Date Time New blast laboratory to help protect against terrorist attacks University of Sheffield engineers are launching a new world class laboratory that will provide an unprecedented insight into the behaviour of explosives and their resulting fragments First of its kind facility will provide a safe environment for explosive, fragment and ballistic tests – which could inform ways to protect critical infrastructure and urban environments from terrorist attacks Laboratory will enable crucial research to understand how explosives interact with, and their effects are influenced by, materials and structures that confine them New facility will help academia and industry better optimise materials capable of resisting or mitigating blast effects