Analytical and experimental evaluation of steel sheets for blast retrofit design

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Blast resistant design has come to the forefront of engineering concerns in the wake of recent terrorist threats to the United States. The focus of this research is to evaluate the use of thin steel sheets as a suitable retrofit material that will assist a wall system in mitigating the applied loads during a blast event. The static resistance of the wall system can be analytically predicted and experimentally verified. Additionally, an efficient means of connecting the steel sheets to the wall system can be experimentally determined. The analytical model will ultimately be implemented into a single degree of freedom dynamic model, which will provide the basis for a user-friendly blast design code. The research shows that a steel sheet retrofit system can effectively increase the strength and ductility of a wall, which allows the wall system to adequately resist the energy imparted from certain blast threats.