BLAST RESISTANT STRUCTURE
In one embodiment, a blast resistant structure includes a frame; a stud track attached to the frame; a plurality of studs attached to the stud track; a plurality of panels attached to the plurality of studs, wherein at least one panel comprises a composite board secured to a steel sheet; and a blast plate and a connector for securing the stud track to the frame.
This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/876,687, filed Sep. 11, 2013, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to blast resistant structures configured to protect against a blast from an explosion.
2. Description of the Related Art
An explosion is typically characterized by a blast or sharp increase in pressure that propagates in a wavelike manner outward from a point or area of origination. Whether intentionally or unintentionally initiated, such blasts can result in severe damage to buildings, vehicles, and personnel. For example, a blast from a bomb that is detonated in a car parked near a building can cause structural damage to the building, damage components therein, and/or injure people within the building. Similarly, ballistic and aerial explosive devices can cause costly damage to buildings and other types of structures.
The use of blast resistant structures for protection against blasts associated with explosions is known. For example, buildings at risk of blast damage during battle conditions are sometimes provided with a wall formed of concrete. The concrete walls provide a protective effect to the building by deflecting and/or attenuating the blast. In some cases, however, the blast may still stress the structural components beyond their yield strength, thereby damaging the building.
There is a need, therefore, for a more effective blast resistant structure for protection against an explosion.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONEmbodiments of the present invention generally relate to a blast resistant structure configured to protect against a blast from an explosion. In one embodiment, a blast resistant structure includes a frame; a stud track attached to the frame; a plurality of studs attached to the stud track; a plurality of panels attached to the plurality of studs, wherein at least one panel comprises a composite board secured to a steel sheet; and a blast plate and a connector for securing the stud track to the frame.
In one or more of the embodiments described herein, the blast plate is a rectangular plate.
In one or more of the embodiments described herein, the plurality of studs comprises vanadium. In one example, the plurality of studs comprise vanadium and steel alloy.
In one or more of the embodiments described herein, the frame includes hollow structure section steel tubes.
In one or more of the embodiments described herein, the plurality of panels are attached to an exterior surface of the plurality of studs. In another embodiment, the composite board comprises at least one of cement and gypsum. In yet another embodiment, some of the panels are attached to an interior surface of the plurality of studs. In a further embodiment, an aggregate material is disposed between the panels attached to the interior and exterior surfaces of the plurality of studs.
In one or more of the embodiments described herein, a plurality of angle panels and/or bent plates are disposed at the perimeter edges of the structure.
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
In one embodiment, a blast resistant structure includes a frame; a vanadium stud track attached to the frame; a plurality of vanadium studs attached to the stud track; a plurality of panels attached to the plurality of studs, wherein at least one panel comprises a composite board secured to a steel sheet; and a rectangular blast plate and connector for securing the stud track to the frame.
Studs 120 and stud tracks 125 are attached to the HSS tubes 110 for use as wall reinforcements, as shown in
Structural panels 130 may be attached to the studs 120 to form one or more of the interior and exterior walls, floor, and roof of the structure 100, as shown in
The structural panels 130 may have a thickness ranging from about 0.25 in. to about 1.25 in., such as 0.5 in., 0.625 in., and 0.75 in. The steel sheets 132, 144 may have a gage from about 26 gage to about 8 gage, such as 12, gage, 14 gage, and 16 gage. The steel sheets may be hot dipped galvanized coated steel sheets. Other high strength materials suitable for use as a thin sheet may be substituted for the steel sheet. Exemplary high strength material includes other metal, alloy, plastics, and combinations thereof. Exemplary overall dimensions of the structural panels 130 include 4 ft. by 8 ft., 4 ft. by 9.5 ft., 4 ft. by 10 ft., and 4 ft. by 12 ft. In one embodiment, the structural panels 130 may be attached to the frame 110, 120 using screws spaced at about 8 in. o.c., although any suitable spacing or connectors may be used. In another embodiment, angle panels 148 may be attached to the perimeter edges of the structure 100. In one example, 6 in. by 6 in. angle panels 148 are attached to the perimeter edges using screws spaced at 8 in. o.c. The angle panels 148 may prevent air infiltration between the external panels 130e and the HSS tubes 110 at the perimeter edges of the structure 100. The structural panels 130i for the interior wall may optionally include tap and bed, fiberglass reinforced plastics coating, wall paper, and combinations thereof.
In another embodiment, the tracks 125 may be attached to the HSS frame 110 using a blast plate and bolt connection 150.
It is contemplated that the blast plates such as blast plates 151, 152, 156, 162 for the wall, roof, and floor track connections may be the same or different sizes. The length of the blast plates may be from about 4 in. to about 8 in., depending on the size of the track 125. The width of the blast plates may be from about 1 in. to about 6 in. depending on the size of the track 125. The thickness of the blast plates may be from about 0.125 in. to about 0.75 in. The blast plates may be made from steel, metal alloy, or any other suitable metal. It must be noted that the blast plates may also have a shape of a polygon having 8 or less sides. In one embodiment, the blast plates 152, 156, 162 may be used to secure tracks 125 to an HSS framing for aggregate filled walls.
