Construction Site Layout and Design
Structural Blast Loads
Construction Site Layout and Design
Hardening a building structure to resist terrorist “soft” (chem./bio) or “hard” (ballistic and blast) threats should be the designer’s last resort. His first responsibility is to ensure that opportunities for protection of the building and protected assets are optimized by using or considering site features such as setback, planned access points, and structures and activities adjacent to the site. Proper selection of structure geometry (architecture) and location of critical and protected functions on the site and within the structure with respect to defensive posture must be coordinated with other site and structure functional requirements.
Mr. Marchand will present an overview of the threat issues generally dictating site use and structure planning, and will present several examples of defensive site layout for restricted urban as well as “optimal” and property rich suburban sites. Finally, he will show how structure hardening requirements are developed based on limitations associated with site layout, building geometry and functional requirements.
Kirk Marchand
Kirk Marchand, PE, is a Principal at Walter P. Moore with over 24 years of experience in fields generally related to the response of structures and mechanical systems to severe transient loads. As an active duty U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer, Mr. Marchand was assigned to the Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Mississippi where he performed and supervised analytical and experimental work concerning ground shock loads on buried concrete structures and was a co-author of the Army Field Manual FM 5-103, “Survivability”.
While at LTV Aerospace and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Mr. Marchand's experience included ballistics testing and explosive warhead research and development. He designed and tested conceptual warheads for use against state-of-the-art foreign armor. This work included the specification of high explosive pressed and cast mixes, case design, and lens and liner design and development. Additionally, he conducted tests and analysis to characterize the mechanisms of advanced armors.
At SwRI, Mr. Marchand participated in and led programs concerning the vulnerability analysis of protective structures and critical civilian facilities. This work involved the design, analysis, and testing of structures, components, and barriers subjected to blast, shock and impact effects, vehicle impact, and cased munitions. He managed and monitored programs dealing with the safety of roadside appurtenances, and understands crash testing and crash test data acquisition used to support these tests.
The area of physical security of structures, security engineering and force protection has been of particular interest to Mr. Marchand. He has performed research and managed large task order programs for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conceptualize, design, analyze, and fabricate structural components for facilities subjected to or threatened by subversive or terrorist attack. He has supervised and designed tests for ballistic, forced entry, and explosive attack. He has performed vulnerability assessments of and conducted and directed analyses on critical facilities in the US and abroad for the United States Secret Service, the Supreme Court of the United States, the Department of Energy National Laboratories, the Federal Reserve System, as well as the uniformed services of the US.
Recent projects conducted and supervised by Mr. Marchand at Applied Research Associates (ARA), where he managed the South Texas Division, included terrorist vulnerability assessments, blast loaded glass research, human injury research related to terrorist attacks, laser threat and hazard research, laser application development for explosive ordnance and improvised explosive device disposal, and expeditionary structure vulnerability and counter-mobility barrier research.
Structural Blast Loads
1. Introduction
2. Loads on Structures
- Blast Wave Phenomena
- Airblast from Exterior Detonations
- Airblast from Interior Detonations
- Other Sources of Loads
3. Methods of Computing Structural Response
- Simplified Methods
- Detailed Methods
4. Mechanics of Structural Members
- Overview
- Reinforced Concrete Members
- Structural Steel Members
- Other Materials
5. Summary and Conclusions
Eric Williamson, Ph.D., P.E.
Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Eric Williamson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Williamson has over 13 years experience investigating the response of structures to extreme loading conditions. For the past eight years, he has been active in research focused on the response of structures to blastloads. Current projects include the design of bridges for security, the design of bridges subjected to barge collisions, and prevention of progressive structural collapse.
Professionally, Dr. Williamson serves on several technical committees at the national level for the American Concrete Institute (ACI), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). These committees focus on infrastructure protection and the response of structures to extreme loads including earthquakes and blast.
Dr. Williamson earned his B.S. degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the faculty at U.T., Dr. Williamson worked as a Research Engineer at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX.
