EFFECT OF PANEL STIFFNESS ON RESISTANCE OF CLADDING PANELS TO BLAST LOADING

Presented in this paper is the study of the effect of panel stiffness on the resistance of cladding panels subjected to blast loading. In ma ny situations the size of a cladding panel has largely been decided by architects, leaving engineers to design the cross section, which dire ctly influences the panel stiffness. By introducing the concept of a d eformed shape function that is independent of panel stiffness and load ing levels, the relative effect of panel stiffness, the material prope rties, and blast loading levels on panel deformation and forces transf erred to fixings can be assessed without the need to actually specify the deformed shape function. It was found that these relative effects of panel stiffness and loading levels also depend on whether the panel is in the impulsive or quasi-static loading range. The theoretical pr edictions were compared with results from finite element analyses usin g DYNA3D, and good agreement was obtained. Though the mathematical der ivation is complex, the findings are easy to use and have wide practic al applications.