Improving Blast Performance of Reinforced Concrete Panels Using Sacrificial Cladding with Hybrid-Multi Cell Tubes

The utilization of sacrificial layers to strengthen civilian structures against terrorist attacks is of great interest to engineering experts in structural retrofitting. The sacrificial cladding structures are designed to be attached to the façade of structures to absorb the impact of the explosion through the facing plate and the core layer progressive plastic deformation. Therefore, blast load striking the non-sacrificial structure could be attenuated. The idea of this study is to construct a sacrificial cladding structure from multicellular hybrid tubes to protect the prominent bearing members of civil engineering structures from blast hazard. The hybrid multi-cell tubes utilized in this study were out of staking composite layers (CFRP) around thin-walled tubes; single, double, and quadruple (AL) thin-walled tubes formed a hybrid single cell tube (H-SCT), a hybrid double cell tube (H-DCT), and a hybrid quadruple cell tube (H-QCT). An unprotected reinforced concrete (RC) panel under the impact of close-range free air blast detonation was selected to highlight the effectiveness of fortifying structural elements with sacrificial cladding layers. To investigate the proposed problem, Eulerian–Lagrangian coupled analyses were conducted using the explicit finite element program (Autodyn/ANSYS). The numerical models’ accuracy was validated with available blast testing data reported in the literature. Numerical simulations showed a decent agreement with the field blast test. The proposed cladding structures with different core topologies were applied to the unprotected RC slabs as an effective technique for blast loading mitigation. Mid-span deflection and damage patterns of the RC panels were used to evaluate the blast behavior of the structures. Cladding structure achieved a desired protection for the RC panel as the mid-span deflection decreased by 62%, 78%, and 87% for H-SCT, H-DCT, and H-QCT cores, respectively, compared to the unprotected panels. Additionally, the influence of the skin plate thickness on the behavior of the cladding structure was investigated.