Ductility effects on the behaviour of steel structures under blast loading

The importance of ductility in absorbing energy and its improving the structural behaviour under earthquake loading is well-established. Some researchers have noted that the ductility ratio may also be an important parameter for designing structures against explosion-induced forces. However, their works were mainly qualitative and based on the ductility of the structural members. In this article, nine short steel frames with different spans and numbers of storeys, subjected to different blast loadings have been investigated. Nonlinear pushover blast force-displacement curves are evaluated for each frame and the ductility parameters are extracted. The results indicate the significant effects of ductility ratio on the structural response. Also, it is found that the ductility reduction factor under blast loading increases with increasing ductility ratio, irrespective of the period of vibration of the system.