Concepedia

Abstract

Terrorist-bombing events throughout the world have demonstrated the vulnerability of conventional reinforced-concrete buildings to blast effects. Typical columns and floor slab systems are not designed to resist the complex blast loading, such as uplift or reverse loading of floor slabs and combined lateral and tensile loading of columns. Two-story, quarter-scale reinforced-concrete models were used to investigate the blast response of a typical flat-plate structural system in support of the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), Blast Mitigation of Structures research program. Experiments were conducted on five models, allowing a variation in explosives standoff and cladding configuration. The High-Performance Computing facilities available at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Major Shared Resource Center were used to perform analyses to support the TSWG quarter-scale experiments. Analyses were performed to predict the response of the exterior column for different ranges and exterior wall conditions.