Simulating blast effects on steel beam-column members: Applications

Validation and application examples are presented for a beam-column element that uses bounding surface plasticity models to characterize the effects of blast-induced damage in structures with steel wide-flange members. Element formulation and implementation within the nonlinear explicit dynamic finite element code CU-BAMM appears in the companion paper [1]. The current paper details the creation of a library of bounding surfaces for various wide-flange members and explosive scenarios, and library integration with the code. A validation example shows favorable agreement between CU-BAMM simulation results and results obtained from a high-resolution model for prediction of the post-blast collapse load for an A-frame system.

► Created library of bounding surfaces to capture blast damage in wide-flange members.
► Library is integrated with implemented blast beam-column element in FE code.
► Code is used for prediction of post-blast collapse for various steel components.
► Examples show good performance of blast beam-column element from companion paper.
► Good match between beam-column element and high-resolution results for A-frame collapse.