Shock wave interaction in complex industrial layouts: a CFD reconstruction of the 2025 Ezeiza explosion
This study utilizes a 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics reconstruction with the rhoCentralFoam solver to analyze the 2025 Ezeiza explosion, demonstrating that local wave-structure interactions like channeling and refocusing, rather than simple stand-off distance, were the primary drivers of the observed structural damage and twisting.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
When a massive explosion occurs, the immediate danger is often misunderstood as a simple matter of distance: the closer you are, the worse the damage. While proximity certainly matters, the reality of how a blast wave moves through a built environment is far more intricate. A shock wave is not a uniform sphere of force that expands evenly in all directions; it is a fluid phenomenon that behaves like a high-speed river encountering rocks and bridges. When it hits a building, it bounces, wraps around corners, and squeezes through narrow gaps. These interactions can create pockets of intense pressure that are far stronger than the wave would be in an open field, or conversely, create sheltered zones where the force is significantly reduced. Understanding these complex patterns is vital for industrial safety, as it reveals that a building's specific location within a cluster of structures can be just as important as its distance from the source of an explosion.
In November 2025, a large-scale industrial accident at the Ezeiza Industrial Pole in Argentina provided a stark, real-world test case for these principles. The event began as a fire at a chemical storage facility but rapidly escalated into a high-energy explosion, generating a shock wave that traveled over five kilometers, shattering windows and causing structural damage in nearby residential areas. To understand exactly how this wave tore through the industrial park, a team of researchers led by Lucas Monaldi and his colleagues at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina and the National University of Córdoba turned to a powerful tool: a three-dimensional computer simulation. They did not rely on simple formulas or static measurements. Instead, they built a digital replica of the entire industrial layout and used advanced fluid dynamics software to watch, in slow motion, how the invisible blast wave interacted with the actual buildings, tanks, and corridors of the site.
The researchers faced a significant challenge: they had very little data to work with. Unlike major urban disasters where hundreds of cameras capture the event from every angle, the Ezeiza explosion happened at night in a relatively isolated area, leaving the team with only a single video recording from a nearby factory. To make their simulation accurate, they first had to determine exactly how powerful the explosion was. By analyzing the timing of the shock wave's arrival at the factory in the video and cross-referencing that with the known damage to the buildings, they calculated that the blast was equivalent to 0.022 kilotons of TNT. This number was not a guess but a carefully calibrated estimate, refined by comparing their computer-generated pressure readings against the real-world evidence of which walls collapsed and which structures merely bent.
Once the energy level was set, the simulation revealed a story that simple distance-based rules would have missed entirely. The computer model showed that the blast wave did not hit the buildings in a uniform, predictable pattern. Instead, the layout of the industrial park acted as a complex maze that reshaped the wave. As the shock front moved through the site, it was channeled through the narrow spaces between buildings, accelerating and focusing its energy in specific directions. In some areas, the wave reflected off the ground and the sides of structures, converging to create "hot spots" of extreme pressure. In other areas, the buildings acted as shields, casting shadows where the force was significantly weaker.
One of the most striking findings was how the position of a building relative to its neighbors determined its fate, often more than its distance from the explosion did. For instance, a large warehouse belonging to the Iron Mountain company, which was situated further away from the blast origin than some other structures, suffered near-total devastation. The simulation showed that shock waves bouncing off the walls of a closer building had been funneled directly onto this warehouse, concentrating the force and amplifying the damage. Conversely, a storage tank located nearby, which was cylindrical in shape, survived with little visible damage. Its curved surface allowed the wave to slide around it rather than hitting it head-on, and its position in a geometric shadow zone protected it from the focused energy that destroyed the flat-walled warehouse next door.
The study also highlighted how the timing of the impact contributed to the destruction. Because the shock wave swept across long building facades rather than hitting them all at once, different parts of the same structure were subjected to pressure at different moments. This created a twisting force, or torque, that the buildings were not designed to withstand. The researchers noted that this temporal asymmetry offers a physical explanation for the severe twisting and distortion seen in the wreckage, where steel frames were pulled apart in ways that a simple, simultaneous push would not cause. The damage was not just a result of being hit hard; it was a result of being hit in a complex, uneven sequence that the structures could not resist.
Ultimately, this reconstruction demonstrates that the danger of an industrial explosion cannot be predicted by measuring the distance from the source alone. The specific arrangement of buildings, the shape of the structures, and the narrow corridors between them create a unique landscape that can either amplify or dampen the destructive power of a blast wave. The researchers concluded that standard safety guidelines, which often rely on simple distance criteria, are insufficient for complex industrial sites. Instead, a detailed understanding of how shock waves interact with the local environment is necessary to identify hidden vulnerabilities and design safer facilities. By using high-fidelity computer models to visualize these invisible forces, the team provided a clearer picture of the physics behind the disaster, turning a single video recording into a comprehensive lesson on the true nature of blast hazards.
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