Prediction of Blast Loading and Remedial Measures on Buildings

Abstract

Events of the last ten years have greatly heightened the awareness of building owners and designers of the threat of terrorist attacks using explosives. Blast loads become important service loads for certain categories of structures. An important task in blast-resistant design is to make a realistic prediction of the blast pressures. The distance of explosion from the structure is an important datum, governing the magnitude and duration of the blast loads. The current practice is to choose some arbitrary distance for design purposes. This paper presents some results of analytical studies to show that such a notion is likely to be erroneous, particularly for tall and slender structures. The elements of the blast phenomenon are reviewed, before going into the formulations leading to the ‘critical blast distance’ at which the transient dynamic response rises to a maximum. It also contains Treatment provided to various part of a structure to improve blast resisting mechanism and Architectural aspect of blast resistant buildings design.