J. Inst. Eng. India Ser.
A
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-018-0352-1
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION
Blast Load Analysis of Pre-twisted Steel Columns
Nivin Philip1 • Theresa Paul2
Received: 2 August 2018 / Accepted: 12 December 2018
 The Institution of Engineers (India) 2019
Abstract A pre-twisted column has its strong flexural
weakened plane, and if the weakened plane is strengthened,
it leads to a favourable effect on the buckling effect of the
pre-twisted column. A linear buckling analysis was con-
ducted for the boxed and unboxed sections of columns with
varying twisted angles using ANSYS workbench. It was
found that pre-twisting was effective in increasing the
buckling capacity of a column up to 51% for unboxed
columns having an optimal twist angle of 135 and 15%
increase for boxed columns showing an optimal angle of
155. Blast load analyses on pre-twisted columns were
conducted for loaded and unloaded conditions using
ANSYS AUTODYN for 10 kg of TNT (trinitrotoluene). A
column subjected to a 10-kg blast load could withstand the
blast without any failure. The kinetic energy absorbed by
the columns diminished for 10 kg of TNT, and loaded
columns yielded without initiation of any cracks, whereas
unloaded sections did not yield.
Keywords Pre-twisted  Buckling  Blast 
Slenderness ratio  Wedge  Johnson–Cook  Thin walls
& Nivin Philip
nivinadoor@gmail.com
1
Mar Baselious Christian College of Engineering and
Technology, Peermade, India
2
Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam,
India
Introduction
Steel structures have been widely used in recent con-
structions due to their faster construction and lower labour
intensiveness. Steel is a recyclable material that leaves
behind minimum waste under demolition, proving to be a
sustainable construction material. Buckling is a mode of
failure that is usually observed in compression materials
due to structural instability. Currently, slender columns are
becoming increasingly important and popular due to the
development of high strength and several innovative
architectural structural concepts that add to the aesthetic
beauty of the structure.
Sections typically used in steel structures include I
sections, channels, angles, etc., called open sections, and
rectangular or circular tubes called closed sections. The
strength of compression members made of such sections
depends on their slenderness ratio, i.e. by increasing the
moment of inertia of the cross section. Similarly, the
strength of beams can be increased by increasing the
moment of inertia of the cross section. Therefore, the
buckling of the plate elements in the cross section under
compression/shear may take place before the overall col-
umn buckling or overall beam failure, by lateral buckling
or yielding called local buckling. Thus, local buckling
imposes a reduced effect on the load-carrying capacity of
columns and beams due to the reduction in the stiffness and
strength of locally buckled plate elements.
Thin columns usually buckle along the plane of least
resistance. However, the column resistance varies at each
point along its centroidal axis when its section is perma-
nently pre-twisted. A pre-twisted member is a structural
member that has a natural twist about its longitudinal axis.
The axial strength and the static performance of the column
may be influenced by this pre-buckling twist, which, in
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turn, may vary in any arbitrary manner along with the Finite Element Modelling
length of the member [1, 2]. The results obtained from
various studies generally show a very wide variation. Finite element (FE) modelling of pre-twisted columns was
However, all of the studied models agree that, with the developed using the commercial software ANSYS Work-
