Dynamic tensile behavior of SIFRCCs at high strain rates

Abstract

Reinforced concrete (RC) does not provide sufficient resistance against impacts and blast loads, and the brittle structure of RC fails to protect against fractures due to the lack of shock absorption. Investigations on improving its resistance against explosion and impact have been actively conducted on high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCCs), such as fiber-reinforced concrete and ultra-high-performance concrete. For these HPFRCCs, however, tensile strength and toughness are still significantly lower compared to compressive strength due to their limited fiber volume fraction. Therefore, in this study, the tensile behavior of slurry-infiltrated fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (SIFRCCs), which can accommodate a large number of steel fibers, was analyzed under static and dynamic loading to improve the shortcomings of RC and to enhance its explosion and impact resistance. The fiber volume fractions of SIFRCCs were set to 4%, 5%, and 6%, and three strain rate levels (maximum strain rate: 250 s-1) were applied. As a result, the tensile strength exceeded 15 MPa under static load, and the dynamic tensile strength reached a maximum of 40 MPa. In addition, tensile characteristics, such as tensile strength, deformation capacity, and energy absorption capacity, were improved as the fiber volume fraction and strain rate increased.