A TDOF engineering tool for blast-proof masonry wall system

In past years, safety technology became an important aspect in the area of civil engineering. Facades of many historical and prestigious structures are made of bricks and glass. If these frontages are exposed to blast loads, broken glass and debris make up the main hazard for occupants. As a remedy, a consortium of European scientific and industrial enterprises started to develop a retrofit concept, within the EU-FP6-project BLASTWALL. The Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut (EMI), as a part of this international consortium, is concerned with the development of a Finite-Element Models and an engineering tool for the BLASTWALL system. With the help of physically based FE simulations, critical blast parameters of a BLASTWALL prototype are identified. Furthermore, the structural components are improved regarding their dimension and materials for different loadings. The results of the named studies deliver the essential data for an engineering tool based on a Two-Degree-of-Freedom model (TDOF). This tool can be used to predict the behavior of the BLASTWALL and its single elements. The proposed paper presents the importance of the engineering tool in the development and optimization of an energy-absorbing wall system including a framed window.