increase in the angle of twist, the buckling strength of the bench 12. Each column was modelled using a three-di-
column increases [3–5]. Therefore, pre-twisting can be mensional solid part and was meshed with 20-node three-
considered as a simple method of strengthening thin col- dimensional solid elements of SOLID186. A fixed–fixed
umns subjected to axial loads or making thinner (lighter ends condition was introduced such that the rotation and
and more economical) columns with the same strength. translations were restricted at the supports.
Currently, a high risk of terrorist attacks is observed. The column sections used in this study are
Bomb attacks are the most frequent terrorist activities.
• Unboxed section—ISHB 150 9 150 9 11.8
Blast phenomenon lasts only a period of milliseconds and
• Boxed section—ISJC 175 9 150
results in the production of very high temperatures and
pressure. Unfortunately, public infrastructure, such as air- The material properties used for the steel column are
ports and railway stations, shopping centres, offices, shown in Table 1. The steel column was modelled in
financial and government institutions, are highly exposed ANSYS Workbench 12, its cross-sectional details are
to such attacks [6]. Blast loading of the critical supporting shown in Fig. 1, and its dimensional details are shown in
elements of public facilities can cause considerable Table 2.
reduction in their carrying capacities and will result in the Different rotational angles are considered in the present
partial or global collapse of the buildings. The problem of FE analysis. The column length used in this study is 3
blast wave interaction with the structure and its destructive metres. A set of pre-twisted angles between 0 and 360
effect has already been presented in many papers, but there
are no studies regarding its effect on the pre-twisting of
Table 1 Material properties of steel columns
structural compression members. From previous studies,
the effect of pre-twisting that resulted in the increase in Material property Value
buckling capacity also requires detailed study, including Density 7850 kg/m3
boxed sections that will display local failure on compres- Young’s modulus 2 9 1011 Pa
sion [7]. Abed et al. evaluated the improvement in elastic Poisson’s ratio 0.3
buckling capacity of pre-twisted steel columns using linear Tensile yield strength 2.344 9 108 Pa
perturbation analysis of various lengths twisted at angles of Compressive yield strength 2.344 9 108 Pa
0–180 [8, 9]. He explained that there is a significant
Tensile ultimate yield strength 4.6 9 108 Pa
improvement in the critical buckling capacity for different
slenderness ratios. Chiew et al. [10] conducted an experi-
mental investigation of the ultimate load behaviour of thin-
walled box columns, and the result shows that the failure
was caused by the local buckling of the component plates.
Various blast analysis studies have been conducted on steel
columns. Tiwary et al. [11] studied that, for axially loaded
steel columns, there exists a critical lateral blast impulse,
and any impulse above this value results in the collapse of
the column. The studies also show that, along with the
structural damage caused by the blasting, a significant
reduction in the load-carrying capacity of the member
occurs [12, 13]. The present research will investigate the
effect of pre-twisting on the buckling capacity of steel
columns under pure axial compression and attempt to find
an optimal twist angle. Blast load analysis of pre-twisted
steel columns is conducted using ANSYS AUTODYN for
loaded and unloaded conditions for a 10-kg TNT blast
charge.
Fig. 1 a Cross section of the I section; b FE modelling of the I
section; c cross section of the box section; d FE modelling of the box
section

