Stainless steel profiled walls have increasingly been used in the process and other industries to protect people and personnel against hydrocarbon or chemical explosions. The existence of various uncertainties, in particular the ones associated with explosion loading and parameters, make the current design and assessment which are based on single degree of freedom (SDOF) and deterministic approach, very complicated and in many cases leading to unreliable design assessment. Therefore, developing an appropriate reliability approach for assessing and designing blast wall structures would greatly assist in improving the safety of personnel and plant facilities. The objective of this research study is to develop a practical framework for performance based design of stainless steel profiled barrier blast walls, with specific focus on reliability assessment by implementing stochastic finite element analysis (SFEA). Initially, the current traditional SDOF method is reviewed to identify the related issues and weaknesses and accordingly an appropriate method for structural assessments of the blast walls is proposed. Furthermore, a comprehensive investigation on various available methods is carried out to identify a suitable probabilistic approach for the reliability assessments. The corresponding reliability of these structures is evaluated with a MCS method, implementing the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) approach. A programming package is developed using Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL), to generate parametric finite element models and to perform automated reliability assessments. The significant uncertainties are combined with an advanced analysis model to investigate the influence of loading, material and geometric uncertainties on the response of these structures under realistic boundary conditions and connection configuration. Effective implementation of the framework is achieved by the development of a combined programming package to deal with both finite element and reliability analyses. A further development for this research study is associated with the development of performance based design approach, using the results of the probabilistic and finite element assessments. This can be utilised for optimum and appropriate design of the blast wall structures, based on the defined performance levels. Application and practicality of the developed approach and associated programming package is demonstrated through a number of case studies of realistic stainless steel profiled barriers subject to explosion loading. The results of the preliminary probabilistic case studies confirm that the explosion loading is the main influential input parameter and also nonlinearities are more critical than dynamic effects for unstiffened profiled barrier blast walls. An appropriate dynamic load factor (DLF) is proposed for the preliminary stage of the design and assessments. It is observed that using the probabilistic approach can help identify the important variables and parameters to optimize the design of profiled blast walls, and to perform risk assessments for these structures. The study is expanded to develop a performance based design methodology, linking the probabilistic results with various performance levels and associated parameters (e.g., damage levels). The results and discussions of the case studies associated with performance based design assessments confirm the suitability of the proposed framework, and also highlight the complications in defining intermediate levels, without preliminary investigations. This shows that QRA approach and involvement of professionals can play an important role to develop performance levels and the associated objectives. The developed programming package and associated framework are expected to provide valuable guidance to professional design engineers and researchers, by obviating the need for complex computational requirements.

by Lai Kui Shing, Wong Po Chi, Young Chun Kwan. / Bibliography: leaves 92-94 / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982

This research focused on demonstrating the effectiveness of a new inelastic material model, τBTR, and was compared with an existing modified tangent modulus model, τTM, at matching the limit load response of detailed finite element models of steel frames. The influence of stiffness reduction was studied on seven W8x31 columns and eleven benchmark frames. The column study considered minor axis bending with L/r ratios of 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 180, and 200. Limit load analyses were conducted on steel frames with major-axis and minor-axis bending. The extent of yielding and lateral displacements were evaluated for all benchmark frames at the collapse condition. Discussion is given regarding the two material models and their ability to match the limit load responses of the finite element models. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-194). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Title from PDF title page; viewed on January 6, 2010. Major professor: Cole McDaniel, Ph.D., P.E. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Science in Architecture with a Specialization in Architectural Engineering." "November 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-64).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 411-424).

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