Numerical simulation of structural response and damage to simultaneous ground shock and airblast loads

Current practice in analysis and design of structures to withhold surface explosions considers only airblast forces on structures. A surface explosion, in fact, generates both ground shock and airblast pressure on a nearby structure. In this paper, the influences of simultaneous ground shock and airblast forces on structural responses are investigated. Blast-induced surface ground motions and airblast pressures estimated in a previous study are employed as input in the analysis. A previously developed three-dimensional homogenized material model for a masonry wall including the equivalent elastic properties, strength envelope and damage threshold is used to model masonry wall. Another material damage model developed for reinforced concrete structures is used for modelling RC behavior due to explosive loads. These material models are programmed and linked to an available computer program LS-DYNA3D through its user subroutine capability. A one-story masonry infilled RC frame is used as an example in the study. Dynamic response and damage of the example structure to simultaneous ground shock and airblast forces, or separately to ground shock only or airblast forces only are calculated. It is found that in general, airblast load governs structural response and damage when the scaled distance is small. However, under certain conditions, structural damage will be critically underestimated if ground shock is neglected. When the scale distance increases, the relative importance of the ground shock on structure response increases, and ground shock will dominate the surface explosion effects on structures at large scaled distance. At large scaled distance, the ground shock and airblast force effects on structures decoupled and structure response and damage to ground shock and airblast force can be analyzed separately.