6.18 Blast models

 

A feasibility of centrifugal modeling for examining the soil-structural response of buried structures subjected to blast loading was examined at University of Florida (Townsend, Tabatabai, McVay, Bloomquist and Gill, 1988).

Objectives of the test were: (A) to develop centrifugal model scaling relationships pertinent to blast loading, (B) to develop micro-concrete with miniaturized reinforcement to construct models, and (C) to develop instrumentation and perform blast loading centrifugal model tests.

Centrifugal model tests were performed on 1/60th and 1/82nd scale buried box structures with a burster slab subjected to a blast loading.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic drawing of the micro-concrete model and location of the instrumentation sensors.

Some of test results are shown in Fig. 2 to Fig. 5.

 

Fig. 1 Schematic of gage location on the structural model

 

Fig. 2 Pressure output for Gage P2 at 1 G and 60 G's at 2 ft. standoff. (vertical division = 92 psi, horizontal division = 500 msec)

 

Fig. 3 Pressure output for Gage P5 at 1 G and 60 G's. (vertical division = 92 psi, horizontal division = 500 msec)

 

Fig. 4 In-plane Strains on the Side Wall (S5+S6)/2 at 1 G and 60 G's (vertical division =162 mstrain, horizontal division = 312.5 msec)

 

Fig. 5 Flexural Strains on the Bottom Slab (S7-S7+S8)/2 at 1 G and 60 G's (vertical division =162 mstrain, horizontal division = 312.5 msec)

 

This section was made using the literature below.

Townsend, F.C., Tabatabai, H., McVay, M.C., Bloomquist, D. and Gill, J.J. (1988) : Centrifugal modeling of buried structures subjected to blast loading, Proc. of CENTRIFUGE 88, pp. 473-479.