Simplified method for the assessment of the blast effects on buildings

Abstract:\ud Improvised explosive devices are the most common terroristic weapons used nowadays in terroristic attacks. Human casualties are the main goals of terrorist attacks, and buildings where the people are gathering represent their primary goal. Blast in the vicinity of any structure may represent catastrophic event for any building by destroying its outer envelope and load bearing structural elements. Due to secondary effects such are debris, fire and smoke, risk due to blast effects may rose human causalities to higher extend. Following these events awareness among designers rose the development of new methods for the analysis and design of civil engineering structures due to blast event has emerged. Application of these methods requires understanding of both blast effect and structural respond of buildings depending from the amount of explosive and its distance from the target. In order to apply these methods, a common four storeys high RC frame building was analyzed. In the first part of this work, parameters for determing blast loading were evaluated. Chosen building was than analyzed by placing different amounts of TNT at different locations and distance from the building. Main parameters of blast loading were evaluated by means of A.T.-blast computer software. Structural response of the structure (both static and dynamic) was evaluated by means of SAP2000 programme. Here both local and global response of the structure were evaluated depending from the amount of explosive device and its distance from the target. \u