Blast Load Effects on Highway Bridges. I: Modeling and Blast Load Effects
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 19, Issue 4
Abstract
Numerous terrorist events during the last decade, including the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, have heightened concern about the safety of bridges during intentional/unintentional blast load effects. Analysis of highway bridges under blast loads requires accurate generation and application of blast loads and good understanding of the behavior of components of a bridge during high strain rate loading encountered during blast loads. In this paper, a new approach for the application of blast loads on bridge components has been presented. This approach can apply realistic loads and can simulate both reflection and diffraction of blast loads. Using this approach, verification of simulation of blast loads in LS-DYNA has been carried out by using available blast tests on two types of beams. A high fidelity model of a typical three-span highway bridge has been developed for investigation of blast load effects on a three-span reinforced concrete bridge. It is observed that the range of demands imposed on bridge components during blast loads may be significantly higher than those during other extreme hazards, e.g., seismic, for which bridge components may have been designed. Detailed results on various failure modes of this bridge and seismic blast correlations using this model of the bridge are presented in the companion paper.
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Acknowledgments
The research presented in this paper has been supported partially by a project funded by the Region II University Transportation Research Center at the City College of New York. Results and/or opinions presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the opinions of funding agencies or their employers.
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Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 19 • Issue 4 • April 2014
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 7, 2013
Accepted: Aug 14, 2013
Published online: Aug 19, 2013
Published in print: Apr 1, 2014
Discussion open until: May 26, 2014
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