Effect of responding and failing structural components on the airblast pressures and loads on and inside of the structure

The presence of non-structural exterior walls can affect the loads on structural columns when high explosives detonate near that column. Numerical simulations and physical experiments were used to determine the effect of exterior (no wall and solid masonry wall) type on the loads on and response of exterior columns. Both the simulations and the experiments indicate that although the exterior wall fails very quickly, it still significantly affects the loads on the column and the airblast pressures entering the structure. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.