Abstract
Major building codes now adopt various measures to address design issues associated with potential blast loading that may result from terrorist attacks. Adoption of these design measures has been gaining momentum, increasing the awareness toward better understanding structural response under blast loads and adoption of existing and new mitigation techniques. Research efforts into improving current design practice makes it incumbent to undertake sophisticated numerical analysis with application to real 3-D structures to identify the structural elements that are most vulnerable and the means to improve their design and performance. In this research, detailed finite element analyses were performed using ABAQUS to assess the structural performance of an existing residential 4-storey, reinforced concrete structure under blast loading. A 3-D model was developed for this structure, which was originally designed for vertical loads only. The response of the original structure under the simulated blast loads is presented. The results show that modifying the design by using a concrete filled steel tube for external columns can increase the blast resistance significantly. The improved performance is a result of the dynamic toughness of the steel material, which reduces the kinetic energy uptake of the structure. (c) 2017 The Authors. Published by IASE.