In view of the high hit accuracy of modern weapons and ammunition, it is of great significance to study the damage of H-beam steel columns under close explosive loads, for H-shaped steel columns are important load-bearing components of most steel structure workshops.According to the similarity law, scale transformation was applied to a H-shaped steel column of a typical steel structure factory building.Using the LS-DYNA finite element software, the fluid-solid coupling method was used to simulate the impact of close explosion loads from 9 charges at different scaled distances on the similarity model of the H-shaped steel column.By comparing the bearing capacity of the H-shaped steel column before and after the explosion loading, a steel column damage index was determined.The results show that in the interval between 0.100 m·kg-1/3 and 0.400 m·kg-1/3, the maximum and minimum damage index are 0.533 and 0.095, respectively.Besides, the damage index generally decreases with the increase of the scaled distance.When the scaled distance is 0.100 m·kg-1/3, the energy dissipated in the shear part of the steel column web is significantly increased.This results in a general rebellion trend phenomenon in the interval between 0.100 m·kg-1/3 and 0.125 m·kg-1/3, and the damage index increases as the scaled distance increases.