DAMAGE ASSESSMENT OF A RECTANGULAR BUILDING AGAINST AIRCRAFT STRIKE

Abstract

In the last two decades there has been increase in air traffic along with the density of tall buildings. This has increased the chances of collision, which may be accidental or deliberate. Therefore structures situated near airports and the buildings of high importance must be designed taking this into consideration. Also, the damage assessment of the existing structures needs to be performed against such unpredictable events. In this thesis, numerical simulations were carried out using ABAQUS/ Explicit software to study the response of a fictitious rectangular steel framed building against collision of Boeing 767-400 ER. The nature of problem is highly complex as a matter of fact that the two interacting bodies demonstrate different mechanical behaviour and damage response due to their distinct stiffness and material properties. Johnson Cooks model have been incorporated to simulate the behaviour of steel, which takes into account high strain rate and increased temperature due to friction between colliding bodies. For concrete, Concrete damage plasticity(CDP) model is used, which follows tensile cracking and compressive crushing failure mechanism. Different locations of strike of aircraft having weight 204 tonnes and speed 104m/s has been studied. Top corner of the building was found to be most critical point.