A blast-resistant building is a structure that has been designed to withstand significant blast events. These buildings are often constructed with thick steel walls and interior features and fixtures designed to withstand the heightened psi levels associated with small to large blast events. Sometimes they are referred to as blast-resistant modules, blast-resistant units, or simply as a BRB or BRM. They are often found in oil refineries, chemical processing plants, or similar operations.
Building Material
Hand-in-hand with the structural engineering of a building is the building material itself. Today’s manufacturers of blast-resistant buildings are wise to take lessons from the past. In some of the early blast events that shaped the industry, onsite offices in temporary trailers were completely destroyed, while metal shipping containers inside the blast zone were still standing, their contents intact. Though today’s designs are far more complex and protective, shipping containers became the basis for an idea to create blast-resistant buildings. Extensive engineering helped create a final design that has led the industry in blast resistance.
Blast-resistant builders employ many different structural designs and materials. There are blast-resistant structures that are permanent brick and mortar buildings; there are temporary blast structures, there are even tents, sometimes called air shields; and there are modular buildings made of hardened metals that are either portable for temporary use or anchored for permanent use.
Though many materials can be used in the design, none of them are blast-proof, and their levels of blast resistance vary.
