The goal of the current research was the investigation of the blast wave effect on a easily destructible material barrier placed in a channel. It was shown by pressure measurements on the lateral wall of the shock tube near the pressed sand barrier that the reduction of the impulse behind the reflected shock wave increases with the decrease of a barrier thickness. Experimental visualization of sand barrier destruction process was performed by means of digital high-speed CORDIN-530 camera in order to explain this dependency. Camera films analysis showed that the sand front movement speed decreases with the increase of the sand layer thickness by the exponential law. The decrease of the shock wave impulse due to interaction with the sand barrier was greater for thinner sand barrier, which destructs faster.