RESISTANCE-DEFLECTION FUNCTIONS FOR CONCRETE WALL PANELS WITH OPENINGS

The design or assessment of wall panels subject to blast loading requi res the formulation of a dynamic flexural resistance-deflection functi on for the element. With the exception of situations in which the expl osion occurs at very close proximity to the panel, the resistance to b last loading may be based upon a quasistatic resistance function that subsequently must be modified for dynamic effects. This paper describe s a proposed method for the derivation of quasi-static elastic/plastic resistance functions for reinforced concrete wall panels with door an d window openings based upon finite element analysis and yield-line th eory. This approach is compared with the results of tests on model wal l panels. it is shown to produce a conservative value of ultimate load but may underestimate the deflection at the limit of elastic behavior .