Assessment of Empirical Formulas for Estimating Residual Axial Capacity of Blast Damaged Rc Columns

Abstract

Columns are the most important load bearing structural elements in buildings. Under the effect of external explosions near the building, columns in the ground and first floors may have severe damage that can cause progressive collapse of the whole building frames. Residual axial load bearing capacity of the reinforced concrete column after the effect of lateral blast loading could be a practical criterion to damage assessment of the column. This is essential to determine whether the column has to be replaced or repaired for future use. In this paper, residual axial capacity of the square RC columns under the effect of initial axial force and lateral blast loading is investigated. Explicit finite element package LS-DYNA is used for analysis of the considered models and determining their residual capacity. There are some empirical formulas for estimating of the residual axial capacity of the blast damaged RC columns including Bao and Li (2010), Wu et al (2010) and Arlery et al (2013). Here, FEM results are compared to the estimations of these formulas. Different levels of initial axial force in the columns and different scale distances of blast loading are considered.

Experimental Investigation and Numerical Analysis of the Axial Load Capacity of Circular Concrete-Filled Tubular Columns

“…Numerical analyses are mostly conducted using available finite element method (FEM) software. The majority of studies employed ABAQUS, as in [1][2][3][4], while certain studies utilized ANSYS [5][6][7] or LS-DYNA [8][9][10]. Further, many researchers provided a comparative analysis of their results with current design codes.…”

Study of the residual axial capacities of shear-damaged reinforced concrete columns: Part 1—development of an evaluation model

“…However, the residual axial capacities of RC frames have not yet been sufficiently studied, and the related previous studies are very limited (Elwood and Moehle, 2008; Ghannoum and Moehle, 2012; Murray and Sasani, 2017). In addition, the evaluation of the residual axial capacities of RC buildings with fire/explosion-induced damage has received more attention recently, and the related studies have also mainly been conducted at the level of a column member (Li et al, 2015; Omran and Mollaei, 2017; Roller et al, 2013).…”