Numerical Simulation on Dynamic Responses and Damages of Steel Frame Structures Column under Blast Loads

An explosion releasing instaneously tremendous energy can cause severe damage on buildings and catastrophic collapses of structures, resulting in enormous economic loss, public life-safety threat and unavoidable psychological impact to people. An H-shaped steel frame column under a blast loading with different conditions was numerically developed, in the paper, using finite element method (FEM) by considering the strain rate effect to materials and the coupled effect of explosive, air, and steel together, to simulate the response in the middle span, failure modes, shear strain responses at both ends of the column. The two ends of the column were fixed and applied with a vertical load to simulate the responses of a bottom column of a steel frame structure under a blast loading by changing stand-off and the weight of the explosive, and the height of the column. The results of the numerical simulation showed that the response at the middle span of the column was influenced by the height of the column, the stand-off and the weight of the explosive. The slender column with a short stand-off and a huge weight of the explosive will generate obvious response even the severe damage.