STRUCTURAL RESPONSE OF OFFSHORE BLAST WALLS UNDER ACCIDENTAL EXPLOSION

In order to provide adequate blast protection for on-board personnel and critical
equipment against any accidental explosion, stainless-steel profile panels commonly
known as blast walls are widely installed on offshore platforms. Offshore blast walls
are usually non-load bearing members and are connected with primary steelwork for
support. These walls are likely to display significant plastic deformation, hazardous
failure or even blowout when exposed to high magnitude blast loading. Most of the
operational blast walls were designed by simplified analysis techniques like single
degree of freedom (SDOF) as recommended in common blast design guidelines,
where damage criterion is usually defined in terms of global deformation or
displacement response. Metal walls or thin plate structures like blast wall when
subjected to blast impact, may damage severely in a particular region without
experiencing a significant global deformation.