Blast Assessment of Load-Bearing Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls

In this paper a methodology for assessing the performance of structural elements subject to explosive loading is presented. The method combines basic section analyses, equivalent single degree of freedom (SDOF) modeling, and a static finite element pushover analysis to calculate the blast resistance of an existing shear wall subject to an external explosion. The method optimizes the breadth of results while minimizing the calculation complexity required. A static pushover analysis is conducted to identify regions of vulnerability. The second floor wall is identified as the location of failure and is modeled as a system, which includes the stiffness contributions of adjoining wall sections, and also as a component with fixed ends. Pressure–impulse curves are developed to quantify the blast resistance of the wall relative to various levels of damage. The component model is found to underpredict the blast resistance by 7% when compared to the system model for impulsive demands. Simplified energy methods are also shown to bound results of the SDOF resistance curves.