Experimental and Computational Investigation of Blast-Induced Vibrations on Thin A36 Steel Sheets

Resumo

© 2026, Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. All rights reserved.Buildings and structures have been targets of detonations caused by explosives, whether intentional or accidental. Recently, with increasing global concern about terrorist actions and accidents in facilities handling explosives, the study of this area has received significant attention. Among the lethal effects of explosive devices, the blast generated by a detonation produces the most intense loads on structural elements. Consequently, it is important to examine the vibration response of structures under this type of load. This paper presents Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations to predict the blast effect on thin steel sheets and compares the results with detonations from field tests. Six charges of 334 g of Composition B explosive were detonated with standoff distances of 300 mm and 500 mm respectively from 2 mm thick bi-supported A36 steel sheets. The steel sheet displacements and vibrational behavior were measured using high-speed cameras (HSC). The results presented in this paper demonstrate the consistency of FEM simulations when compared with controlled field tests. The main contribution of this work is to advance the academic study of explosive effects on structures through a computational method that is simpler, cheaper, and safer than field blast tests.

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