Analytical Study of Reinforced Concrete Beams Tested under Impact Loading

Abstract

During dynamic events such as impact, structures experience high rates of loading and the materials experience elevated strain-rates. During such events, a large amount of energy is also suddenly imparted to the structure. If the structure fails to absorb the incoming energy, a sudden, catastrophic collapse may occur. In spite of our continued efforts to understand the impact resistance of reinforced concrete elements, our comprehension in this area remains severely limited. Impact tests were carried out on simply supported reinforced concrete beams using a fully instrumented drop-weight impact machine. The drop height was varied to change the rate of loading, and a companion test was carried out at a slow, quasi-static rate of loading. ABAQUS FEA software, a commercially available finite-element analysis program, was used to model the reinforced concrete beams. It was shown that the ultimate load-carrying capacity of reinforced concrete beams increases with an increase in the rates of loading, but after a certain loading-rate, a plateau in the load capacity is attained. Also, results obtained from the software analyses were in good agreement with the laboratory test results