Patent ID: 6873920

Claim:
A method of designing a safety barrier to protect a facility from a blast fragment of specified weight moving at a specified velocity, comprising: (a) selecting a corrugated impact panel having a thickness, rib height, rib spacing, and yield strength for and selecting a tubular column having a yield strength, wall thickness, depth and width, (b) directly impacting a barrier comprising said impact panel connected to and spanning a pair of said columns with said fragment of said specified weight at an allowable range of variance of said specified velocity to obtain test values including at least peak column reaction loads from such direct impact of said fragment on said column, (c) calculating whether such impact panel is capable of (i) absorbing kinetic energy (KE) applied by a midspan impact of said fragment, said impact panel acting as a one-way beam, without exceeding the more stringent of a predetermined maximum allowable ductability ratio and a predetermined maximum allowable deflection to span ratio for said impact panel, and (ii) dissipating a strain energy (SE) imparted into the impact panel at such maximum allowable deflection such that the ratio ( SE - KE ) KE is greater than minus 0.1 and if so, accepting the impact panel for use in a safety barrier, (d) calculating whether said column is capable of (i) absorbing kinetic energy energy applied by midspan fragment impact, said column acting as a one-way beam, without exceeding the more stringent of a predetermined maximum allowable ductability ratio and a predetermined maximum allowable deflection to span ratio for said column, and (ii) dissipating strain energy at maximum allowable deflection, and if so accepting the column for use in a safety barrier with said impact panel, (e) determining whether connectors for connecting said impact panel to said columns having sufficient shear strength considering the lesser of (i) maximum dynamic shear capacity of said column (V cap ) and (ii) a maximum dynamic shear force based on measured peak reaction during direct fragment impact on the column, and if so, accepting said connectors for use with said impact panel and columns in said safety barrier.