Title: Performance of Concrete Building Structures Subjected to Blast Loading

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Publication: CIA

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Date: 2/13/2011

Abstract:
This paper presents a study at the University of Melbourne on the performance of concrete building structures under severe blast loading. A blast assessment was conducted for a typical concrete tall building in Australia. The structural stability and integrity of the example building was investigated by assessing the blast resistance and failure mechanism of key structural concrete elements (columns, beams and floor slabs). The advantage of using of high-strength concrete (HSC) for key structural elements to improve blast resistance is discussed in this paper. A constitutive law to model the dynamic engineering properties (strain-rate-dependent) of both normal strength and high-strength concrete is also proposed. Dynamic stress-strain relations which differ considerably from the corresponding static relations were used to model the changes in bending and shear capacities of concrete elements subjected to the blast loading. The effects of reinforcement detailing, geometry, and loading conditions on the dynamic behaviour of concrete members were investigated by the Finite Element Explicit code LS-DYNA3D. It was found that more attention should be paid on improving the ductility of structural components that will minimise the damage caused by extreme loading caused by bomb blasts.