Use of Implicit Analysis to Investigate Impact ofExplosion on Earthfill Dams

Many dams and levees contain public roadways or are accessible from nearby public roadways. Additionally, most dams and levees are built primarily out of earthfill and are not hardened structures or designed to resist high-intensity blast-impact loads. Therefore, these types of structures may be vulnerable to the impacts of an explosive blast with potentially catastrophic consequences. Many risk assessments have focused on qualitativevulnerability assessments and security upgrades. These assessments often do not include computational analyses of the impacts of explosions, but focus on the accessibility of a structure, possible threat scenarios, increased security measures, etc. The goal of this research is to provide an implicit finite element code that can simulate blast which has been simulated as an explicit method and make comparison. For this reason, an appropriate explosive load with proper location have been studied for the trial dam model. The explosive was modeled as a released energy of TNT mass (against of modeling TNT mass solely in explicit method) on the top of dam crest representative an explosiveload consistent with a truck or van.

Use of Implicit Analysis to Investigate Impact ofExplosion on Earthfill Dams Keywords:

Finite element code , Impilicit analysis , Blast loading , Dam