In order to rescue trapped victims in a collapsed building, a new breaching technique that supports rescue operation was developed. The breaching technique employs explosives to partially destroy a reinforced concrete (RC) wall. This paper reports experimental results of RC walls which has a thickness of 150 mm. Single-charge experiments provided two types of fracture manner depending on the position of explosive center. Based on the results of the single-charge experiments, partial-charge and full-charge experiments were carried out at the charge conditions considered to be suitable for this new breaching technique. As a result, the optimal charge condition was found. The fracture processes were discussed by means of high-speed photography.
breaching, reinforced concrete (RC) wall, explosive center, fracture processes