Author(s)

A.J. Watson

Abstract

The response of civil engineering structures to impulsive loads A.J. Watson Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK ABSTRACT The paper considers the accidental damage to buildings from explosive blast loading which has been back analysed to estimate the overpressure regime produced by the explosion. Such analyses in the past have led to the introduction of design recommendations in current codes of practice for the common structural materials but there are not yet enough of these results to provide characteristic values of pressures likely to arise from different forms of impulsive loading. INTRODUCTION Impulsive loading is applied very rapidly and maintained for a very short duration. If that duration is less than about 10% of the fundamental natural period of the structure, then the specific impulse, the time integral of pressure, is the dominant characteristic of the load, and the loaded area of th

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