Abstract

This paper presents nonlinear numerical simulation of air blast loading with an over pressure level (500 kg TNT) with a different standoff distance of 10, 20, and 50 m to evaluate the effectiveness of Fluid Viscous Dampers (FVD) as new strengthening techniques to reduce blast loading responses on the existing reinforcement concrete buildings. Taking into consideration, most of the security buildings in Middle East, especially in Egypt, during the last three decades, had suffered many blast attacks. This paper presents nonlinear numerical modeling to study the effect and performance comparisons of a conventional structural building frame system with and without FVD. Simulation results indicate that FVD provide a cost-effective way to greatly improve the performance of structural building frames under blast loading.

Key words: Air blast loading, security building, strengthening of exciting building, fluid dampers, vehicle bomb.