Title:
Spall Damage to Concrete Walls from Close-In Cased and
Uncased ‘Explosions in Air
Author(s):
Phillip T. Nash, C. V. G. Vallabhan, and Timothy C. Knight
Publication:
Structural Journal
Volume:
92
Issue:
6
Appears on pages(s):
680-688
Keywords:
Blast resistant structures; dynamic structural analysis; explo-sions;
fracture properties; mathematical models; spalling; walls.
DOI:
10.14359/9662
Date:
11/1/1995
Abstract:
In recent years, industrial concerns for safety and protection against high-explosive loadings have increased. Industries that manufacture explosive devices or use processes with the potential for explosions use concrete bar-ricades to protect workers from exposure to accidental blast and fragmen-tation.Other industries use concrete barricades as protection against terrorist attacks that might include blast or fragmentation. Reinforced con-crete barricades can provide effective protection against high-explosive devices; however the high-intensity loadings from close-in explosions or fragment impact can create large magnitude, transient stress waves in con-crete barricades that result in the generation of concrete spa11 on the back side of the barricade, even though the barricade itself does not suffer gen-eral failure. Concrete fragments generated by concrete spallation can be hazardous to personnel and equipment, depending on the size and velocity of the fragments. In this study, a numerical model was developed to predict spa11 damage to concrete walls from close-in explosions in air for cased and uncased munitions. The model was used to develop guidelines for designing concrete walls to prevent spallation.