Numerical Investigation of Blasting-Induced Damage in Concrete Slabs

Concrete slabs are among the most common structural elements and their stability under blasting load has received the most attention recently. Therefore, to investigate the concrete slab response to blasting loads is a very significant project. In this paper, 2D dynamic numerical models for concrete slabs subjected to explosive loading are developed through the use of AUTODYN code and the following two issues are investigated: (1) material statuses of concrete slab as a function of time from the exploding source; (2) slabs with different layers of materials under dynamic loading. The objective is to compare their behaviors and find out useful tips to improve the blast-resistant capacity of concrete slabs. In the simulation, RHT failure model which considers damage accumulation, strain-hardening and strain rate are employed to determine concrete material statuses. The simulation results shows that two damage zones of different characters occur in the plain concrete slab and the damage statuses of layered slabs are extensively different from that of plain slabs.