Experimental study of confined masonry walls under blast loading

CODINA R.; AMBROSINI D.

SHOCK WAVES

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2022

0938-1287

Terrorist organizations around the world have used explosives on many occasions tocarry out attacks in urban centers. The victims and injuries in these attacks are oftendue to structural collapses and the impact of debris. This threat leads researchers tostudy the performance of ordinary building systems exposed to extreme impulsiveloads. Confined masonry buildings are a widely used construction system in seismiczones in many parts of the world, and have been widely studied under seismic loads.On the other hand, studies of the response to out-of-plane impulsive loads, such asthose caused by intentional or accidental explosions, are scarce. In this paper, resultsof three experimental explosions at different scaled distances are presented. Theexplosives on and 1m above the ground were used. Confined masonry walls with andwithout openings were tested. The complex interaction between airblast shock andground shock was analyzed. Levels of damage obtained with the different scaleddistances are presented. The results are compared with iso-damage curves.