Modular Design of Industrial Control Room with Steel and Aluminum Foam Materials Under Internal or External Blast Loads

Safety of personnel and heavy machinery is a key requirement in case of industrial facilities under accidental blast events. Moreover, selection of materials, structural systems, and construction practices for such infrastructure are required to support faster construction, without compromising safety though. Therefore, a case of modular design of an industrial control room has been presented in this work for blast-resistance. The control room is made of steel and aluminum foam composites fabricated and assembled suitably, along with pertinent connection details to serve the functional requirements. Subsequently, a detailed finite element (FE) model is developed for the structural assembly and exposed to internal or external blast loading scenarios, as applicable to the scenario-specific accidental blast events in typical industrial setups. The design of the modular control room, satisfying the functional requirements and specifications under the blast loadings has been accomplished satisfactorily. Particularly, the leakage of gas due to the blast-induced pressures has been checked under the distinct scenarios and the requirements thereof are duly satisfied. The modelling, analysis, design, and detailing strategies followed in the present work can therefore be suitably adopted in designing industrial facilities under the threat of blast-induced loading.