Blast Loaded Columns—State of the Art Review

The ever-present threat of terrorist attacks in recent decades gives way to research towards blast-resistant design of structures. Columns, as one of the main load-bearing elements in residential buildings and bridges, are becoming interesting targets in bombing attacks. Research of column blast load behavior leads toward increased safety by identifying shortcomings and problems of those elements and acting accordingly. Field tests and numerical simulations lead to the development of new blast load mitigation technics, either in the design process or as a retrofit and strengthening of existing elements. The article provides a state-of-the-art literature review of filed blast load tests and numerical simulations of a bridge and building columns.

Analysis on Dynamic Response of Prestressed Concrete Slab Subjected to Blast Loading

The dynamic response of prestressed concrete slab under blast loading was analyzed based on LS-DYNA. The laws of influence of degree of prestress, combined reinforcement index, weight of explosives, thickness of slab on the dynamic response of prestressed concrete slab under blast loading were discussed, and the failure modes were given. The analysis results showed that the peak displacement at mid-span increased with increasing of degree of prestress and weight of explosives, and reduced with increasing of combined reinforcement index and thickness of slab. All the parameters, the influence of weight of explosives on displacement response of slab was significantly. Rationalization proposals were provided for blast resistant design of prestressed concrete slab.