CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) researchers have come up with a framework to enhance the protection of critical infrastructure in the country to steer clear of the danger posed by ballistic missiles.
The institution said on Wednesday that this framework will help designers develop innovative solutions for improving the ballistic resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) panels.
Using computational simulations, the researchers studied the impact of missiles on RC, the main material used to construct vital structures ranging from military bunkers, nuclear power buildings, and bridges to runways.
Concrete structures face extensive localised damage such as penetration, perforation, scabbing, spalling, and crushing under projectile impact load.
Due to the strategic importance of these structures, it is necessary to protect them against projectile and debris impact, which can result in localised damage or even the collapse of the entire structure.
Ballistics is a field of engineering that deals with the launching, flight behaviour, and impact effects of projectiles such as bullets, bombs, and rockets. This science is used not only for designing bunkers but also for designing the walls of nuclear power buildings, bridges, and other protective structures.
Elaborating on this research, Dr Alagappan Ponnalagu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras, said, “Ballistic design plays an important role in widely utilised concrete structures in today's unpredictable world. Usually, extensive experimental and numerical studies have been done to investigate concrete panels, resulting in design guidelines considering local damage parameters.”
He said the study is not only helpful in terms of providing the ballistic design framework and probabilistic approach to create a formula for quantifying crater damage but also facilitates an understanding of the ballistic behaviour of RC panels.