Application of displacement-based design method to blast-resistant reinforced concrete structures

The dissertation document consists of four technical papers, compiling the results of the research done on application of displacement-based design (DBD) method to blast-resistant reinforced concrete (RC) structures.; The equivalent viscous damping (EVD) ratio is a crucial parameter in the application of the DBD method. Therefore, in the first paper, a set of generalized expressions are proposed for estimating the EVD ratio for individual and multiple RC members subjected to seismic loads as well as blast loads.; Furthermore, the inelastic shock spectra were developed and their numerical development is presented and discussed in the second paper.; Based on these research findings, an analytical procedure to estimate the explosive charge weights and standoff distances based on the expected damage levels using DBD method were developed in the third paper. And the experimental validation shows that this procedure gave a reasonable agreement between the analytical and experimental results. The explosive charge weight and stand-off distance were effectively estimated and the damage levels observed from the field tests correlated well with the predicted levels.; The fourth paper is the further application and validation for the procedure developed in the third paper. It was related to the uses of composite materials on the strengthening blast-resistant RC slabs. Test results corroborated that the blast-resistant capacity of RC slabs can be effectively increased by strengthening using FRP composites.