blast

blast

1. 

a. the rapid movement of air away from the centre of an explosion, combustion of rocket fuel, etc

b. a wave of overpressure caused by an explosion; shock wave

2. any of several diseases of plants and animals, esp one producing withering in plants

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Blast

 

blasting, supplying air or other gases in industrial heat engineering plants in order to ensure or intensify the physicochemical processes taking place in them. The gas is compressed and supplied by means of blowers and compressors. There are two types of blast: cold blast, in which ordinary air is supplied, and hot blast, in which air is preheated to 1100°-1200°C. The substitution of a hot blast for a cold blast in metallurgy has increased the productivity of furnaces.

Blasts with a constant moisture content, which eliminates the adverse effect of moisture variations in ordinary air on smelting conditions, appeared in the 1940’s. Blasts enriched with oxygen to increase the rate of the smelting process began to be widely used in the 1960’s. The highest blast flow rate is characteristic of blast furnaces in which the average amount of gas supplied is 2 m³/min per cu m of furnace working volume (in modern blast furnaces, 6,000–7,000 m³/min, under a pressure of 0.3–0.5 meganewtons per sq m [MN/m²]). The simultaneous supply to the furnace of oxygen-enriched air and of natural gas not only increases the productivity but also reduces the consumption of coke. An oxygen blast supplied from above at a pressure of 0.9–1.5 MN/m² and a rate of 300–800 m³/min is used in converter production.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

blast

[blast]

(computer science)

To release internal or external memory areas from the control of a computer program in the course of dynamic storage allocation, making these areas available for reallocation to other programs.

(engineering)

The setting off of a heavy explosive charge.

(physics)

The brief and rapid movement of air or other fluid away from a center of outward pressure, as in an explosion.

The characteristic instantaneous rise in pressure, followed by a sudden decrease, that results from this movement, differentiated from less rapid pressure changes.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

blast

i. The brief and rapid movement of air or other fluid away from a center of outward pressure, as in an explosion.
ii. The characteristic instantaneous rise in pressure followed by a sudden decrease that results from this movement, differentiated from less-rapid pressure changes.

An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

blast

(1)

BLT, used especially for large data sends over a network or comm line. Opposite of snarf. Usage: uncommon. The variant "blat" has been reported.

blast

(2)

[HP/Apollo] Synonymous with nuke. Sometimes the message "Unable to kill all processes. Blast them (y/n)?" would appear in the command window upon logout.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)