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Table 2 Dimensions used in FE analysis Table 3 Material properties of air

Section name a (mm) b (mm) c (mm) d (mm) Properties Value

ISHB 150 9 150 9 11.8 150 132 11.8 9 Reference density 0.001225 g/cm3
ISJC 175 9 150 150 175 8 12 Gamma 1.4
Reference temperature 288.200012 K
Specific heat 717.599976 J/kg K
Internal energy 2.068 9 105 kJ/kg

Table 4 Material properties of TNT

Properties Value

Reference density 1.63 g/cm3

Parameter A 3.7377 9 108 kPa
Parameter B 3.7471 9 106 kPa
Parameter R1 4.15
Parameter R2 0.9
Fig. 2 Meshed model of unboxed and boxed steel column sections Parameter W 0.35
C–J detonation velocity 6.93 9 103 m/s
with an increment of 15 is considered. A fixed–fixed ends C–J energy/unit volume 6 9 106 kJ/m3
condition was introduced so that the rotation and transla- C–J pressure 2.1 9 107 kPa
tions were restricted at the supports. One support end,
however, was allowed to translate in the direction that the
than the distance of the column from the point of detona-
unit load was applied. Each column was modelled using a
tion. The stand-off distance of the column from the centre
three-dimensional solid part and was meshed with 20-node
of the charge was taken to be 1.5 m, and hence, the length
three-dimensional solid elements of SOLID186. Different
of the wedge was fixed at 2 m. The wedge was modelled
mesh size configurations were examined to simulate the
and meshed using a one-degree quadrilateral element. Air
accurate results, and the element size adopted was 25 mm
and TNT are the materials used to fill the wedge, and they
for the unboxed section and 38 mm for the boxed sections
are directly available from the AUTODYN material
(Fig. 2).
library. The explosive was modelled using the John
Linear buckling analysis was then performed to obtain
Wilkins Lee Equation of State, and the air was modelled as
the buckling capacity and failure mode for each column.
an ideal gas. The material properties of air and TNT are
From this particular analysis, buckling modes and critical
shown in Tables 3 and 4. A detonator was placed at the
loads were obtained, and the expected improvement in the
vertex of the wedge (0, 0, 0) to start the blast.
column axial capacity was recorded. Blast load analysis
The amount of TNT used for the blast loading depends
was conducted for the prismatic and pre-twisted columns at
upon the weight of TNT that can be carried by different
optimal twist angles under loaded and unloaded conditions.
vehicles [15–17]. In the study, 10 kg of TNT can be carried
The responses of the columns were recorded and compared
in a suitcase, and a radius of charge calculated as 114 mm
to analyse the improvement in the response of pre-twisted
was used for the blast charge. A schematic diagram of the
columns against blast load.
wedge modelled in AUTODYN is shown in Fig. 3.
A schematic representation of the pressure wave prop-
One-Dimensional Analysis of a Wedge in AUTODYN
agation in a wedge is shown in Fig. 4. The one-dimen-
sional wedge model was analysed until the wave reached
The blast in the air can be modelled using ID analysis of
the end of the wedge, and hence, the negative pressure in
AUTODYN with a multi-material Euler solver. In
the ideal blast pressure curve was ignored in the analysis.
AUTODYN, one-dimensional simulation was performed
The output of the one-dimensional analysis was re-mapped
using a 2D axis symmetric solver in the shape of a wedge.
into the three-dimensional air domain. The wedge contains
The software itself automatically defined the angle of the
multiple materials, such as air and TNT. When the output
wedge. The wedge’s inner radius and outer radius were
was re-mapped into a single-material 3D Euler domain, the
calculated based on the amount of TNT used for the blast
TNT also mixed to the air was defined in the 3D domain.
analysis [14]. The length of the wedge should be greater
The column is defined as a Lagrangian meshed element,

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model, the mathematical expression for stress flow is

shown in Eq. 1 [6, 14]
   
T  Troom m
rflow ¼ ½A þ Bðep Þn ð1 þ C ln ep Þ 1 
Tmelt  Troom
ð1Þ
p
where A, B, C, n, and m are material constants, e is the
Fig. 3 10-kg TNT one-dimensional wedge modelled in AUTODYN effective plastic strain rate, T is the actual temperature
based on plastic work, Troom is the room temperature, and
Tmelt is the melting temperature. The analysis performed by
the authors indicated that the growth of the temperature
produced by plastic deformation while validating the
current model was less than 100 C. At that temperature,
an influence of temperature on the yield stress of steel was
very low; therefore, the thermal part in the JC equation was
omitted. The strain at fracture is given by Eq. 2
h i   
 T  Troom
ef ¼ D1 þ D2 eD3 =reff 1 þ D4 lnep0 1  D5
Tmelt  Troom
ð2Þ

