Damage behavior and assessment of hollow masonry walls reinforced with polyurea coating under explosive loading

Abstract As one of the new protection technologies in the field of anti-explosion protection of masonry walls, polyurea spraying has attracted wide attention of researchers. This paper established a refined numerical model to predict the dynamic response of unreinforced hollow masonry walls (UWs) and polyurea-reinforced hollow masonry walls (PWs) under blast loading. The numerical simulation results were in good agreement with the reference test results. The progressive failure process of UWs and PWs under blast load was clarified by numerical simulation and failure theory model of wall. According to a series of numerical simulation results, the dimensionless damage parameters (maximum deflection rate and mass loss rate) of the wall were defined, the comprehensive influence of polyurea coating method and blast scaled distance on the damage degree of the wall was summarized, and the damage mode retrieval diagram of polyurea reinforced hollow masonry wall under blast load was established. The results showed that the existence of polyurea coating can provide reliable protection for the wall without catastrophic damage when the blast scaled distance was not less than 1.47 m/kg1/3. The research results of this paper can provide an engineering reference for the polyurea reinforcement of hollow masonry walls.