• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.380-387
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• 2014

Piper Alpha disaster drew attention to the damage likely to arise from explosions and fires on an offshore platform. And great concerns have been increased to prevent these hazards. Blast wall is one of the passive safety systems; it plays a key part of minimizing the consequences. However, a buckling due to explosion loads is a factor which can reduce the strength of blast wall. The buckling often occurs between web and flange at the center of blast wall. This study aims to find a solution for reinforcing its strength by installing a flat plate at the spot where the buckling occurs. First of all, ANSYS finite element method is adopted to numerically compute the structural resistance characteristic of blast wall by using a quasi-static approach. Sequentially, the impact response characteristics of blast wall are investigated the effect on thickness of flat plate by using ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Finally, pressure-impulse diagrams (P-I diagram) are presented to permit easy assessment of structural response characteristics of stiffened blast wall. In this study, effective use is made to increase structural intensity. of blast wall and acquired important insights have been documented.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.151-160
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• 2022

Owing to the recent increase in the frequency of explosion accidents, blast resistive design has garnered attention to reduce the damage of important structural elements. However, domestic research on the blast resistive structures is still insufficient, and domestic design guideline against blast loads are not documented yet. In this study, a numerical study on the RC blast resistive walls, where the test variable was the presence of FRP sheet, was performed using LS-DYNA program. Based on the numerical results, displacement-time hysteretic curve, pressure-impulse diagram, and fragility curve of the test specimens were derived. It was shown that the FRP sheet strengthening method is efficient to improve the blast resistive performance of the RC wall. Also, the strengthening effect of FRP sheet on the RC wall was stronger when the magnitude of the blast load was greater.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.9-15
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• 2023

Hydrogen is gaining attention as a sustainable and renewable energy source, potentially replacing fossil fuels. Its high diffusivity, wide flammable range, and low ignition energy make it prone to ignition even with minimal friction, potentially leading to fire and explosion risks. Workplaces manage ignition risks by classifying areas with explosive atmospheres. However, the effective installation of a blast wall can significantly limit the spread of hydrogen, thereby enhancing workplace safety. To optimize the wall installation of this barrier, we employed the response surface methodology (RSM), considering variables such as wall distance, height, and width. We performed 17 simulations using the Box-Behnken design, conducted using FLACS software. This process yielded two objective functions: explosion likelihood near the barrier and explosion overpressure affecting the blast wall. We successfully achieved the optimal solution using multi-objective optimization for these two functions. We validated the optimal solution through verification simulations to ensure reliability, maintaining a margin of error of 5%. We anticipated that this method would efficiently determine the most effective installation of a blast wall while enhancing workplace safety.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.20 no.A
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• pp.257-267
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• 2000

It was difficult to apply conventional excavation methods in some sections from Seoul to Pusan high speed rail road construction of 1 lot 2, due to highway concrete road, gas pipe, water pipe and nearby factories with automatic control system machine. To excavate safely and efficiently in these sections new blast patterns were employed within allowable blast vibration level, by test blast and controlled vibration by sequential blast. Behaviors of the rock mass including convergence and displacement around tunnel were measured with construction works and the crack width in concrete wall was also monitored for controlling allowable limits. The results can be summarized as follow : 1. The allowable blast vibration level in structure site is less 1.0cm/sec for highway concrete, 0.5 cm/sec for gas pipe, water pipe and building housing and 0.3 cm/sec for automatic control system machine. 2. The convergence displacement, single rod extensometer and multi rod extensometer around tunnel and cracks in concrete wall were measured, it was confirmed that the measured values were converged within allowable level. 3. The empirical formular of ground vibrations with 90% confidence lines for PD-3 was given as follow. $$V_{90%}=45.549({\frac{D}{\sqrt{W}}})^{-1.353}$$

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.215-225
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• 2016

High performance materials such as Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) are often used for retrofitting structures against blast loads due to its ductility and strength. The effectiveness of retrofit materials needs to be precisely evaluated for the retrofitting design based on the dynamic material responses under blast loads. In this study, the blast resistance of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) and Kevlar/Glass hybrid fabric (K/G) retrofitted reinforced concrete (RC) wall is analyzed by using the explicit analysis code LS-DYNA, which accommodates the high-strain rate dependent material models. Also, the retrofit effectiveness of FRP fabrics is evaluated by comparing the analysis results for non-retrofitted and retrofitted walls. The verification of the analysis is performed through comparisons with the previous experimental results.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.561-569
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• 2018

