Development of a software tool to investigate the local & global response of buildings to blast loading

Abstract

Well-publicized intentional and accidental explosions in the last two decades have exposed the lack of resilience in structures triggering disproportionate failure. This has fuelled change in the civil engineering industry with government agencies leading the way. This research further contributes to the topic of blast resistant design with particular focus placed on the response of building structures subjected to external blasts. A software tool to assess the response of structure to blast loads is firstly presented. The proposed tool integrates a staged process and can broadly be broken down into three core modules: the blast load condition, the response of the target structural element(s), and frame stability in the event of a support being compromised. By automating this process, the resistance of a building can be investigated under a number of possible blast situations in quick succession. In addition, the application incorporates a design feature that sizes 2D moment frames for wind and gravity loading, for the sole purpose of studying blasts on different frame strengths and geometries. The latter stages of the report demonstrate the capabilities of the tool by firstly proposing standard input metrics based on industry norm, and following on from this exploring the effects of each input through a parametric analysis. Example input parameters include blast weight, standoff distance, wind speed, number of bays & stories, target column location and element plastic limits.