Blast Performance of Reinforced Concrete Column with Different Levels of Seismic Detailing

Expensive mitigation measures are generally adapted for structures that are vulnerable to blast loading. But, literature shows that a building with seismic design and detailing has some inherent capacity to resist blast loading. As such, a nonlinear three-dimen sional finite element model is developed using finite element software ABAQUS to study the performance of a reinforced concrete (RC) column designed and detailed with three levels of seismic detailing under blast loading as per Bangladesh National Building Code 2020, which is similar to ACI 318-08. The vulnerability of damage due to blasting is determined according to the residual capacity of the column. The nonlinear behavior of concrete is simulated in ABAQUS using the concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model. Blast pressure is applied on the front face of the column using the built-in CONWEP module. The results show that closely spaced lateral reinforcements significantly reduce the damage and blast vulnerability of the RC column under blast loading. In addition, favorable effects on the blast resistance of the RC column are found with a lower charge mass, larger size of columns, increased height of the blast, and higher axial load ratio.