Performance of infill stiffened steel panel against blast loading

Abstract In blast loading, out-of-plane behavior of infill wall is activated initially. Contrary to other types of infill wall such as brick or concrete wall, infill steel plate wall exhibits more ductility. Since blast impulsive loading suddenly exerts a large amount of kinematic energy to infill wall, energy absorption characteristic of the infill wall should be taken into account, especially for protection of vulnerable buildings. Out-of-plane ductility of infill steel plate reduces the transmitted impulsive loading to the structure. In present study, out-of-plane behavior of infill steel panel has been studied as a sacrificial element. In-plane behavior of infill steel panel is also investigated as a lateral bearing system. In-plane action should satisfy both resistance and performance criteria. In this research, finite element analysis, including geometric and material nonlinearities is used for optimization of the steel plate thickness and stiffeners arrangement to obtain more efficient design for out-of-plane and in-plane actions. The results of analyses show that for out-of-plane action, the plate thickness and stiffeners arrangement can be determined such that on one hand, the impulse transmission can be minimized, and on the other hand, the maximum residual deformation can be limited to the predefined damage level. Additionally, the effect of stiffener arrangement on the performance of in-plane are studied and some practical rules have been derived for designing the infill steel panel against blast.