Blast retrofit design of CMU walls using polymer sheets

The focus of this research was the analysis of polymer sheets as a method for retrofit design. Many materials have been tested for blast retrofit design but have shown their limitations. There are many advantages to polymer sheets. For example, the sheets are very thin and take up very little space, polymers have large amounts of energy absorption capabilities, and the installation process is quick and easy to perform in the field. This research was done to ascertain the strength, ductility, response to static pressure, investigate connection details, and develop an analytical model of the static resistance function. The polymer retrofit system was modeled dynamically in a single-degree of freedom (SDOF) model, and the analytical model developed for the static resistance was used in the SDOF model. Additionally, three types of tests were conducted at the coupon, connection, and component levels to verify the analytical model. Once the analytical model was verified, it was incorporated into the SDOF model. Finally, field tests were conducted on three polymers, and results were compared to the predicted results made by this project. This report presents the analytical modeling and experimental evaluation of CMU-polymer wall systems subjected to blast loading. iii