NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE BLAST PERFORMANCE OF REINFORCED CONCRETE COLUMNS SUBJECTED TO CLOSE-IN EXPLOSION

Explosive incidents, whether accidental or intentional, can lead to significant damage to buildings and potentially cause a large number of human casualties. The progressive collapse of a targeted building is one of the most devastating consequences of an explosion occurring in the vicinity. This phenomenon takes place when critical structural elements, such as reinforced concrete (RC) columns, fail due to blast loading. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a physics-based finite element model of an RC column subjected to blast loading using explicit LS-DYNA software. Two methods are compared, including Load Blast Enhanced (LBE), and the pressure time history method (triangular pulse). The Karagozian & Case concrete (KCC) constitutive model is selected. The models are validated against experimentally obtained mid-span displacement time histories and damage characteristics. The results are in agreement with the test data. The influence of the explosive charge weight, stand-off distance, and column cross-section on the blast performance of RC columns and the residual axial bearing capacity are investigated. The findings provide insights into the behavior of RC columns under blast loading and can be used in the design of blast-resistant structures.