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Purpose – This paper aims to utilize purpose advanced fluid-structure interaction, non-linear dynamics, finite-element analyses in order to investigate various phenomena and processes accompanying blast wave generation, propagation and interaction and to assess the blast-wave-mitigation potential of a piston-cylinder assembly placed in front of the target structure. Design/methodology/approach – The employed computational methods and tools are verified and validated by first demonstrating that they can quite accurately reproduce analytical solutions for a couple of well-defined blast wave propagation and interaction problems. Findings – The methods/tools are used to investigate the piston-cylinder blast-mitigation concept and the results obtained clearly reveal that significant blast-mitigation effects can be achieved through the use of this concept. Furthermore, the results showed that the extent of the blast-mitigation effect is a sensitive function of the piston-cylinder geometrical parameters. Specifically, the mass of the piston and the length of the cylinder are found to be the dominant factors controlling the extent of the blast-wave-mitigation. Originality/value – The work demonstrates that, when assessing the blast-wave-mitigation potential of the piston-cylinder concept, it is critical that loading experienced by the piston be defined by explicitly modeling (fluid/structure) interactions between the blast wave(s) and the piston. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]