Research Idea: Thermal Energy and Blast Pressure

Friends,

Arc Flash calculations give thermal energy, with the empirical statement that over 40cal/cm² is "dangerous" because of the blast pressure. I think this assumes the arc flash energy is all released in a very short time duration such as 0.05 sec. But if the clearing curve for a fuse or breaker puts the time duration past 0.5 sec. or longer, I suspect there is a point where the correlation between thermal energy and blast pressure is no longer linear. In this case it may be possible to survive an arc flash with >40cal/cm² energy even though conventional thinking says NO. Suits are available up to 100cal/cm². Is there any research on this correlation between thermal energy and blast pressure for arc flashes where the duration is not very short? If not, perhaps this would be a good research topic for an EE student.

--John Mueller