Low-damage performance of blast resilient steel rocking column base with friction connection

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study on the dynamic response and blast resilience of a low-damage rocking column base under blast loading. A conventional rigid column base was used as a reference for comparison. A novel test setup was designed to reflect the actual force state of the column base in an explosive environment. During the test, the column was subjected to a constant axial force with a compression ratio of 0.17. Under the blast loading with a scaled distance of 0.43 m·kg−1/3, the rocking column base exhibited remarkable low-damage and self-centering characteristics, with a maximum equivalent plastic strain of 0.01 and a residual deformation of 0.07%. In contrast, the rigid one suffered irreparable local buckling, resulting in a residual deformation of 3.74%. The results demonstrate that the rocking column base effectively mitigates internal forces through controlled rocking motion and dissipates input energy mainly through frictional sliding. This approach proves to be highly effective in enhancing blast resilience. Finally, a refined finite element analysis (FEA) model was developed to quantitatively evaluate the deformation mode and damage of the joints, based on which the low-damage characteristic of the rocking column base was verified.