Novel Design Concept for Blast- and Seismic-Resistant Civil Infrastructures

迄今为止，抗爆设计主要用于军事结构。一些设计目标级别包括高推力、高穿透力和高当量导弹，无论是否具有核能力。如果用于保护公共基础设施，按照这些水平设计会导致保守和昂贵的结构，但世界各地最近的事件表明，民用基础设施容易受到低当量非核能力爆炸的影响。这些事件也证实了需要开发可以在标准设计实践中安全经济地实施的施工方法。 还可以表明，抗爆结构的设计理念与抗震结构截然不同，这是理所当然的，因为爆炸荷载和地震荷载之间的性质不同。因此，新的设计理念是必要的，可以克服这种矛盾的要求。由于最近对国土安全的关注和美国地震图的新分区，目前需要新的方法来设计结构，以同时抵抗爆炸和地震荷载，这增加了美国更大面积的地震需求。在这种情况下，缺乏上述研究领域的专业教育，因此全国各地的大学必须开发课程，提供必要的爆炸和地震结构保护专业知识，并满足未来的设计和工程需求。 PI的专业目标是制定研究和教育计划，为PI提供必要的工具;（1）提高他对同时设计结构以抵抗爆炸和地震要求的理解，（2）与其他工程中心和私营企业合作开展研究和教育计划，例如位于Fort伦纳德Wood（MANSCEN）和道格拉斯泰勒设备公司的机动支援中心，同样重要的是（3）招收研究生，毕业后可以过渡到专门从事国土安全领域的国家实验室和工程公司。在第一个CAREER提案中，PI提出了一种新颖的民用基础设施防爆和抗震设计概念。 然而，由于开发整体设计概念所需的长期成本和时间承诺，该探索性研究小额赠款（SGER）的主要目标有三个方面：o在子系统和全球系统层面进行广泛的实验和分析研究之前，在组件层面分析评估新的设计概念。o招募一名硕士研究生在此探索阶段协助PI。o在处理爆炸和地震问题的会议上介绍设计概念，以便为PI提供有关该研究计划的必要反馈。

Design for blast resistance has been so far considered primarily for military structures. Some of the design target levels include high-thrust, high-penetration, and high-yield missiles with or without nuclear capabilities. While designing to these levels leads to conservative and costly structures if applied to the protection of the public infrastructure, recent events around the world have shown the vulnerability of civilian infrastructures to blasts of low-yield non-nuclear capabilities. These events have also confirmed the need to develop construction methods that can safely and economically be implemented in standard design practice. It can also be shown that blast-resistant structures are designed with a very different philosophy than seismic-resistant structures, and rightfully so, because of the different nature between blast and seismic loads. As such, new design philosophies are necessary that can overcome this contradiction in requirements. New methodologies are currently needed for the design of structures to simultaneously resist blast and seismic loads because of recent concerns in homeland security and the new zoning of the US seismic maps, which have increased seismic demands over a larger area of the US. Under this scenario there is a lack of professional education in the aforementioned research areas, and as such universities around the nation must develop courses that can provide the necessary expertise in blast and seismic protection of structures, and meet future design and engineering needs. The professional goals of the PI are to develop research and educational initiatives that can provide the PI with the necessary tools to; (1) enhance his understanding for simultaneously designing structures to resist blast and seismic demands, (2) develop collaborative research and education programs with other engineering centers and private industry, such as the Maneuver Support Center located in Fort Leonard Wood (MANSCEN) and Douglas Taylor Devices, Inc., and as importantly (3) recruit graduate students that upon graduation can transition to national laboratories and engineering firms specializing in the area of homeland security. In the first CAREER proposal submission the PI has proposed a novel design concept for the blast- and seismic-resistant design of civil infrastructures. However, due to the long-term costs and time commitments necessary to develop the overall design concept, the main goals of this Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) are three fold: o To analytically evaluate the novel design concept at the component level before extensive experimental and analytical research are carried at the sub-system and global-system level. o To recruit one master graduate student to assist the PI during this exploratory phase. o To introduce the design concept at conferences that deal with blast and seismic issues that can provide the PI with the necessary feedback on this research initiative.