Fig. 4 Blast wave propagation in the one-dimensional wedge where D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5 are material constants, p is
the pressure, and reff is the effective stress. The J–C
and the air is defined as an Euler element; hence, the material for mild steel is given in Table 6.
coupling between the column and air is achieved by The column was analysed for loaded and unloaded
defining them to be ‘‘fully coupled,’’ making the Lagran- conditions for the 10-kg TNT blasting. The safe axial load
gian mesh interact dynamically with the Eulerian mesh. capacity of the prismatic boxed and unboxed columns was
determined by multiplying the buckling capacity by the
Blast Analysis of Pre-twisted Steel Columns reduction factor kk depending upon the slenderness ratio of
the columns, as given in Table 7.
A discrete model of pre-twisted steel columns was devel- The columns were fixed at the top and bottom, and the
oped using 20 nodded 3D solid elements, and the plastic– column itself is restricted to velocity along its axial
elastic material model was applied to describe the steel direction such that the column does not move in the axial
element properties. The columns were named based on the direction. A flow-out boundary condition was given around
blast loading cases, and the loaded and unloaded conditions the air domain to let the blast energy flow out without
for both the boxed and unboxed sections are shown in reflecting when it reaches its end boundaries. In loaded
Table 5. columns, the top support provides the safe load capacity of
The Johnson–Cook (J–C) model provides an appreciable column. Gauges are provided at three points to measure the
prediction of the response of a material and high strain rate
effects on stress flow. According to the J–C material Table 6 Johnson–Cook material model and damage constants for
mild steel
Material constants Value
Table 5 Column notations
Initial yield (A) 234.4 MPa
Notation Description
Strain hardening (B) 413.8 MPa
UI Unloaded I section under 10 kg of TNT Hardening exponent (n) 0.25
UTI Unloaded twisted I section under 10 kg of TNT Thermal softening (m) 1.03
LI Loaded I section under 10 kg of TNT Strain rate coefficient (C) 0.0033
LTI Loaded twisted I section under 10 kg of TNT D1 5.625
UB Unloaded box section under 10 kg of TNT D2 0.3
UTB Unloaded twisted box section under 10 kg of TNT D3 - 7.2
LB Loaded box section under 10 kg of TNT D4 - 0.0123
LTB Loaded twisted box section under 10 kg of TNT D5 0

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Table 7 Reduction factor (kk) for stresses with respect to the slenderness ratio for steel columns
k 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

kk 0.97 0.95 0.92 0.90 0.86 0.81 0.74 0.67 0.59

k 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180
kk 0.45 .45 0.3 0.34 0.30 0.26 0.23 0.21 0.19
k 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 300 350
kk 0.17 0.15 0.14 0.13 0.12 0.11 0.10 0.07 0.05

responses of the column near the top and bottom supports buckling load of Pcr = 18,104 kN is observed at a twist
and at the middle of the support. angle of 155, as shown in Fig. 5.

Results and Discussion Failure Modes

Linear Buckling Analysis
From the linear buckling analysis of pre-twisted columns,
critical buckling loads were recorded to study the
improvement in buckling capacity due to pre-twisting.
Figure 5 shows the increase in buckling capacity for the
unboxed and boxed sections with respect to the critical
loads corresponding to varying pre-twisting angles.
Assessment of the FE results for pre-twisting up to
[ = 180 indicates that the buckling capacity is always
higher than P0 ; in the case of an I section. The increase in
critical load is therefore always rising until the optimum
pre-twisting angle is reached, which is found to be 135,
after which the improvement decreases relatively, but the
critical buckling load of the I section Pcr = 6612.7 kN
remains of larger value than the reference P0 = 4378.7 kN
(critical buckling load at 0 pre-twist).
In the case of the boxed section, buckling capacity was
analysed at varying twist angles from 0 to 180 with an
increment of 15. The optimum twist angle with the highest
Isection
Boxsection
18000
During buckling, the pre-twisted steel sections assumed
deformed configurations normal to the plane where the
axial compressive load was applied. The compression
members were assumed to be slender enough to achieve
global buckling as shown in the deformed shapes presented
in Figs. 6 and 7. The I section suffered global buckling, and
the first three failure modes are presented in Fig. 6.
However, in the case of the boxed section, due to its thin
walls, the thin walls undergo local buckling before the
overall column buckles laterally, as shown in Fig. 7. This
phenomenon occurs because, in closed sections such as the
hollow rectangular section, both flanges and webs behave
as internal elements, and the local buckling of the flanges
and webs depends on their respective width–thickness
ratios. Local buckling has the effect of reducing the load.
Blast Analysis
Figure 8 shows the pressure–time curve for 10 kg of TNT
explosive. From the figure, the maximum peak value of the
pressure reached 900 kPa at 1 ms and diminished to an
ambient pressure of 101.4 kPa at 4 ms in air. The pressure–
time curve for 10 kg of TNT resembles the ideal blast
curve.

