Mitigation of blast waves is of utmost importance in many industrial and military applications. These applications include blast wave propagation in underground military shelters and tunnels, large-scale explosions due to industrial accidents, and precursor shocks during the start-up of a launch vehicle. Moreover, in recent decades, the blast waves generated from the improved explosive devices have been regarded as the leading cause of injuries to military personnel as well as civilians. Therefore, mitigating the strength of blast waves can potentially safeguard the critical infrastructure and reduce the possible casualties or injuries in any given scenario. Accurate estimation of the flow physics is needed for designing new protective devices against blast loading. Therefore, this project aims to fill this knowledge gap by understanding the intricate flow structures that are responsible for shock wave mitigation using the state-of-the-art flow-diagnostic tools. In addition, we will investigate and propose models for the propagation of decaying of shock/blast waves using state-of the-art measurement tools (PIV, BOS, etc.,).