shape, size, orientation and remanent magnetization of the object. 95 independent realizations of the prism prior model are generated to make 95 synthetic anomalies exemplifying non-UXO objects, which are inverted for using the UXO model. It is investigated if an identical magnetic moment can be produced between the two models and how well resolved the magnetic moment is in terms of the measured anomaly. The case study is carried out in two steps where we first have little prior information of expected UXO properties and another where a UXO prior is introduced with expected values of aspect ratio and size of 24 different UXO, that are often encountered in the North Sea. With no prior information of expected UXO, discrimination is at many times implausible, unless elongated rod prism objects are considered, where the magnetic moment often can not be reproduced by a spheroid. Introducing the UXO prior we achieve a much better discrimination rate when using the list of expected UXO properties. By using the UXO prior we can account for a much higher remanent magnetization allowed in the prior, and still achieve high discrimination capabilities in comparison to a case with no UXO prior.