Response Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Block Structural Walls Subjected to Blast Loading
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 11
Abstract
With the introduction of the new American and Canadian standards for blast resistant design, there is a need to evaluate the response of different structural components under such extreme loads. This paper focuses on experimentally evaluating the damage levels and the out-of-plane response of fully grouted reinforced concrete block structural walls under blast loading—a load that they are typically not designed to resist. The scaled walls reported in this paper cover a range of design parameters and charge weights that reflect different vulnerabilities and threat levels. Three different reinforcement ratios and three different charge weights have been used, with scaled distances as low as and two different boundary conditions, to evaluate the walls’ response. In general, the results show that the walls are capable of withstanding substantial blast load levels with different extents of damage depending on their vertical reinforcement ratio and scaled distance. However, brittle behavior was observed in the walls with a reinforcement ratio higher than 0.6%. This is attributed to the fact that seismically detailed (concrete or masonry) structural walls designed to respond in a ductile manner under in-plane loads might develop brittle failure under out-of-plane loads. This is a consequence of the increased concrete block wall reinforcement ratio in the out-of-plane direction compared with the same in the in-plane direction. The maximum experimental support rotation values were compared with the corresponding values predicted using an available nonlinear single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model presented in the Unified Facilities Criteria document. In general, the comparison between the experimentally obtained and the analytically predicted support rotation values indicated reasonable agreement. The test results are expected to contribute to the growing masonry blast performance database of experimental results and to the future development of reinforced concrete block wall design provisions under blast loading in North America, in which a balance between the wall strength and ductility might be necessary to remain below the different damage classifications specified by the performance-based design oriented ASCE and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was facilitated with funding provided by a Collaborative Research and Development Project Grant (CRDPG) through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Concrete Masonry Producers Association (CCMPA). Additional funding has been provided through the McMaster University Centre for Effective Design of Structures (CEDS), funded through the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund (ORDCF). The in-kind support of the Canada Masonry Design Centre (CMDC) and the provision of mason time by Ontario Masonry Contractors Association (OMCA) are gratefully acknowledged. The authors are very grateful to the members of the Canadian Explosives Research Laboratory (CERL) who conducted the field blast tests and the ConWep analyses and to the Canadian Armed Forces for providing access to the test range.
References
Abou Zeid, B. M., El-Dakhakhni, W. W., Razaqpour, A. G., and Foo, S. (2011a). “Performance of unreinforced masonry walls retrofitted with externally anchored steel studs under blast loading.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 441–453.
Abou Zeid, B. M., El-Dakhakhni, W. W., Razaqpour, A. G., and Foo, S. (2011b). “Response of arching unreinforced masonry walls to blast loading.” J. Struct. Eng., 1205–1214.
Al-Salloum, Y. A., and Almusallam, T. (2005). “Load capacity of concrete masonry block walls strengthened with epoxy-bonded GFRP sheets.” Int. J. Compos. Mater., 39(19), 1719–1745.
ASCE. (2011). “Blast protection of buildings.”, Reston, VA.
ASTM. (2011). “Standard test methods for compressive strength of masonry prisms.” C1314-11a, West Conshohocken, PA.
ATC (Applied Technology Council). (2012). “Seismic performance assessment of buildings. Vol. 1: Methodology.”, Washington, DC.
Baker, W. E., Cox, P. A., Westine, P. S., Kulesz, J. J., and Strehlow, R. A. (1983). Explosion hazard and evaluation, Elsevier Scientific, Oxford, NY.
Bao, Y., Lew, H. S., and Kunnath, S. K. (2014). “Modeling of reinforced concrete assemblies under column removal scenario.” J. Struct. Eng., 04013026.
Baylot, J. T., Bullock, B., Siawson, T. R., and Woodson, S. C. (2004). “Blast response of lightly attached concrete masonry unit walls.” J. Struct. Eng., 1186–1193.
Biggs, J. M. (1964). Introduction to structural dynamics, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Coughlin, A. M., Musselman, E. S., Schokker, A. J., and Linzell, D. G. (2010). “Behavior of portable fiber reinforced concrete vehicle barriers subject to blasts from contact charges.” Int. J. Impact Eng., 37(5), 521–529.
