Steel arches subjected to blast loading: A non-discretisation analysis approach

An innovative numerical non-discretisation semi-analytical methodology for the non-linear dynamic analysis of circular steel arch members subjected to blast loading is presented in this paper. The steel arch has a singly-symmetric cross-section with both elastic and plastic domains to account for the spread of yielding, while it is restrained at its two ends by translational springs in both the horizontal and vertical directions as well as counterpart rotational springs which simulate semi-rigid connections. The rate-dependent effects of the steel material due to rapid dynamic loading, as well as geometric non-linearities and material non-linearities are taken into account in the analysis. The effect of the included angle on the dynamic behaviour of a circular steel arch is investigated comprehensively, while the proposed methodology is validated against ABAQUS finite elements, for which the results show that the developed formulation is accurate in capturing the behaviour of the steel arch member subjected to blast loading, providing an efficacious formulation for further structural design and evaluation.