Experimental study on the use of the ARM Cortex M7 processor for measuring far-field blast waves

The ongoing study of blast waves and blast wave mitigation continues to play an essential role in protecting structures and personnel. The methodology, however, for capturing far-field blast waves in large-scale tests has remained largely unchanged for three decades, relying on large arrays of pressure transducers connected by hundreds of meters of cabling and requiring a considerable amount of time to set up. This paper evaluates the use of a modern low-cost microprocessor with high computational power to capture blast waves with sufficient fidelity to provide scientists and engineers with credible data. The system utilizes an ARM Cortex M7 processor as an experimental data acquisition (DAQ) system for measuring far-field blast waves in an open-air blast arena at sampling speeds of up to 1.8 Msps (megasamples per second). The experimental system’s performance was evaluated by comparing it to a traditional commercial system used for measuring blast waves. The comparison showed an average Spearman correlation coefficient r of 0.928 between the two systems, suggesting a low variance between the commercial and experimental DAQ systems. This suggests that, despite its simplicity, the experimental system is an effective and low-cost alternative for accurately measuring blast waves.