CSA (Canadian Standards Association). (2012). “Design and assessment of buildings subjected to blast loads.” CSA S850-12, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
CSA (Canadian Standards Association). (2014a). “CSA standards on concrete masonry units.” CSA A165-14, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
CSA (Canadian Standards Association). (2014b). “Design of masonry structures.” CSA S304-14, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
CSA (Canadian Standards Association). (2014c). “Mortar and grout for unit masonry.” CSA A179-14, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
Dennis, S. T., Baylot, J. T., and Woodson, S. C. (2002). “Response of 1/4-scale concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls to blast.” J. Eng. Mech., 134–142.
Dusenberry, D. O. (2010). Handbook for blast resistant design of buildings, 1st Ed., Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
ElSayed, M., Tait, M., and El-Dakhakhni, W. (2015). “Resilience evaluation of seismically detailed reinforced concrete block shear walls for blast risk assessment.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., in press.
Harris, H. G., and Sabnis, G. M. (1999). Structural modeling and experimental techniques, 2nd Ed., CRC, New York.
Hyde, D. W. (1990). “Conventional weapons effect (ConWep).” Application of TM5-855-1, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS.
Irshidat, M., Al-Ostaz, A., Cheng, A. H. D., and Mullen, C. (2011). “Nanoparticle reinforced polymer for blast protection of unreinforced masonry walls: Laboratory blast load simulation and design model.” J. Struct. Eng., 1193–1204.
Krishnappa, N., Bruneau, M., and Warn, G. (2014). “Weak-axis behavior of wide flange columns subjected to blast.” J. Struct. Eng., 04013108.
Lew, H. S., Main, J. A., Robert, S. D., Sadek, F., and Chiarito, V. P. (2013). “Performance of steel moment connections under a column removal scenario. I: Experiments.” J. Struct. Eng., 98–107.
Li, B., Nair, A., and Kai, Q. (2012). “Residual axial capacity of reinforced concrete columns with simulated blast damage.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 287–299.
Mayrhofer, C. (2002). “Reinforced masonry walls under blast loading.” Int. J. Mech. Sci., 44(6), 1067–1080.
MSJC (Masonry Standards Joint Committee). (2013). “Building code requirements for masonry structures.” TMS 402-13/ACI 530-13/ASCE 5-13, The Masonry Society, Boulder, CO.
Nassr, A. A., Razaqpur, A. G., Tait, M. J., Campidelli, M., and Foo, S. (2012). “Experimental performance of steel beams under blast loading.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 600–619.
Rodriguez-Nikl, T., Lee, C., Hegemier, G. A., and Seible, F. (2012). “Experimental performance of concrete columns with composite jackets under blast loading.” J. Struct. Eng., 81–89.
Sadek, F., Main, J. A., Lew, H. S., and El-Tawil, S. (2013). “Performance of steel moment connections under a column removal scenario. II: Analysis.” J. Struct. Eng., 108–119.
Stoddart, E. P., Byfield, M. P., and Tyas, A. (2014). “Blast modeling of steel frames with simple connections.” J. Struct. Eng., 04013027.
UFC (Unified Facilities Criteria). (2014). “Design of structures to resist the effects of accidental explosions.”, U.S. Dept. of the Army, Washington, DC.
Wang, W., Zhang, D., Lu, F., Wang, S. C., and Tang, F. (2012). “Experimental study on scaling the explosion resistance of a one-way square reinforced concrete slab under a close-in blast loading.” Int. J. Impact Eng., 49, 158–164.
Williams, G. D., and Williamson, E. B. (2011). “Response of reinforced concrete bridge columns subjected to blast loads.” J. Struct. Eng., 903–913.
Yu, J., and Tan, K. (2013). “Structural behavior of RC beam-column subassemblages under a middle column removal scenario.” J. Struct. Eng., 233–250.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 11 • November 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 21, 2014
Accepted: Dec 8, 2014
Published online: Mar 11, 2015
Discussion open until: Aug 11, 2015
Published in print: Nov 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.