Blast Loading of Concrete Pipes Using C-4 Charges

Abstract

The E39 coastal highway route in Norway is envisioned a future without ferries. A submerged floating tunnel built in concrete has been suggested as a means of crossing wide and deep fjords. Blast loading against this type of structure could have disastrous consequences, and potentially cause the collapse of the entire structure. To investigate the response of tubular concrete structures subjected to blast loading, standard off-the-shelf unreinforced concrete pipes were tested using live explosives. A plastic explosive was used to generate the load, and the tests were filmed by two synchronised high-speed cameras. Three pressure sensors equidistant from the charge position logged the pressure. Further, three different positions for the charges were used to investigate the effect of charge position. The charge size was varied for each position to find the amount of explosives needed to breach the pipe. It was found that a contact charge detonated from the outside requires almost twice the explosive amount to breach the pipe than a contact charge detonated from the inside, suggesting a significant confinement effect. Numerical simulations using finite elements produced good qualitative results.

A novel design for concrete culverts absorbing explosive energy from homemade explosives

“…Figure 1 demonstrates HMEs that were planted by terrorist organizations and discovered by law enforcement agencies. [8,9] In the literature, a study conducted by M. Kristoffersen et al investigated the explosions of C4 explosives inside a concrete pipe culvert with a 2 m diameter [10]. Furthermore, P. Bonalumi et al examined the pressure that was created by explosions within culverts by using 10 g and 12 g of explosives [11].…”

An experimental study on the blast responses of hollow core concrete slabs to contact explosions

“…The studies that investigated these behaviors with tests conducted on concrete slabs could be divided into two groups. The first group of studies investigated concrete mixtures that could withstand explosive intensity with high strength materials, chemical additives in concrete mixtures by Kristoffersen(Kristoffersen, Hauge, and Børvik 2018), reinforcement replacement (Zhao et al 2021), and concrete mixtures with fibers (Almustafa and Nehdi 2020;Yang, Zhang, and Liu 2021).The second group of studies investigated increases and decreases in the contact surface with explosive waves for establishing geometric connections by altering plate geometry, thickness, and altering the distance between plates and explosives. Within this framework, the distance problem can be divided into three groups as contact explosion, close-range explosion, and far-range explosion.…”

Surrogate models for the prediction of damage in reinforced concrete tunnels under internal water pressure

“…In several previous studies, the effect of the percentage of reinforcement bars, the interaction between the RCTs and the surrounding rock mass, the tunnel size, and the quality of the rock mass on the performance of the RCTs under water pressure loads were evaluated (Parvathi et al, 2013;Zhou et al, 2015). Some investigations employed the finite element method (FEM), especially ABAQUS/Explicit, to simulate the effect of impact loads and water pressure load in the RCTs (Kristoffersen et al, 2018;Chaudhary et al, 2019). Fluid-structure interaction is one of the important parameters in simulating the RCT (Remseth et al, 1999;Leira, 2016;Mandara et al, 2016).…”