Blast resistant structure 1

[fred80]

I was assigned to design a store house for explosive material.Can i use BS 8110 to do the design or TM5 1300 will be a better recommendation?Is there any significant differences between the 2 standard?

 

[tullj]

Try refering to Factory Mutual Guidelines datasheet 1-44 damage limiting construction.

 

[BantrelStructural]

One key thing to remember is that internal explosion and external blasts present different loading criteria.

Internal blast generally requires relief (blow-out panels) or reflected pressures significantly increase the overall blast load on the structure. Factory Mutual has information for designing (laboratory) chemical storage rooms for upto 100 psf.

If you are designing for munitions storage, then internal blast is almost impossible to contain. But blast resistant design is used for munitions bunkers, primarily to protect contents from other bunkers that may blow-up or nearby explosions from hostile attack.

ASCE Manual No. 42 used to be a useful tool, but is no longer published. Since Refineries and petrochemical plants are major customers for blast resistant design, they probably have some of the best literature these days, but it is proprietary. The US military also has some useful literature, but again access for civilians could be a little problematic.

I'm not familiar with any of the codes that you listed.

Design pressures for refinery control buildings fall in the 10-25 psi range generally. For munitions bunkers it is in the 100 psi range. In addition to the initial blast pressure considerations, munitions storage bunker design requires control of "missile" momentum from concrete that is spalled off the structure from the blast deflected elements. Too high, and these "missiles" could cause the contents of this bunker to also explode.