Blast Loading and Its Effects on Structures

The blast explosion nearby or within structure is due to pressure or vehicle bomb or quarry blasting. These causes catastrophic damage to the building both externally and internally (structural frames). Resulting in collapsing of walls, blowing out of windows, and shutting down of critical life-safety systems. Buildings, bridges, pipelines, industrial plants dams etc are the lifeline structures and they play an important role in the economy of the country and hence they have to be protected from dynamic and wind loading.

These structures should be protected from the blast effects, which are likely to be the targets of terrorist attacks. The dynamic response of the structure to blast loading is complex to analyze, because of the non-linear behavior of the material. Explosions result in large dynamic loads, greater than the original design loads, for which the structures are analyzed and designed. Analyses and design of blast loading requires detailed knowledge of blast and its phenomena. A critical review is presented in this paper to estimate the blast loading and its dynamic effects on various components of structure treating the effects as SDOF system.

Priyanka M, PG student (MTech 4th sem Structures), N. Munirudrappa, Professor, Civil Engineering department, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Shavige Malleshewara hills, K.S.Layout, Bengaluru.