This module can be taken as a Short Course for Credit or a Standalone Short Course.

Please go to the 'Upgrade to a professional qualification' section for more information.

Extreme but credible Accidents and Enemy Action (EA)2 can cause munitions to react violently, with potentially severe consequences for people, equipment and infrastructure. Using a common scientific framework and set of evidence, Insensitive Munitions (IM) Policy drives the design of safer munitions; Hazard Classification (HC) controls their storage and transport; and Explosive Risk assessment builds on these to manage residual risks.

The aim of the Design for Vulnerability course is to explore the policies and processes used to manage the consequences of such EA2 events throughout the munition lifecycle; the science underpinning the response of energetic materials and weapons systems to these EA2 events; design principles to minimise the responses; and tools and techniques to manage these responses

Taking the IM and HC criteria as a starting point, this course describes the reaction mechanisms that can lead to violent reactions and associated experimental and modelling techniques; and develops the qualities needed for safe design through explosive and propellant formulation; warhead, rocket motor packaging design; together with threat hazard assessment to develop a risk-based approach to accidents or action EA2, through an holistic approach to munitions safety balancing a sense of the possible against need.

At a glance

  • Dates
    • Please enquire for course dates
  • Duration5 days
  • LocationCranfield University at Shrivenham
  • Cost£2,350 - Short Course for Credit fee

    £2,100 - Standalone Short Course fee
    Concessions available

Course structure

Classroom, demonstrations and discussion groups

What you will learn

On successful completion of this course you will be able to:

  • Summarise the policy, strategy and operational context of EA2,
  • Evaluate the relationships between conventional explosives IM, HC & ERA and the scientific principles and mechanisms controlling the response of munitions to EA2 including low probability vs high risk capabilities,
  • Critique the state of the art and future direction for design solutions for EA2,
  • Select tools and techniques available to evaluate, manage and mitigate the consequences of EA2.

Core content

  • Policy & Rationale for IM, HC & ERA,
  • EA2 threats and examples,
  • Theory & experimental methods for Shock initiation, cook-off and deflagration to detonation transition,
  • Advances in formulation and processing for EA2 - understand the pertinent issues facing the formulator when optimising for performance and safety,
  • EA2 design principles for warheads, rocket motors and pyrotechnic devices – energetic materials structural design, mitigation features,
  • Consideration of munitions safety as a through life and systems approach, including threat hazard analysis, consequence modelling, and a warfighter perspective of operational imperatives balanced against safety.

Upgrade to a professional qualification

When taken as a Short Course for Credit, 10 credit points can be put towards the Explosives Ordnance Engineering MSc.

Find out more about short course credit points.

Who should attend

Students must have successfully completed the Introduction to Explosives Engineering course or have relevant experience in order to take this as a Short Course for Credit .

There are no prerequisites if taken as a Standalone Short Course.


Concessions

A limited number of MOD sponsored places are available.

Location and travel

Cranfield Defence and Security (CDS) is a Cranfield School based at the Ministry of Defence establishment on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire borders.

Shrivenham itself lies in the picturesque Vale of the White Horse, close to the M4 motorway which links London and South Wales. It is 7 miles from Swindon, the nearest town, which lies off the M4 at the hub of Britain’s motorway network.

Bath, Cheltenham, Bristol and Oxford are all within an hour’s drive and London less than two hours away by car.

All visitors must be pre-booked in at reception by the person they are visiting on the campus.

For further location and travel details

How to apply

Please complete the online application form.


Apply now

Read our Professional development (CPD) booking conditions.