Applicability of the Impact Response Analysis Method for Reinforced Concrete Beams Mixed with Polyvinyl Alcohol Short Fibers

Abstract

Abstract The impact-resistant capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) structures can be rationally upgraded by mixing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) short fibers into concrete. The static and dynamic post peak residual tensile strength of the concrete that occurs because of the bridge effects of PVA short fibers. In this paper, to establish a simple impact response analysis method for RC structures under impact loading, a method that treats PVA short fibers mixed into concrete as shell elements of PVA plates with an equivalent tensile strength to the post peak residual tensile strength of the concrete is proposed. The applicability of the method has been investigated by conducting a three-dimensional elastoplastic finite element analysis using LS-DYNA code and comparing the results with the falling-weight impact test results for RC beams. From this study, it was confirmed that the crack distributions and the failure mode of RC beams mixed with PVA short fibers can be predicted and that the effects of mixing PVA short fibers on improving the impact resistant capacity can be estimated by using the proposed numerical analysis method.