Ground vibration is one of the most undesirable effects induced by blast operation in mountain tunnels, which could cause negative impacts on the residents living nearby and adjacent structures. The ground vibration effects can be well represented by peak particle velocity (PPV) and corner frequency ($f_c$) on the ground. In this research, the PPV and the corner frequency of the mountain surface above the large-span tunnel of the new Badaling tunnel are observed by using the microseismic monitoring technique. A total of 53 sets of monitoring results caused by the blast inside tunnel are recorded. It is found that the measured values of PPV are lower than the allowable value. The measured values of corner frequency are greater than the natural frequencies of the Great Wall, which will not produce resonant vibration of the Great Wall. The vibration effects of associated parameters on the PPV and corner frequency which include blast charge, rock mass condition, and distance from the blast point to mountain surface, are studied by regression analysis. Empirical formulas are proposed to predict the PPV and the corner frequency of the Great Wall and surface structures due to blast, which can be used to determine the suitable blast charge inside the tunnel.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.281-288
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• 2014

As a gas explosion is the most fatal accident in shipbuilding and offshore plant industries, all safety critical elements on the topside of offshore platforms should retain their integrity against blast pressure. Even though many efforts have been devoted to develop blast-resistant design methods in the offshore engineering field, there still remain several issues needed to be carefully investigated. From a procedure for calculation of explosion design pressure, impulse of a design pressure model having completely positive side only is determined by the absolute area of each obtained transient pressure response through the CFD analysis. The negative pressure phase in a general gas explosion, however, is often quite considerable unlike gaseous detonation or TNT explosion. The main objective of this study is to thoroughly examine the effect of the negative pressure phase on structural behavior. A blast wall for specific FPSO topside is selected to analyze structural response under the blast pressure. Because the blast wall is considered an essential structure for blast-resistant design. Pressure time history data were obtained by explosion simulations using FLACS, and the nonlinear transient finite element analyses were performed using LS-DYNA.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.201-214
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• 2016

The outer tank of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tank is a longitudinally and meridianally pre-stressed concrete (PSC) wall structure. Because of the current trend of constructing larger LNG storage tanks, the pre-stressing forces required to increase wall strength must be significantly increased. Because of the increase in tank sizes and pre-stressing forces, an extreme loading scenario such as a bomb blast or an airplane crash needs to be investigated. Therefore, in this study, the blast resistance performance of LNG storage tanks was analyzed by conducting a blast simulation to investigate the safety of larger LNG storage tanks. Test data validation for a blast simulation of reinforced concrete panels was performed using a specific FEM code, LS-DYNA, prior to a full-scale blast simulation of the outer tank of a 270,000-kL LNG storage tank. Another objective of this study was to evaluate the safety and serviceability of an LNG storage tank with respect to varying amounts of explosive charge. The results of this study can be used as basic data for the design and safety evaluation of PSC LNG storage tanks.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.84 no.5
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• pp.675-684
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• 2022

The conventional single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system is appropriate for dynamic response analysis of paneltype structures without an opening. However, the typical building structures usually have four-sided fixed walls having an opening. Therefore, it may induce a considerable error when dynamic responses are estimated based on the conventional SDOF system, since the SDOF system cannot consider the effect of an opening during the SDOF analysis. For this reason, this study proposes a new SDOF system to consider the effect of an opening by adjusting its load-mass factor. The load-mass factor can be modified based on the assumption that the behaviors of the four-sided fixed wall with an opening is very similar to the behaviors of the same size wall without an opening, when the uniformly distributed blast loaded area is identical. In order to confirm a feasibility of the proposed SDOF system, a series of numerical simulations were carried out for the four-sided fixed reinforced concrete (RC) wall under a blast load. The dynamic responses estimated from the proposed SDOF system and the conventional SDOF system were compared with the dynamic responses evaluated from the finite element (FE) analysis. Especially, for the maximum dynamic responses except for 50% opening case, the proposed SDOF system had about 1.1% to 25.7% normalized errors while the conventional SDOF system had about 4.1% to 49.1% normalized errors.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.213-233
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• 2009

In this paper the study of a reinforced concrete wall used as protection against accidental explosions in the petrochemical industry is presented. Many alternatives of accidental scenarios and sizes of the wall are analyzed and discussed. Two main types of events are considered, both related to vessel bursts: Pressure vessel bursts and BLEVE. The liberated energy from the explosion was calculated following procedures firmly established in the practice and the effects over the structures and the reinforced concrete wall were calculated by using a CFD tool. The results obtained show that the designed wall reduces the values of the peak overpressure and impulse and, as a result, the damage levels to be expected. It was also proved that a reinforced concrete wall can withstand the blast load for the considered events and levels of pressure and impulse, with minor damage and protect the buildings.