Royal Military Academy (RMA)

30, Av. Renaissance

B-1000 Brussels
BELGIUM
CIVIL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT (COBO)

A comparative numerical simulation

study on blast response of reinforced
concrete slabs subjected to fire

Fermin Pascualena Ir.

COST, Septembre 2010

FIRE SAFETY AND EXPLOSION SAFETY IN CAR PARKS

Multi-disciplinary research project which aims at the development of fundamental
design approaches for the improvement of the fire safety and explosion safety in car
parks

http://www.carparkfiresafety.be/
Partners:
Royal Military Academy

University of Ghent

University of Leuven

Von Karman Institute

Warrington fire

CONTENTS OF THE RESEARCH

RMA Objective: analyze the structural response of underground car
park structures in order to prevent their collapse after being subjected to
fire and explosions
A combination of analytical and numerical assessment is carried out in
which the dynamic response of actual underground car park structures is
analyzed
For the numerical part, the software Autodyn (ANSYS) is used to
develop a parametric study
Blast load
Heat transfer + blast load
Some real experiments have been performed to validate the explosion
numerical assessment. In the coming months, It is planned to develop the
same test with the combination of fire + explosion

HOLLOW CORE SLAB

Dr. Filip Van Den Schoor from Mechanical Engineering
Department of University of Leuven performed a complete risk
analysis on the context of the project
Determination that the equivalent explosive for a car tank
explosion is 1.5Kg C4

It is considered that the gas tank of a car in the worst

scenario is situated at 1m from the ceiling

HOLLOW CORE SLAB

Thus, the scenario of 1.5Kg C4 at 1m is chosen.

Hollow core Slab:

Length= 5.2m
25

610

[mm]

REAL SET UP

SIMPLY SUPPORT

RC SLAB

EXPLOSIVE CHARGE
EXPLOSION VIDEO

CRACK DAMAGE PATTERN

Scenario: 1.5Kg at 1m

MATERIAL MODELING
Model definition
Equivalent surface

Simply support (Nystrm, 2006)

Vz=0
z
x

y
x

Material properties
Elasticity
Modulus

Characteristic
Resistance

Support
material

Solver

EOS

Strength
model

Failure Model

Lagrange

Linear

Elastic

RHT Concrete
+ crack softening +
associative flow rule

Principal Stress

Concrete
C40/50

35000
MPa

fck=40MPa

Lagrange

P-Alpha

RHT
Concrete

Steel
S500

210000
MPa

fy=500MPa
fu=571MPa

Lagrange

Linear

JohnsonCook

MATERIAL MODELING

Load will be applied as a boundary condition

Wordwide used Conwep (data base of US defense) application gives

overpressure distribution on structures submitted to incident blast loads

[MPa]

Subdivision into different load surfaces

FIRE NUMERICAL ASSESSMENT

According to EC 1992 1-2, when a RC slab is submitted to standard fire, a

simplified model with isoterms is appropriate

Thermal properties are used to calculate the

temperature distribution after fire

The RC slab is subdivided in Autodyn into

layers with constant temperature

We are regarding the strength behavior, fc and

Ec reduction in function of temperature

FIRE NUMERICAL ASSESSMENT

T=500C
T=350C
T=250C
T=150C

T=100C

source: EC 1992-1-2:2004 (E)

RESULTS: CRACK-DAMAGE PATTERN

crack pattern at 30ms

WITHOUT FIRE

RESULTS: CRACK-DAMAGE PATTERN

crack pattern at 30ms

WITH FIRE

CONCLUSIONS

CONCLUSIONS:
Numerical assessment for blast load analysis shows good
correspondance with respect real test
Dynamic behavior of structural elements due to blast does not
significantly vary by the exposure to a 30 min of standard fire when both
loads are on the same side of the structural element
Differences regarding crack distribution around the reinforcement are due
to increase of ductility (flexibility) when fire is considered

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS:
Planned to develop the test with the combination of fire + explosion
To take the spalling effect into account by means of an estimation of the
concrete loss