Mohammad Jalal Soheil - M.Sc. of Structural Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
Hamid Reza Holakoei - Academic Staff of Azad Islamic University Branch of Ahwaz
Mohammad Etemadi - M.Sc. of Mechanical Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman

There is a concern about progressive collapse of buildings. Blast and earthquakes are extreme events for building construction and warrant innovative structural engineering solutions. Explosive loads associated with high explosive devices are expected to induce significant localized structural damage that could evolve into massive structural collapse. Furthermore, a simple structural design criterion including definitions for key members in a structure is proposed and a single degree of freedom model is created first to illustrate the analysis procedure of progressive collapse. Then, a nonlinear static analysis procedure for existing buildings is presented. At last, the analysis of the structural failure of a reinforced concrete building caused by a blast load is presented. All the process from the detonation of the explosive charge to the complete demolition, including the propagation of the blast wave and its interaction with the structure is reproduced and the result of this approach is compared with the calculation from a nonlinear dynamic procedure.

Blast Load, Reinforced Concrete, Structural Collapse, Progressive Collapse, Nonlinear