Effect of various reinforcement shapes on the ballistic resistance of reinforced concrete slabs

Abstract

Concrete structures are often subjected to extreme hazards such as projectile, missile impacts, crash, and blasts. So, evaluation of ballistic resistance of such structures against impact loading has become important. The present study is aimed to evaluate the effects of different shapes of reinforcement on the ballistic performance of slab to improve the state-of-the-art in protective design of structures. A finite element (FE) based model was framed in ABAQUS/Explicit to determine the perforation characteristics of reinforced concrete (RC) targets. The reinforced square targets were impacted by a rigid ogive nose steel projectile for wide range of velocities. Appropriate material models were adopted to simulate the response of concrete and steel reinforcement respectively. The model was validated with the experimental results and further, the validated model was used to perform the numerical simulations. The influence of various shapes of reinforcement on the ballistic resistance of RC targets was evaluated and compared. Among the compared shapes, the extended spiral reinforcement was found to have better ballistic performance. Consequently, the findings of this study can have implications in the design of protective structures.