Based on the constructing thought of the displacement model of isoparametric finite element, an extended interpolating algorithm is deduced for calculating the overpressure history of an optional point on the walls of the rectangle-section tunnel under an optional point-explosion in its internal space. According to the working principle, the overpressure histories of all nodes on the walls of a tunnel with the equal width and height of 2 m, induced by a reference-charge explosion at each node in this tunnel's cross section, are computed using the LS-DYNA software, and then are gathered to establish a reference database, which makes it possible to set optionally the positions of the explosive and the overpressure-observed point. In addition, some variation factors of peak values and durations of overpressure on the walls, reflecting some changes on the charge weight and the sizes of width and height of the section, are included in this algorithm in order to simulate approximately the overpressure responses on the walls under the optional charge weight and cross-section size. Some example analyses indicate the rapidity and validity of this method, and therefore this will bring it a good prospect in engineering application.
After the progressive collapse of Ronan Point apartment in UK in 1968, intensive research effort had been spent on developing guidelines for design of new or strengthening the existing structures to prevent progressive collapse. However, only very few building design codes provide some rather general guidance, no detailed design requirement is given. Progressive collapse of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Centre (WTC) sparked again tremendous research interest on progressive collapse of structures. Recently, US Department of Defence (DoD) and US General Service Administration (GSA) issued guidelines for structure progressive collapse analysis. These two guidelines are most commonly used, but their accuracy is not known. This paper presents numerical analysis of progressive collapse of an example frame structure to blast loads. The DoD and GSA procedures are also used to analyse the same example structure. Numerical results are compared and discussed. The accuracy and the applicability of the two design guidelines are evaluated.
Progressive collapse of building structures under blast and impact loads has attracted great attention all over the world. Progressive collapse analysis is essential for an economic and safe design of building structures against progressive collapse to blast and impact loads. Because of the catastrophic nature of progressive collapse and the potentially high cost of constructing or retrofitting buildings to resist it, it is imperative that the progressive collapse analysis methods be reliable. For engineers, their methodology to carry out progressive collapse evaluation need not only be accurate and concise, but also be easily used and works fast. Thus, many researchers have been spending lots of effort in developing reliable, efficient and straightforward progressive collapse analysis methods recently. In the present paper, current progressive collapse analysis methods available in the literature are reviewed. Their suitability, applicability and reliability are discussed. Our recent proposed new method for progressive collapse analysis of reinforced concrete frames under blast loads is also introduced.
The hazard caused by the fragments of damaged structures is usually significant in acci-dental explosions or hostile blast events.A reliable and efficient method to estimate probable fragment size,velocity and launch distance will be useful to assess and design countermeasures to mitigate the possible fragment hazards.This paper presents a numerical method for predicting the size and launch distance of the fragments caused by explosive damage of masonry wall.Numerical simulations with different scaled distances are carried out,and the statistical distribution functions of the fragment size and launch distance in terms of the scaled distance are derived.
Numerical method is popular in analysing the blast wave propagation and interaction with structures.However,because of the extremely short duration of blast wave and energy trans-mission between different grids,the numerical results are sensitive to the finite element mesh size.Previous numerical simulations show that a mesh size acceptable to one blast scenario might not be proper for another case,even though the difference between the two scenarios is very small,indicating a simple numerical mesh size convergence test might not be enough to guarantee accu-rate numerical results.Therefore,both coarse mesh and fine mesh were used in different blast scenarios to investigate the mesh size effect on numerical results of blast wave propagation and interaction with structures.Based on the numerical results and their comparison with field test re-sults and the design charts in TM5-1300,a numerical modification method was proposed to correct the influence of the mesh size on the simulated results.It can be easily used to improve the accu-racy of the numerical results of blast wave propagation and blast loads on structures.
