ANALYSIS OF RCC AND SIMCON BUILDINGS SUBJECTED TO BLAST EFFECTS

A bomb explosion within or immediately nearby a building can cause catastrophic damage on the building's external and internal structural frames, collapsing of walls, blowing out of large expanses of windows, and shutting down of critical life-safety systems. Loss of life and injuries to occupants can result from many causes, including direct blast-effects, structural collapse, debris impact, fire, and smoke. The indirect effects can combine to inhibit or prevent timely evacuation, thereby contributing to additional casualties. In addition, major catastrophes resulting from gas-chemical explosions result in large dynamic loads, greater than the original design loads, of many structures. Due to the threat from such extreme loading conditions, efforts have been made during the past three decades to develop methods of structural analysis and design to resist blast loads. Designing the structures to be fully blast resistant is not a realistic and economical option, however current engineering and architectural knowledge can enhance the new and existing buildings to mitigate the effects of an explosion. Generally conventional structures are not designed for blast load due to the reason that the magnitude of load caused by blast is huge and, the cost of design and construction is very high. As a result, the structure is susceptible to damage from blast load. Recent past blast incidents in the country trigger the minds of developers, architects and engineers to find solutions to protect the occupants and structures from blast disasters. In this work, blast analysis of multi-storeyed structures was done. Both RCC and SIMCON high rise buildings were subjected to blast effects and their fundamental frequencies were determined. Time history analysis was carried out in ETABS software to find the effect of buildings subjected to blasts.