ABSTRACT
Chapters 2 and 3 showed that the loading environments associated with many relevant threats (such as impact, explosion, and penetration) are extremely energetic and their duration is measured in milliseconds (about one thousand times shorter than typical earthquakes). Accordingly, the structural response under short duration dynamic effects can be significantly different from those under static or slower dynamic loading cases. Therefore, a designer must provide suitable structural detailing to account for these short duration effects. Due to the complexities associated with these severe loading environments, designers must employ appropriate computational tools in support of their designs. Furthermore, one must be able to address the various structural response and failure modes to ensure that the design will be capable of mitigating such conditions.
