DETERMINATION OF ACTION REDUCTION FACTORS FOR REINFORCED CONCRETE SHEAR WALL UNDER BLAST LOAD

Abstract

Ductility is of prime interest in blast resistant design, since it governs the degree in which overloads can be resisted by re-distribution of internal forces and the amount of energy dissipation capacity of structures, as a function of global ductility of structural system. Today, Engineers are facing the challenges of terrorist activities, that resulted in the destruction of several buildings and loss of hundred of thousands of lives. Reinforced concrete structures are generally brittle; there is therefore the need to have adequate knowledge on their capacity to dissipate energy under extreme events such as blast and earthquakes. In this paper, the energy dissipation factors "R" as functions of global ductility of reinforced concrete shear wall, were established based on various blast load scenario. The developed algorithm for the determination of the action reduction factors was implemented through a computer program written in FORTRAN 77. It was established in the research that, the charge weight of an explosive, has negligible effect on the blast resistant capacity of the wall that was particularly studied. The damage of the shear wall was influenced by standoff distance (distance between the point of detonation and the structure). The damage is higher, when the point of explosion is small. Accessibility to a building by terrorist is therefore a very important design criterion of blast resistant structures.