Tarek Kewaisy, PhD, PE, PMP will be presenting a paper entitled, “Advanced Simulation of Blast Response of Reinforced Concrete slabs with Varying Material Strength” at Structures Congress 2018 on Saturday, April 21 from 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM in room 202CD
Abstract: Understanding the behavior of structural elements under severe loading conditions is essential for the adequate design of military and civilian structures to resist blast effects. This paper focuses on predicting the dynamic responses of reinforced concrete slabs subjected to impulsive loading using an innovative numerical simulation technique. Experimental responses of one-way reinforced concrete slab specimens were obtained from a testing program sponsored by the NSF, ACI-447 & ACI-370 committees, Structure-Point and UMKC/ SCE. The program was completed at the Blast Loading Simulator (BLS) at the ERDC/ USACE, Vicksburg, MS and considered two classes (i.e. Normal and High) of strength for concrete and steel reinforcement. Our research utilized the Applied Element Method (AEM) implemented in the Extreme Loading for Structures software (ELS) to simulate the nonlinear dynamic responses and to predict the failure patterns of the investigated slab specimens. Maximum and residual displacement responses and cracking patterns obtained from ELS were compared to simulation results predicted by LS-DYNA and to recorded test measurements. In general ELS predictions were found to be in agreement with test measurements and were deemed to have sufficient practical accuracy. It was concluded that the computationally efficient AEM simulations are advantageous for pre-test predictions and for detailed blast-resistant design applications.
Keywords: Simulation; Blast; response; Reinforced Concrete; AEM; ELS; LS-DYNA
Authors: Tarek Kewaisy, PhD, PE, PMP, Ahmed Khalil, Ph.D., P.E., M. ASCE, and Ayman Elfouly, P.E. M. ASCE.