16000 I Section
14000 (a) Unloaded
Buckling Load (kN)

12000
Figure 9 shows the displacement time graph for the
10000 unloaded prismatic and twisted I sections for 10 kg of
TNT. At the initial stage up to 10 ms, the displacement for
8000
prismatic and twisted columns was equal, but after that, the
6000 twisted column showed higher displacement.
Figure 10 shows the kinetic energy time plot for U13
4000
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 and UT13 for 10 kg of TNT; the energy absorbed by the
Twist Angle (degrees) twisted column was 19.375 J at 2.508 ms and by the
prismatic column was 5.844 J at 1.818 ms. The energy
Fig. 5 Variation of buckling load with varying twist angles of the
boxed section

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Fig. 6 a First buckling mode shape of the I section at 135 pre-twist.
b Second buckling mode shape of I section at 135 pre-twist. c Third
buckling mode shape of I section at 135 pre-twist
absorption rate was higher for the twisted column due to its
multiple-phase interaction with the blast load.
The effective strain and von Mises stress generated by
UI and UTI are shown in Figs. 11 and 12. When we
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J. Inst. Eng. India Ser. A
Fig. 7 a First buckling mode shape of box section at 155 pre-twist.
b Second buckling mode shape of the box section at 155 pre-twist.
c Third buckling mode shape of box section at 155 pre-twist
compare Figs. 9, 10, and 11, for prismatic columns, the
peak energy was maintained from 1 to 8.5 ms. Therefore,
the maximum effective strain obtained for 10 kg of TNT
was 5.557 9 10-4 at 8.28 ms, and the von Mises stress
corresponding to that was 1.282 9 105 kPa. In the case of
J. Inst. Eng. India Ser. A

UI
UTI

20

15

Kinetic Energy (J)

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Fig. 8 Pressure–time curve for 10-kg TNT blast wave
Time (ms)

Fig. 10 Kinetic energy–time curve for the unloaded prismatic and

twisted I section for 10 kg of TNT
UI
UTI
40
twisted column showed a higher displacement. Figure 14
shows the kinetic energy–time plot for LI and LTI for
35 10 kg of TNT; the energy absorbed by the twisted column
30
was 6648.9 J at 18. 416 ms, and that by the prismatic
column was 1925.07 J at 9.33 ms. The energy absorption
Displacement (mm)

25 rate was higher for the twisted column due to its multiple-
20
phase interaction with the blast load.
Effective strain and von Mises stress plots for LI are
15 shown in Fig. 15. It can be seen that the column reached an
10
effective strain value of 0.012 and von Mises stress value
of 3.392 9 105 kPa, which were greater than the yielding
5 values. Therefore, we could say that yielding had occurred
0
in the column, but it did not fail at 100 ms. Further
0 20 40 60 80 100 increment of von Mises stress and strain will not occur
Time (ms) because the energy absorption diminished at 80 ms. Fig-
ure 16 shows that the effective strain and von Mises stress
Fig. 9 Displacement–time curve for the unloaded prismatic and
plot for LTI attained at a strain value of 0.011 with a
twisted I section for 10 kg of TNT
corresponding stress value of 3.382 9 105 kPa.

the twisted column, the effective strain generated was
2.965 9 10-4, and a von Mises stress value of
6.839 9 104 kPa was generated at 2 ms, as shown in
Fig. 12. In both cases, the effective strain and von Mises
stress values did not exceed the limited value, i.e. the
yielding value. Hence, both columns withstood the 10-kg
TNT blast load.
(b) Loaded
Figure 13 shows the displacement time graph for the
loaded prismatic and twisted I sections for 10 kg of TNT.
At the initial stage up to 10 ms, the displacement for
prismatic and twisted sections was equal, but after that, the
Box Section
(a) Unloaded
Figure 17 shows the displacement–time curve for the
prismatic and twisted box sections for a blast load of 10 kg
of TNT. From the figure, it can be seen that the prismatic
section exhibited slightly higher displacement compared to
the corresponding twisted box section up to 75 ms.
Figure 18 shows the kinetic energy–time curve for the
unloaded prismatic and twisted box section, in which the
twisted column exhibits greater kinetic energy absorption
(9 J at 3 ms) than the prismatic column (0.4 J at 3 ms). In
the twisted column, the absorption of more kinetic energy
is due to the effect of blast pressure on multiple phases.

