Retrofitting of RC slabs against explosive loads

Abstract

With the increase of terrorist bomb attacks on buildings, there is a need to develop advanced retrofitting techniques to strengthen structures against blast loads. Currently, several guidelines including an Australian version for retrofitting reinforced concrete (RC) structures are available for the design of retrofitting systems against seismic and monotonic loads using steel or fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) plates that can be either adhesively bonded to the surface or near surface mounted to the concrete cover. However, none of these guidelines provide advice suitable for retrofitting structures subjected to blast loads. In this paper, numerical models are used to simulate the performance of retrofitted RC slabs subjected to blast loads. Airblast pressure distributions on the surface of the slabs estimated in a previous study are used as input in the analysis. A material damage model developed previously for concrete and an elastoplastic model for steel bars are employed in this research for modelling reinforced concrete behaviour due to explosive loads. The material models and blast loading are coded into a finite element computer program LS-DYNA3D to do the analysis.With the numerical model, parametric studies are conducted to investigate RC slabs retrofitted by either externally bonded or near-surface mounted plates or GFRP sheets subjected to blast loads. Discussion is made on the effectiveness of the retrofitting system for RC slabs against blast loads.