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Blast Resistant Building

G

glzath

Registered User
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
44
Location
Wadsworth, Ohio
IBC 2015
H-2 Occupancy
500 SF

We have a project at a chemical plant where the client wants to put a small building out in the exterior processing area to allow for periodic testing of samples.

I'm trying to find some code citations that spell out when blast resistant (from the exterior) construction is required. They will be getting us shock wave info indicating psf at various distances. Is that all there is needed? Design the walls to withstand the blast pressure at a set distance? I'd like to be able to include a code section in our report.

I can find info on explosion relief, explosion prevention, etc., but it's from the inside of a building. Also, there is plenty of blast resistant design requirement papers.

Thanks
 
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What you are probably looking for is quantity distance or QD, which is addressed in IFC Chapter 56. It doesn’t address blast-resistant materials, but the distance required between an operating building and an inhabited building or property line (inhabited building distance or IBD). The distance is based on the quantity of explosives present.

If the material is considered explosive where it’s made and where it’s tested, then you have to use the intraplant distance or IPD to determine the distance between buildings.

All of this is to determine the distance so that if an explosion occurs, it has no or very little impact on nearby buildings; thus, the nearby building does not need to be blast-resistant from the exterior.

You might be able to design a blast-resistant building from an exterior explosion rather than using QD separation, but that would probably require a code modification and an engineered design. There are no blast-resistant requirements in the IBC.
 
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Standards used by GSA are from the Interagency Security Committee (ISC) and are generally for official use only (FOUO); thus, unless you have a project with GSA and the project requires blast-resistance, you will not be able to get copies of or access to those standards.
 
The Code requires walls of suitable construction and RLGA explained the reasoning quite well. With 'suitable' walls, the Code also wants a lightweight roof, this allows the force of a blast to travel upwards more readily than outwards. But it sounds like the client wants a building that withstand repeated blasts, which the Code does not necessarily address, so an Engineer with relevant experience is probably the safest way to go.
For an H-2 in a detached building Chapter 4 of the IBC contains the requirements, as well as any material specific provisions there or in the IFC.
 
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