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Fig. 11 Effective strain and von Mises stress contour plot of UI at 8.28 ms

Fig. 12 Strain and von Mises stress contour plot of UTI at 2 ms

LTI LTI
120 LI LI
7000
100
6000

80
Displacement (mm)

5000
Kinetic Energy (J)

4000
60

3000
40
2000

20
1000

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Time (ms) Time (ms)

Fig. 13 Displacement–time curve for the loaded prismatic and Fig. 14 Kinetic energy–time curve for the loaded prismatic and
twisted I sections for 10 kg of TNT twisted I sections for 10 kg of TNT

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Fig. 15 Effective strain and von Mises stress contour plot of LI at 100 ms

Fig. 16 Effective strain and von Mises stress contour plot of LTI at 100 ms

UB UB
UTB UTB
60 60

50 50
Displacement (mm)

Kinetic Energy (J)

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Time (ms) Time (ms)

Fig. 17 Displacement–time curve for the unloaded prismatic and Fig. 18 Kinetic energy–time curve for the unloaded prismatic and
twisted box sections for 10 kg of TNT twisted box sections for 10 kg of TNT

Figure 19 shows the strain contour plot and von Mises Figure 20 shows the strain contour plot and von Mises
stress plot of UB at 3 ms. UB showed a maximum strain stress plot of UTB at 3 ms. UTB had shown a maximum
value of 2.471 9 10-5 and von Mises stress value of strain value of 7.02 9 10-5 and von Mises stress value of
5.703 9 103 kPa at 3 ms, and the material has not yielded. 1.62 9 104 kPa at 3 ms. As we can see, the column

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Fig. 19 Maximum effective strain and von Mises stress plot of UB

Fig. 20 Maximum effective strain and von Mises stress plot of UTB

LB
LTB LB
LTB
50 6000

40 5000
Displacement (mm)

Kinetic Energy (J)

4000
30

3000
20
2000

10
1000

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Time (ms) Time (ms)

Fig. 21 Displacement–time curve for the twisted and prismatic Fig. 22 Kinetic energy–time curve for the twisted and prismatic
loaded box sections loaded box sections

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Fig. 23 Maximum effective strain and maximum von Mises stress of LB at 100 ms
Fig. 24 Maximum effective strain and maximum von Mises stress of LTB at 100 ms
resisted the blast pressure, and from the stress and strain
plot, we can see that yielding has not yet started.
(b) Loaded
The displacement–time curve for the loaded box section,
for a blast load of 10 kg, is shown in Fig. 21. From the
graph, it can be noted that the twisted and prismatic box
sections showed a similar displacement value up to 50 ms,
after which the twisted column showed higher
displacement.
The kinetic energy–time graph in Fig. 22 shows that the
higher energy absorbed for both columns was the same at
the initial stage; after that, in the prismatic column, the
energy absorption diminished at 50 ms, and that of the
twisted column diminished at 60 ms. The effective strain
and von Mises stress for LB3 are plotted in Fig. 23. It can
be seen that the column reached an effective strain value of
0.00325 and von Mises stress value of 2.607 9 105 kPa,
which were greater than the yielding values, so we could
say that yielding had occurred in the column, but it did not
fail at 100 ms.
A similar behaviour was seen for the twisted box col-
umns, in which the strain value had reached to 0.0063 and
von Mises stress value had reached to 2.66 9 105 kPa
(Fig. 24).
Summary of Results
The results obtained from the blast analysis of pre-twisted
and prismatic steel columns under loaded and unloaded
conditions for three different load cases are tabulated and
shown in Table 8.
From Table 8, it can evidently be seen that all unloaded
columns, i.e. both prismatic and twisted columns, did not
fail under blast loading and that all loaded columns had
yielded but did not suffer the initiation of any cracks. The
kinetic energy absorbed by the column had diminished to
zero, and hence, it could be said that the column withstood
the 10-kg blast load.
Blast Influence Ratio
To represent the failure pattern for a section under the blast
load, it should be expressed in terms of blast influence
ratio, i.e. the blast influence ratio should be equal to the von
Mises stress by the yield stress of the material. Figure 25
shows the blast behaviour of a section with respect to blast
time, in terms of blast influence ratio, comparing the loaded
and unloaded columns. The unloaded column showed a
safer side, and its influence ratio is less than one. In the
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Table 8 Summary of blast load results

