Analytical Assessment of the Blast Resistance of Precast, Prestressed Concrete Components (PREPRINT)

Abstract : Four blast tests were performed on 30-ft (9.1 m) tall precast, prestressed concrete wall panels. Two conventional sandwich panels and a control panel were examined and shown to perform adequately under the blast demands. An approximate dynamic analysis technique for finding the blast resistance of the wall panels was developed and validated using the experimental results. For the wall panels in this study, it was found that an undamped analytical model provided reasonable peak displacement approximations. Using the results from the undamped analytical model, conservative iso-damage curves were developed that characterize wall panel behavior subjected to varying levels of blast demands. It was found that accuracy of the iso-damage curve can be increased by accounting for the negative impulse regime. The analytical model is extended to assess the capacity of double tees subjected to a close-on explosion.