Design and numerical simulation of partly ruined structure by blasting

A building was designedly blasted to partly ruined one to model a seismic damaged structure in the earthquake ruins training field of the National Training Base of Emergency Seismic Rescue. The structure design method of this case is discussed here, including the earthquake load design level, two separate models in PKPM, and the intended weak section design for the blasting to control the ruin shape. A numerical simulation is carried out by using ANSYS/LS-DYNA, modeling the whole procedure of the blasting and the collapse of the building. The results showed that this simulation is quite successful and the final shape of the ruin is exactly the wanted one and proved by the real blasting. Several key issues in the simulation are discussed also, such as the connection technique of slab, beams and columns in the FEM mesh and the right choice of the material properties.