Abstract
Explosions caused by standoff charges near buildings have drastic effects on the internal and external structural elements which can cause loss of life and fatal injuries in case of failure or collapse of the structural element. Providing structural elements with blast resistance is therefore gaining increasing importance. This paper presents numerical investigation of RC columns with different reinforcement detailing subjected to near-field explosions. Detailed finite element models are made using LS-DYNA software package for several columns having seismic and conventional reinforcement detailing which were previously tested under blast loads. The numerical results show agreement with the published experimental results regarding displacements and damage pattern. Seismic detailing of columns enhances the failure shape of the column and decrease the displacement values compared to columns with conventional reinforcement detailing. Further, the effect of several modeling parameters are studied such as mesh sensitivity analysis, inclusion of air medium and erosion values on the displacements and damage pattern. The results show that decreasing the mesh size, increasing erosion value and inclusion of air region provide results that are very close to experimental results. Additionally, application is made on a slab-column multistory building provided with protective walls having different connection details subjected to blast loads. The results of this study are presented and discussed. Use of a top and bottom floor slab connection of protective RC walls are better than using the full connection at the four sides to the adjacent columns and slabs. This leads to minimizing the distortion and failure of column, and therefore it increases the chance of saving the building from collapse and saving human lives. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091733 Full Text: PDF
Highlights
Terrorist bombing is currently regarded a threat to almost all countries around the world
Three-dimensional finite element models are made for the RC columns and multistory building using LS-DYNA, as an alternative to the less accurate SDOF system commonly adopted in design and analysis of structures subjected to blast loads to determine the behavior of structure elements
The numerical results obtained using LS-DYNA are given in table 6 and compared to experimental results regarding the displacement values at different height points based on strain gauge locations
Summary
Terrorist bombing is currently regarded a threat to almost all countries around the world. Populated and commercial districts are usually the target of terrorist bombing, which leads to loss of human lives, damage of structures and infra-structure in addition to serious negative impact on security and economy [1]. Blast loads are air shock waves with immediate rise in pressure, producing dynamic impulsive loads with significant potential energy which sets high vibrations in the affected surface, and may cause damage or failure of the structural elements leading to possible progressive collapse of the building [2]. The primary effect of a blast wave on a structure occurs during the positive phase, where pressure values are high. In the negative phase or the negative pressure, the air is absorbed towards the center of the blast, which leads to the fragmentation of walls or structural in the area of the explosion [3, 4]
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