Design and numerical assessment of blast walls subjected to hydrocarbon explosions

Abstract

Little guidance is available in the public domain for the design of the profiled blastwalls commonly used in offshore structures to resist accidental explosions. The provision of the Technical Note 5 (TN5) has helped to bridge some of the gaps and it deals mainly with the Single Degree of Freedom method (SDOF) to obtain the dynamic response of the blastwalls. The adequacy of the design guide is assessed by comparison with numerical nonlinear finite element models for three profiled sections with different degree of compactness. The static capacity and the dynamic response of the blast walls are established up to their maximum capacity level and into the post peak or buckling response regime. Effects of cross section flattening, local transverse effects, support rotation and the effects of cross section compactness on the overall behaviour of the blast barriers are discussed. Copyright © 2004 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers.