Improvement in Blast Performance of RC Panels Using Innovative Sacrificial System Consisting of Hollow Metallic Tubes

Abstract

An innovative sacrificial system consisting of hollow metal tubes as the energy-absorbing core was analyzed through three-dimensional (3D) finite-element analysis. The Johnson-Cook (J-C) plasticity model along with the J-C failure criterion were incorporated to model metallic parts under high-strain-rate loading, whereas the concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model was used to predict the behavior of concrete. Dynamic increase factors (DIFs) were used for concrete to understand the effect of high-strain-rate conditions. Finally, blast resistance performance of a square RC panel with dimension and thickness equals to 1,250 and 225 mm, respectively, with or without an innovative sacrificial system was analyzed under blast loading. From numerical simulation results, it is observed that sacrificial systems with thin sections of hollow metallic tubes performed better than thick sections irrespective of the same weight of the sacrificial system. Further, discussion was reported for the energy-dissipation curve of the system, and it is useful in defining the efficiency of the sacrificial system under blast loading.