Blast-load-induced interaction between adjacent multi-story buildings

The present study aims to present a comprehensive understanding of the performance of neighboring multi-story buildings with different dynamic characteristics under blast loads. Two different scenarios are simulated in terms of explosion locations with respect to both buildings. To investigate the effect of interaction between the neighboring buildings in terms of the induced responses, the separation gap is set to be sufficiently small to ensure collisions between stories. An adequately large separation gap is set between the buildings to explore responses without collisions under the applied blast loads. Several blast loads with different peak pressure intensities are employed to perform the dynamic analysis. The finite-element toolbox Computer Aided Learning of the Finite-Element Method (CALFEM) is used to develop a MATLAB code to perform the simulation analysis. The dynamic responses obtained in the scenarios considered herein are presented comparatively. It is found that the obtained stories\' responses are governed mainly by the location and intensity of the applied blast loads, separation distances, and flexibility of the attacked structures. Moreover, explosions near a light and flexible building may lead to a significant decrease in blast resistance because explosions severely influence the dynamic responses of the building\'s stories.