ABSTRACT
Structures that are specifically meant to afford protection from blasts include missile silos, explosive stores, facilities where explosives are handled and tested, factories where explosive conditions can arise, and military and civil defence shelters. Judging from publications on structures designed to afford protection from blasts, concrete is a first choice-whether for an underground structure or one within a normal building. Lunt(7), for example, points out that reinforced concrete is eminently suitable for civil defence shelters as continuous, monolithic structures can readily be built with it. He also points out that reinforced concrete elements have a characteristic elastic-plastic response to loads that enable large plastic deformations to take place without seriously reducing structural integrity.
