Assessment of structure damage to blasting induced ground motions

Empirical allowable vibration levels for surface structures generated by un derground explosions are usually given in terms of peak ground particle vel ocities. Those allowable vibration criteria do not take the structural type , site conditions and ground vibration frequency contents into consideratio n. This paper performs a damage assessment of surface structures subjected to ground stress wave excitation on the basis of a nonlinear dynamic analys is of structures. The ground excitations are generated numerically by a com mercial software AUTODYN. The validity of the numerical simulated ground mo tions is proved by comparing the attenuation law of their peak particle vel ocities (PPV) with those obtained independently in field tests. A damage in dex defined in earthquake engineering, based on a linear combination of the maximum deformation (ductility) and the hysteretic energy dissipation (loa ding history), is used. A parametric study of the effects of structural typ e, charge distance, site conditions, as well as the explosion conditions is performed by using three typical reinforced concrete (RC) structural model s designed on the basis of British Standard 8110. A safe inhabitant distanc e for surface structures is estimated and results are compared with those o btained on the basis of empirical allowable vibration criteria. (C) 2000 El sevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.