Prediction of damage level due to blast loads using a displacement-based method

In this paper, a displacement-based design methodology (DBD), commonly used for seismic design and evaluation of structures, is adopted to determine the performance of steel plates to blast loading. In this method, structural performance is linked to such measurable quantities as the displacement ductility. To verify the applicability of the method and the accuracy of the results, simple structural forms, including circular and square steel plates with different boundary conditions, are subjected to out-of-plane blast loading with different explosive charge weights and stand-off distances. The results of the proposed DBD method are also checked against the results from the more rigorous numerical analysis of the plate-explosive charge-surrounding air assemblage using an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method. It is found that the results of the DBD method agree favourably with results obtained from the ALE method. It is also shown that good predictions of the damage level can be made for steel plates subjected to different charge weights and stand-off distances.