ON THE ASSESSMENT OF STRUCTURAL ROBUSTNESS

摘要

It has generally been recognised that robustness is an important aspect of the structural capacities,particularly when it comes to withstanding extreme loadings such as impact and blast.However,the understanding about structural robustness has so far largely remained at a qualitative level and relevant guidelines are primarily prescriptive.Quantitative measures and specific assessment methods are lacking.This paper discusses the state of the art of the research on the assessment of the structural robustness,and introduces a methodology aiming at a general and simple engineering approach to the quantification of the structural robustness.The method takes into consideration of the structural consequences of an exposure in terms of the global stiffness,strength and deformability of the residual structure.The rationale for the consideration of the energy capacity in the evaluation of structural consequence is discussed.A system index is determined by a weighted scheme.Example cases are provided to illustrate the methodology and the procedure.