Author(s)

B. von Rosen, S. Foo & E. Contestabile

Abstract

The risk of a building against blast effects can be determined by means of a threat risk assessment (TRA). A TRA involves establishing the potential threat, determining the vulnerability of the building against the established threat, evaluating the consequence caused by the realization of the threat and finally assessing the risk of the buildings against the blast threat. A full TRA can be a time-consuming and costly undertaking, especially for owners of a large inventory of buildings. A rapid screening methodology has been developed for conducting a preliminary assessment of buildings against blast effects. The methodology accounts for the threat, the vulnerability of the building, the consequence of an event and the risk, which is the product of the threat and the consequence. Rapid screening of one building should take no more than 2 days to complete. By ranking buildings according to their risk values, prioritization of buildings to undergo a full TRA can be established for determining if and what retrofits are required to mitigate the risk. The rapid screening methodology can also be used in the concept design phase of a new construction in terms of evaluating and comparing the blast risks of various concept designs. The rapid screening methodology is currently undergoing validation testing. It is being applied to ten buildings and the resulting rankings will be compared with the results of other risk assessment methods. At this time the preliminary results appear to be promising. This paper presents the rapid screening methodology and its application to two federal buildings in Canada. Keywords: blast, explosion, vulnerability, risk assessment.

Keywords

blast, explosion, vulnerability, risk assessment.