Research development on protection of structures against blast loading at University of Adelaide

Abstract

This paper presents a review of research into the protection of structural members against blast loading at The University of Adelaide, including experimental, analytical and numerical studies on characteristics of blast loading, blast resistance of structural members and mitigation of blasts effects on structural members using retrofitting techniques. Explosive blasts are investigated experimentally and numerically to study the distributions of peak overpressure and impulse generated from spherical charges and cylindrical charges with different orientations in unconfined and confined environments. A series of blast tests on reinforced concrete (RC) slabs, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) slabs, and aluminium foam protected RC slabs was conducted to investigate the performance of those slabs under blast loads. With the blast testing data numerical models including single degree of freedom model, finite difference model and final element model, have been developed and validated and those numerical models are then used to analyse the blast effects of RC, UHPC and foam protected RC slabs. Investigation of mitigation of blast effects on masonry structures is also addressed.