BEHAVIOR OF REINFORCED CONCRETE SLABS UNDER ACCIDENTAL IMPACTS

Abstract

Loads resulting from activities such as rock fall, heavy drop weights (for e.g. equipment's, heavy machines during installation), missile and aircraft interaction with slabs may results in loading intensity which have higher magnitude as compared to static loading. Based on the velocity of the impacting object at the time of contact, these activities may result in impact loading. Therefore, slabs designed should provide resistance to these accidental loading during their entire operational life. In this study, a dynamic non-linear finite element analyses were conducted to investigate the behavior of the reinforced concrete slabs subjected to high-mass low-velocity impacts. For this purpose, initially an already published impact test results were used to validate the numerical predictions. Following validation, a study was conducted to investigate the influence of the impact velocity on the behavior of the reinforced concrete slab. Based on the numerical investigation, it was found that the velocity of the impacting object has a significant influence on the behavior exhibited by slab under impact loading. Furthermore, it was also found that the behavior of slab under impact is both local and global. Local behavior is associated with the damage caused at the contact area of the slab and the impactor, whereas global behavior refers to the overall deformation of the slab when stress waves move away from the impact zone and travel towards the supports.