Special Issue on Protection of Structures against Blast Loading

The threat of terrorism is rising throughout the world, stirring mixed feelings among the well-read public despite rapid advances in counterintelligence, electronic warfare, and activity detection. Protection of critical civil infrastructure such as embassies, nuclear energy facilities, power stations, and governmental buildings against shock and blast loading has become a critical issue. One effective method to protect these structures is to provide barriers surrounding the structures to reduce the damage potential. However, many existing buildings have limited space to construct such barriers, especially in urban contexts. Thus, great efforts have been made to develop technologies for protection of the infrastructure against shock and blast loading by researchers and engineers from universities, military establishments, and civilian and governmental institutions. Yet there are still many problems that need to be solved regarding structures subjected to shock and blast loading. It is important for researchers and engineers in these fields to develop numerical techniques, analytical approaches, and experimental works on shock and blast protection technologies.

The development of cost-effective engineering design tools is important in protecting critical structures against shock and blast loading. More information is needed, such as that provided in “Structures to Resist the Effects of Accidental Explosions” (U.S. Dept. of Defense 2008), “Blast Protection of Buildings” (ASCE standard in preparation), and Handbook for Blast Resistant Design of Buildings (Dusenberry 2010). The timely dissemination of research findings in developing protection technologies will not only benefit the professional communities but also society as a whole for effective infrastructure protection. The following papers in this special issue address a variety of protection technologies associated with reinforced concrete (RC) structures, steel structures, masonry structures, and glass panels. The first four papers present numerical modeling techniques that are based on finite-element programs such as LSDYNA. Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) retrofitting RC panels with anchorages, foam-filled steel tubes, steel containment vessels, and curved sandwich panels with an aluminum foam core and two face sheets are simulated using different numerical modeling techniques. The fifth through seventh papers address analytical approaches such as the single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model and mode-approximation method (MAM) that may predict the performance of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls retrofitted with externally anchored steel studs under blast loads, develop pressure-impulse diagrams for reinforced concrete structures, and derive impact resistance of annealed glass panels. The final four papers investigate the performance of FRP-retrofitted RC slabs, precast concrete walls, aluminum-foam-protected RC slabs, and retrofitted URM walls through a series of blast tests. Note that many of the papers in this special issue are derived from presentations at the Eighth International Conference on Shock and Impact on Structures, held in Adelaide, Australia, in December 2009. Several writers seek to use simplified analytical methods and experimental approaches, whereas others incorporate nonlinear and dynamic finite-element programs. All serve to encourage researchers to explore innovative approaches on investigation of protection technologies such as FRP-retrofitted RC slabs and URM walls, foam-protected RC slabs, and foam-filled steel tubes against shock and blast loading.

Protection of the infrastructure against shock and blast loading is an evolving discipline and there is still a significant need for research activities on the development of protection technologies. Our intention is that this special issue will serve as a bridge to link active researchers, academics, professional communities, and policy makers around the world in promoting the development of protection technologies against shock and blast loading.

Dr. Chengqing Wu is a senior lecturer in the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, the University of Adelaide, Australia. He obtained his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2002. Over the last 10 years, Dr. Wu has developed recognized, diverse research on explosion-induced ground vibrations, structural response to explosive loads, mitigation of blast effects on structures, characterization of blast loading in different blast environments, and mesoscale models for concrete and ultrahigh performance concrete. Since joining the University of Adelaide in 2005, Dr. Wu has played a key role in building and leading the research area focused on analysis and design of structures under blast loading, with support of the Defence Science and Technology Organization (DSTO), Australia. Dr. Wu serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Protective Structures. He chaired and hosted the Eighth International Conference on Shock and Impact on Structures in December 2009. He is author or coauthor of more than 100 referred international journal and conference papers.