In another embodiment, the space between the exterior panel 130e and the interior panel 130i of the walls may optionally be filled with an aggregate material. Exemplary materials include sand, gravel, rock, and combinations thereof. The aggregate material may be added to the one or more of the walls of the structure 100, or any wall that is expected to experience reflected pressure. For example, the pipe nipple 156 may be used to facilitate filling of the wall space by the aggregate material. The aggregate material may advantageously add load to the walls and provide weight to the structure 100. In this respect, the mass and flexural resistance of the walls of the structure 100 may be significantly increased. In one embodiment, a bag or a suitable container may be positioned between two studs 120 or the interior and the exterior panels 130i, 130e to receive the aggregate materials supplied through the nipple 156. After filling the bag, a plug may be inserted into the nipple 156 to close the bore of the nipple 156.
Embodiments of the blast resistant structure 100 are configured to effectively resist peak pressures in the range from about 10 psi to about 100 psi; preferably, from about 25 psi to about 90 psi; more preferably, from about 40 psi to about 75 psi. Also, embodiments of the blast resistant structure 100 are configured to limit the peak internal pressure to less than 3 psi; preferably, less than 2 psi; and more preferably, less than 1.0 psi.
Referring again to
In another embodiment, the blast resistant structure may be a standalone structure or added to an existing or new building. If added to a building, the components of the blast resistant structure may be used to construct one or more rooms inside the building. In another embodiment, the components of the blast resistant structure may be used to construct a wall of the building. For example, wall may be constructed using the HSS tubes, studs and tracks, the structural panels, and blast plate connection discussed above.
Three examples of a blast resistant structure (“BRM”) were compared to a shipping container having corrugated steel walls in a blast experiment. The first two examples, BRM1 and BRM2, have hollow walls, and the third example, BRM3, has an aggregate filled wall. The BRMs and the container were arranged in a ring formation around an enhanced 9,000 lb. cylindrical ANFO charge (TNT equivalency of about 8,010 lbs.). The BRMs and the container were located at a standoff distance of 150 ft. to provide a direct comparison. All four were secured to the soil using an embed anchor system. Steel plates were welded to the BRMs to facilitate attachment to the anchor system, which extend approximately six feet into the ground. The anchor system prevents the BRMs and the container from sliding or tipping over during the blast loading and thus, provides a true test of the wall systems of the BRMs. Sensors were mounted to the front of the four structures to measure incident and reflected pressures, and a sensor was mounted in each structure to measure peak internal pressure.
Table 1 below is a summary of external peak pressures and impulses. As shown, the BRMs effectively resisted peak pressures in the range from 45-70 psi, which is considerably higher than a rating of 10-20 psi of a typical blast resistant structure.
Table 2 below is a summary of internal peak pressures experienced by the test structures. It is clear that the BRM structures performed much better than the ISO container. BRM2 showed a peak internal pressure of 1.2 psi, while BRM 3 only showed peak internal pressure of less than 1. In contrast, the ISO container showed an internal peak pressure 9.57 before the gage disconnected. Indeed, the ISO container was demolished by the blast, while the BRMs only showed minimal residual wall displacement. According to Table 3, BRM 3 showed close to zero residual deflection of the loaded wall.
In another embodiment, a method of forming a blast resistant structure includes forming a frame; securing a track to the frame using a blast plate and a connector; attaching a plurality of studs to the track; attaching a plurality of panels to the plurality of studs, wherein at least one panel comprises a composite board secured to a steel sheet.
In one or more of the embodiments described herein, the method further comprises introducing an aggregate material between an interior panel and an exterior panel.
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.
Claims
1. A blast resistant structure, comprising:
- a frame;
- a stud track attached to the frame;
- a plurality of studs attached to the stud track;
- a plurality of panels attached to the plurality of studs, wherein at least one panel comprises a composite board secured to a steel sheet; and
- a blast plate and a connector for securing the stud track to the frame.
2. The structure of claim 1, wherein the blast plate comprises a rectangular plate.
3. The structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of studs comprise vanadium.
4. The structure of claim 1, wherein the frame comprises hollow structure section steel tubes.
5. The structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of panels are attached to an exterior surface of the plurality of studs.
6. The structure of claim 5, wherein the composite board comprises at least one of cement and gypsum.
7. The structure of claim 5, wherein some of the panels are attached to an interior surface of the plurality of studs.
8. The structure of claim 7, further comprising an aggregate material disposed between the panels attached to the interior and exterior surfaces of the plurality of studs.
9. The structure of claim 8, further comprising a nipple disposed in the frame for introducing the aggregate material.
10. The structure of claim 5, wherein the panels attached to the interior surface and the panels attached to the exterior surface are made of different materials.
11. The structure of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of angle panels disposed at the perimeter edges of the structure.
12. The structure of claim 11, wherein the angle panels are disposed above the plurality of panels.
13. The structure of claim 1, wherein the structure is configured to effectively resist a peak pressure in a range from about 25 psi to about 90 psi.
14. The structure of claim 1, wherein the structure is configured to limit the peak internal pressure to less than 3 psi.
15. The structure of claim 1, wherein the connector is selected from the group consisting of bolt, nut, and combinations thereof.
16. The structure of claim 1, wherein at least two connectors are used to secure the blast plate and the stud track to the frame.
17. The structure of claim 16, wherein the at least to connectors are aligned along a width dimension of the track.
18. The structure of claim 1, wherein a ratio of a width of the blast plate to a width of the track is from 0.75:1 to 1:1.
19. The structure of claim 1, wherein a ratio of a length of the blast plate to a length of the track is from 0.75:1 to 1:1.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 11, 2014
Publication Date: Nov 12, 2015
Inventors: Jordan HARPER (Paris, TX), Brian WILLIAMS (Cooper, TX), Carl Allen WADE (Paris, TX), Gilbert A. HEGEMIER (La Jolla, TX)
Application Number: 14/483,369