A study on the effects of an explosion in the Pantheon of Rome

Attention is focused on the response of monumental buildings to internal explosions. The study covers the emblematic case of the Pantheon in Rome, yet it sheds light on more generic ones. Propagation of incident and reflected blast waves and their impact on the structure are considered in terms of a coupled solid-fluid simulation which relies on a multi-material formulation and a coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian approach.
The pre-existent cracks spreading the dome and the material non-linearities of low-tensile strength concrete aggregates are considered. The geometry of the structure is accounted by a detailed three-dimensional model.
The numerical results draw a picture where the use of empirical laws to model blast actions in structures with complex geometry may be inadequate. In fact, the coupled solid-fluid simulations show strong localizations of shock waves due to the dome-vaulted geometry which concentrates the energy released by the explosion as a concave mirror. The video shows the evolution in time of the pressure field originated by the explosion.

The structural response is highly influenced by the high-pressure volume which stems from wave localization phenomena in the center of the dome as well as by the presence of the pre-existent cracks.

本研究聚焦于纪念性建筑对内部爆炸的响应。研究涵盖了罗马万神殿这一标志性案例，同时亦揭示了更为普遍的情况。研究考虑了爆炸冲击波与反射波在结构中的传播及其影响，采用了一种耦合固体-流体模拟方法，该方法基于多材料公式和耦合欧拉-拉格朗日方法。对覆盖穹顶的现有裂缝以及低抗拉强度混凝土集料的材料非线性进行了考虑。结构几何形状通过详细的立体三维模型进行描述。数值结果表明，在复杂几何结构的结构中，使用经验定律来模拟爆炸作用可能是不充分的。实际上，耦合固体-流体模拟显示了由于穹顶拱形几何结构导致的强烈局部化冲击波，这些冲击波将爆炸释放的能量集中在凹面镜一样。视频展示了由爆炸引起的压力场随时间演化的过程。结构响应受到由穹顶中心波局部化现象产生的高压体积的影响，以及现有裂缝的存在。