Type Maximum von Mises stress Maximum effective strain Displacement Maximum kinetic energy Status

UI 5.557 9 10-4 kPa 1.282 9 105 kPa Lower Lower Yielding not occurred
-4
UTI 2.965 9 10 kPa 6.839 9 104 kPa Higher Higher Yielding not occurred
LI 0.012 kPa 3.392 9 105 kPa Lower Lower Yielding has occurred, did not fail
LTI 0.011 kPa 3.382 9 105 kPa Higher Higher Yielding has occurred, did not fail
-5
UB 2.471 9 10 kPa 5.703 9 103 kPa Higher Lower Yielding not occurred
UTB 7.02 9 10-5 kPa 1.62 9 104 kPa Lower Higher Yielding not occurred
LB 0.00325 kPa 2.607 9 105 kPa Higher Equal Yielding has occurred, did not fail
LTB 0.0063 kPa 2.66 9 105 kPa Lower Equal Yielding has occurred, did not fail

LB to an optimal twist angle, and then it decreased. The

1.4 4 LI
LTB optimal angle of twist, which exhibits a maximum buckling
LTI

1.2
UB
UI
load, was found to be 135. The I section shows a 51%
UTB
UTI improvement in critical load, and it suffered global buck-
BLAST INFLUNCE RATIO

1.0 ling. The boxed column also shows similar behaviour with
2 an improvement in buckling capacity of 15% with
0.8
increasing twist angles until an optimal angle of 155. In
0.6 addition to global buckling, boxed columns also suffered
local buckling because of their thin walls.
0.4 The kinetic energy absorbed by the columns diminished
0 for 10 kg of TNT, and the loaded columns yielded without
0.2
the initiation of any cracks, whereas unloaded sections did
0.0 not yield. Hence, both twisted and prismatic columns were
0 20 40 60 80 100 safer under a 10-kg TNT blast load. Using blast influence
blast time (ms)
ratio, we can predict the structural behaviour of columns
Fig. 25 Blast influence ratio versus time (ms) with respect to time.

Acknowledgements The authors are thankful to Mar Athanasius

College of Engineering, Kothamangalam (Structural Engineering
case of the loaded column, we could see a disturbance in Design Studio), for conducting this research.
the influence line mostly for twisted columns due to the
multiple-phase interaction of the blast that affected the
column strength. From the blast influence ratio, we could
predict the time delay and withstanding capacity of the
column. References

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Conclusions
The study involves the buckling and blast load analysis of
prismatic and twisted columns. The I sections and box
sections used for the present study consider the loaded and
unloaded conditions for the blast analysis. The buckling
analysis was performed using ANSYS Workbench soft-
ware, and blast analysis was carried out in ANSYS
AUTODYN. Pre-twisted steel columns were analysed for
10 kg of TNT blast loading.
Pre-twisting was expected to show an increase in the
buckling capacity of the steel columns, and the result
shows that the buckling capacity of the pre-twisted I col-
umn was found to increase with increasing twist angles, up
of uniformly and non-uniformly pretwisted beams. Comput.
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